Tomato puffs: a riff on a classic

Ciao ragazzi. The festivities of the last couple of weeks continue, albeit with a change. One COULD say we move from the celebration of lamb, to the celebration of mutton, as we move from celebrating my dear friend's birthday to mine. A difference of 21 years separates us, a span that at times seems immeasurable, and at times seems immaterial. Thank goodness for that. And tomorrow, the sun completes another turn on Annalena's life, and she reaches the age of 52, feeling stronger, younger, and more alive than ever. For that, I thank people like my sometimes young and sometimes not so young friend. In fact, I thank them all, including my sometimes little brother, my young friend with the old soul, and the pack. And my best man, and his best man, the bear cub, the banker with the wry smile, and of course, Guy, "my Guy."
And now to cooking. You've read (I HOPE you have), my posts about the bad year for tomatoes. So many reasons... but... I just ate a container of some of the sweetest cherry tomatoes I've had this year. Perhaps the goddess flora has taken some sympathy and is giving us some beauties before it turns cold. A recipe in the New York Times, as well as the discovery of some OVERRIPE heirloom tomatoes inspired this one.
Overripe? Yes, that is rare this season, but I found some. The amazing Franca had some at her stand on wednesday, right after I had read a recipe which intrigued me.

Creampuffs intrigue me. I understand how they work, but the eventual end always makes me "ooh" and "Ah." More than that, though, I like peeking in and seeing the process happen. You know what I mean: this soft dough puffs up, and crisps, and then you have fun.

Well, we all know sweet creampuffs, and we know gougeres, the savory, cheese version of the sweet puffs, with no filling in them. The Times presented an interesting idea, using an ingredient that fascinates me: tomato water.

What is tomato water? Well, someone told me "it's tomato juice under a different name," but I'm not sure about that. I've seen two different ways of making it. The first, which is not the way I made it, calls on you to pull out the pulp and seeds of a tomato, and process it to separate the seeds, and that's the water. What I did, however, was to cut up a tomato, puree it, and let the liquid separate off. That's what we're going to do here.

The basic recipe for creampuff shells calls for water, butter, flour , eggs, salt. So, too, does this, only it also adds pepper. What you will need to do is the following. Chop up a BIG tomato. Twelve ounces is not too small. Then puree it in a food processor or blender. P rocess it for a few minutes to break it down as much as possible. Then put it in a strainer, over a bowl, to separate the liquids from the solids. Use the solids for something like tomato sauce, or put them into soup, but for heaven's sake down throw them out. Measure your liquid, and you should have a cup . If you have more, have a sip of it, maybe with vodka, maybe not. It's good for you. If you don't have enough, add some water to bring it to a cup.

Pour this into a medium sized pot, and add six tablespoons of unsalted butter that you've cubed up. Heat it, at low heat, until the butter is just about melted. Take it off the heat while you gather your other ingredients: a cup of flour, four large eggs, and a teaspoon of salt and some fresh pepper.

Off the heat, dump in the flour, salt, and a grind or two of pepper, all at once and stir like a madperson. You will get a large clump of dough on your spoon and you will be convinced you h ave failed. You have not. This is precisely what you want. Push it off the spoon any way you can. Now, the hardest part of this recipe. Break the eggs in , one at a time, and stir well until each egg is totally incorporated. This is NOT so easy. It will take you a while, but persevere. You will wind up with a thick, smooth shiny batter.

Now, to make your puffs. Line a baking sheet with parchment and turn up your oven to 425. Use a big spoon, a big melon scoop, or whatever you have, to make whatever shapes you like. Smaller is better, but not too small. I would say, go for about an inch and a half each. You should be able to get about 20 of them on that sheet. If you like, brush the puffs with a beaten egg, and shake some grated cheese over them.

Move that into the oven, and bake at 425 for 15 minutes. If you peek in at five minutes, you will be convinced you failed. If you peek in at ten minutes, you will smile and laugh as your shells expand and look like they are going to burst. (I know. I need a life). AT this point, lower the heat to 350 and bake for another 20 minutes or so, or until they feel firm and crispy to your touch.

If you remember, when they're finished baking, take a sharp knife and pierce each one on the side. Then let them cool. They are going to soften, gotta tell you. And you're going to have a soft, reddish pink little roll type structure. Time to fill them.

My filling was goats milk ricotta, that I salted, and added a really big handful of basil to, plus some more chopped up tomato. I could have , in fact, used that left over puree to add to the cheese. Or, I could have added halved cherry tomatoes. Or chunks of ham or sausage. But I didn't. I just used cheese. And they were terrific, if I do say so myself.

I served them to the Wolfpack, a group you'll be hearing a lot about in the up and coming blogs. What a great group of guys, worth every effort with the recipe, and frankly, there really wasn't much.

Got some friends you wanna make something special for? Here it is. Face it. They deserve it.