Slow-roasted onions, fennel and tomatoes

If you're an onion hater, this dish will convert you. Slow-roasting onions releases their natural sugars slowly without burning them, so that by the end they're smooth, slippery and taste like caramel.

The tomatoes undergo a similar transformation: they become soft and sweet, and their flavors become incredibly concentrated.

And the fennel...well, you get the drift: soft, sweet and delicious.

The technique is simple (I feel like I've said that before...): roast thick slices of the veggies in a medium-hot oven for an hour or so. Instructions below are in slightly more detail, promise.

Slow-roasted onions, fennel and tomatoes
serves 4-6.
3 nice, large, red tomatoes, cut into four slices each
2 white (not yellow) onions, cut into four-five slices each
1 bulb fennel, fronds removed, cut into five-six slices each
good olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Places the slices randomly on two cooking sheets. feel free to smoosh and squeeze them so that they all fit. It'll only make things taste better. Plug the spout of your olive oil bottle with your finger and drizzle the oil over the vegetables. use your fingers to spread the oil so that it coats the exposed surface of the vegetables. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Cook on 300 degrees for about an hour, flipping onions and fennel once at the halfway point. Leave the tomatoes alone as much as possible. You'll know it's done when onions are caramel-colored and soft and your kitchen smells ridiculously good.

To serve: layer vegetables on a white tray: onion or fennel on the bottom, then tomato, then fennel or onion.

quick greek stew

If you made the slow-roasted dish and have some leftovers, here's a great way to take care of 'em:

Quick Greek Stew

slow-roasted onion, fennel and tomato leftovers
fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup feta cheese
a few kalamata or other greek olives
fresh basil

Roughly chop onion/fennel/tomato leftovers into large pieces. Toss in a shallow sauté pan with some of their juices, about 3 minutes. Add a bit of crumbled feta cheese, a few greek olives, and a crank of the pepper mill. Cook about 2 minutes longer. Garnish with fresh basil.

Easy-as-pie Roasted Potatoes

Sometimes, simple is best. I'm often inclined to throw every fancy ingredient in the pantry into whatever dish I'm making, in the hopes that a dash of truffle oil and some fancy mirin and a little chili mango and....ugh, what an awful combination!

Point is, I've learned that good olive oil, salt and pepper are often all you need to make something great. These potatoes are a perfect example; the tricks here aren't in the pantry -- they're in the oven and on your watch. Think temperature and time; whenever potatoes come out too mushy or too dry or too something else, it's because I wasn't precise in my choices of cooking time and temperature. This recipe is sure to produce the kind of consistent results that will please you and your guests.

Easy-as-pie Roasted Potatoes
serves 4.
10 small purple, red or fingerling potatoes (I like to use a mix)
salt
pepper
good olive oil
chili powder, optional

Preheat the oven to 315 degrees.
(Can you guess the steps?)
Cut potatoes into triangular shapes.
Sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper, and chili powder, if you like.
Put your thumb over the spout in the olive oil so that it drips slowly; drizzle with restraint.
(Alternatively, toss all ingredients in a plastic bag -- I don't like this method because you lose a lot of the olive oil and spices that way.)
Put the potatoes in a shallow pan in a single layer.
Bake anywhere from 1-2 hours, until the potatoes are crunchy but still moist, and the skin is crispy.

Roasted Vegetable Terrine

The flavors in this dish are straightforward, but certainly not boring: just pure roasted vegetables, compressed into a terrine. Feel free to omit the goat cheese if you want the dish to be non-dairy. Title: Roasted Vegetable Terrine Categories: Terrines, Vegetables Yield: 8 servings

2 yellow peppers 2 green peppers 2 red peppers 1 large eggplant 2 medium zucchini or yellow squash 1/2 cup Pitted kalamata olives 1/8 cup capers, rinsed 7 oz Goat cheese, crumbled, optional handful Fresh basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and position a rack in the setting closest to the heat source. Alternatively, preheat your broiler.

Lay peppers individually on their side and cut off 1/2″ from each top and bottom. Set peppers upright and make 2 cuts from top to bottom on opposite sides. Open up peppers, pull out seeds; trim and discard white pith. Place 4-6 pepper halves on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle on salt and pepper. Put on oven rack or in broiler, and roast until blackened in spots, about 15 minutes for the oven, 7-10 for the broiler. Flip over and give another 3-5 minutes to roast on back side.

Peel eggplant and slice vertically into 1/4″ slices. Repeat steps with peppers, roasting or broiling until tender and browned, about 7 minutes per side. Same for the zucchini, which need only about 4 minutes per side, if that. Be sure to salt and pepper each vegetable.

Line a terrine, 8x4″ loaf pan, or springform pan with plastic wrap, leaving an 8″ piece overlap on each of short ends. Line bottom with grilled red pepper, cutting it to fit, if necessary. Cover pepper with layers of eggplant and zucchini, and top with basil leaves, goat cheese (if using) and half olives.

Continue making layers with vegetables, cheese and olives, ending with peppers. Fold plastic wrap over vegetables. Weigh terrine down with several cans of food. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

To facilitate cutting, place terrine in freezer for 1 hour before serving. When ready to slice, remove weight and plastic wrap. Place a cutting board on top of terrine and flip two over. Remove plastic wrap. Using a serrated knife and a sawing motion, cut terrine into 3/4″ slices. (If using a springform pan, slice into pie-shaped slices.) Serve at room temperature