green been salads

Drizzling Flavor

As the bounty of summer piles up, I’ve been thinking about drizzles.  Not the rain drizzle, but drizzles over vegetables so tasty and fresh, all you want to do is add a whisper of dressing and call it done.

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Tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and red wine vinegar

You don’t need recipes for drizzles.  All you have to do is grab a couple of bottles from the cupboard.

Does a tomato need more than a drizzle of olive oil and red wine or balsamic vinegar and a sprinkling of salt and pepper? I don’t think so, though a shredded basil leaf, a shaving of Parmesan never hurts. 

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Drizzled cucumbers

It’s been a perfect cucumber summer in the Northeast.  Hot, sunny days with a thunderstorm late in the afternoon.  I complain because every time I plan to go swimming, the storm clouds catch up to me.  But the cucumbers are abundant.  My favorite drizzle?  A little salt, a little rice wine vinegar, a sprinkling of fresh cilantro.

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Drizzled green beans with sesame oil, soy sauce, and black vinegar

Then there are green beans.  I love green beans every which way.  Slowly stewed in a tomato-based sauce, baked under a béchamel sauce with a crispy garlic topping, roasted and salted.  But most of the time, I just steam and drizzle. The drizzle of the week is sesame oil, soy sauce, and black (Chinese) vinegar. Garlic gives it depth. Black sesame seeds dress it up for a party.

You don’t always need a recipe to make a great dish.