The tomatoes are still over-whelming my kitchen counters so we have been leaning heavy on tomatoes based dished of late here's one of my favorites....and certainly one to keep vampires away. lol
3 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped
3 nice sized shallots, finely chopped
6-8 basil leaves, finely chopped
three baseball sized tomatoes, medium chop
Mix the above in a small bowl. Add some salt to taste, black pepper like-wise, along with 2 tablespoons of honey and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Blend well and set in fridge for about 6 hours to blend the flavors well.
Split a loaf of Italian or French bread in half, top to bottom so you end up with two 1/2 loaves. Set one aside in the orginal wrapper for later. Split the other loaf in half length-wise so you end up with a top 1/2 and a bottom 1/2. Butter the cut sides, place on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with a little garlic powder and set under a broiler set at low and 8" from the flame. Toast the bread just until browning starts. Remove from broiler.
Give the veggie mix a good stir and add 1/2 cup of coarse shreaded parmesan cheese. Mix in the cheese well. Using a slotted spoon, coat the brown toast with equal parts of the tomato mixture being sure to allow the juice to drain out of the sppon well before spreading on the bread. When the bread has been covered with all of the veggies, slip the pan back under the broiler at the same height again, only turn it up to high. Broli the bread until you see the cheese begin to flow slightly but not browning.
Put a the bread sections on a pair of plates, grab a beer and sit down to some great food. As mentioned, the garlic and shallots will help on the demon-prevention end of things but they also provide a super Zing to this.
I have added sliced pepperonni and well-drained mushrooms to the bread before the tomato mixture and then topped the whole nine yards with pizza cheese. This basic recipe does allow some tweak room but just as it sits it is one heck of a nice meal.
I'll note here that I grow what is called an "Egyptian Onion" or walking onion. These onions have a very similar taste to shallots and are a whole heck of a lot cheaper than shallots from any retail source. When I whip up a batch of this for a meal, I am chopping up my Egyptian Onions for it. Taste-wise I cannot distinguish between the two except that my onions have just a touch of heat, not something I am opposed to at all.
