I have noticed of late that I am stuck on tomatoes but I just cannot help it. Baby Lady and I love tomatoes and summertime is when they are in abundant supply. Everywhere you go they have tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes, grape tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, orange tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes, different shaped and sized tomatoes, tomatoes are just everywhere. Red, ripe, juicy globes full of sweetness and savoriness. They are just incredible and versatile, too. So, we always enjoy them and this dish was unbelievably enjoyable. Try it. You will like it.

This is an absolutely fabulous dish. You get the creamy goodness of the goat cheese mousse with just a touch of tang, the sweet savoriness of the tomato salad and the crispy saltiness of the crispy pastrami. Amazing!

Once again, it comes from Alan Wong’s The Blue Tomato. Now, when I think of Hawaiian, the last thing that comes to mind is Italian food. Yet this dish is, in essence, simply a large bruschetta. The flavors are in perfect harmony and it was the hit of dinner the other night. You really should check out The Blue Tomato (No, I don’t get any compensation for plugging his book). It’s really a wonderful book, both in content and in presentation. You will be glad you did; or you can wait and see if I get around to posting every recipe in the book, which is highly unlikely. 😉 When I get stumped on what I want to fix, I pull out The Blue Tomato and browse through it. Alan Wong has an approach to food that Baby Lady and I really like. We may not fix one of his recipes but he may give us insight on what we want to accomplish. It’s pretty neat. Now, we stumbled upon this recipe when we were trying to determine what we wanted for an appetizer to go with a sous vide pork loin I was fixing. This appetizer was exactly what we wanted and was the perfect foil to the pork. While tomatoes are in season and abundant you owe it to yourself to give this a try. It’s easy and you won’t be disappointed.

Ingredients

For the Mousse

• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 4 oz goat cheese (preferably local if you can find it)
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• sea salt to taste

For the Salad

• 1 pt assorted small tomatoes, red grape, orange cherry tomatoes, yellow cherry tomatoes, red cherry tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise
• 1/3 cup minced shallots
• 3/4 cup Nicoise olives, pitted and halved
• 1/3 cup fresh basil, torn
• 1/3 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, torn
• 6 Tbsp very good olive oil
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste

For Plating

• 6 pieces of French baguette, 1/4 inch slice, toasted
• 3 oz Pastrami, pan fried until crispy

Instructions

For the mousse

Whip cream to stiff peaks in a bowl with a whisk. Add the softened goat cheese and buttermilk and combine well until well blended. Season with salt to taste. Regrigerate until ready to use.

For the salad

Place the tomatoes in a bowl and season with salt.

When the salt has dissolved add the shallots, olives, basil, parsley and black pepper.

Toss the mix

Drizzle with olive oil and adjust seasoning, if needed.

To Plate:

Pan fry the pastrami. Toast the bread slices and spread with goat cheese mousse.

Top with tomato salad and finish with strips of pan fried pastrami. Delish! Serve and enjoy.