Even though it’s mid-October, I am still picking tomatoes off my plants.  Yesterday I had an entire gallon-sized bag of tomatoes that I wanted to use up. So ripe, juicy and sweet- I knew  these tomatoes would likely be the last of the season and therefore needed to be used in a special dish. Earlier I had bought some wild salmon, fresh herbs, a sweet onion and some chanterelle mushrooms. Normally, I wouldn’t pair a delicate flavor like chanterelle mushrooms with rich salmon or tomatoes, but I was in a risky mood. What could those flavors be like together? Would the chanterelles get completely lost in the dish? I decided to find out.

I sliced about two cups of the tomatoes in half and gently coated them with olive oil, salt and pepper and fresh thyme leaves. Next I spread them out on a sheet tray and put them in the oven to roast. When sweet tomatoes are slow cooked, they get even sweeter. Candy-like actually. To really slow cook them, I would have had to cook them in a 200 degree oven for two hours, but most week nights don’t allow for that kind of time. So I put these in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes and reduced the heat to 300 degrees and cooked them for another 10 minutes.

While the tomatoes were cooking, I sauteed the onions and mushrooms with olive oil, added some garlic, salt and pepper and a little more fresh thyme. Once the tomatoes were done, I added them to the mushrooms and onions. Then I seared the salmon separately, just to medium rare, with only olive oil and salt and pepper. I placed the salmon on a plate and covered it completely with the rich tomatoes, chanterelles and onions. For a second I was like, oh man, you took something so great and you wasted it by drowning it in sweet tomatoes! But you know what- it worked! Juicy-sweet layers of flavor capturing the end of summer and the beginning of fall in one dish.

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I had images of barbecuing all weekend, kicking it in the sun while languidly listening to the waves lap against the side of our boat, reading my Kindle and favorite food mags.

But instead of sun we got rain.
Lots of rain.
And wind. (Give me a moment to dab my eyes).

Mean Mother Nature waylaid those grand plans (can’t you go down to the fires in LA where they need you?), and we’ve been stuck inside like it’s already fall. Instead of barbecuing we’ve been cooking up an International storm indoors. Last night, inspired by his days long ago in Spain, Barnaby created a fabulous forget-about-barbecue meal that made us feel like we were sitting in a Madrid cafe.

The day before, we made the picturesque trek over to Taylor Shellfish in Shelton, WA and picked up an assortment of oysters, mussels and clams. On our way home we stopped off Pike Place Market for chanterelle mushrooms and a visit to The Spanish Table for chorizo.

Off to our warm and dry shelter for dinner! Barnaby gently sweated some garlic in olive oil then cooked the chanterelles, topping them with freshly chopped parsley. In another pot, he sauteed slices of the smoky, bold chorizo with tender fingerling potatoes. Adding white wine and bay leaves he simmered the clams into a dish known in Spanish as Almejas con Chorizo. The aroma alone was enough to make you want to dance the Flamenco.

We served it up with a warm rustic bread, tender green salad, a good Rioja, and even better company.

Go to Foodista for the recipe:

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Don’t you love when you cook something for the first time and find, upon taste testing, that it needs no tweaking? You just get it perfect, right from the get-go. That’s what we experienced with this dish. Add a little of this, a little of that – and phwwm! – all the flavors join together in one big happy dance, needing nothing further from you. That’s when you step back from the stove and join in the dance.

This dish will make you happy. The kind of happy that makes you take your shoes off and wiggle your toes. Of course, when working with Chanterelle mushrooms and smoked Mangalitsa bacon it’s hard to go wrong, so prepare for shoe removal.

Chanterelle And Smoked Bacon Linguine

4 strips of good quality bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 pound Chanterelle mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Approximately 1 pound linguine
1 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped
Parmesan cheese
Kosher salt

In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil; add pasta and cook until tender. In a saucepan, sauté bacon until browned. Add mushrooms and cook until soft. Pour in wine and simmer until the alcohol has cooked off. Add the cream and season to taste with salt.

Drain pasta. Toss pasta with mushroom bacon mixture and chopped parsley.

Plate and serve with grated Parmesan on top.

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