Dinner Diary: 7/23/11 -- Swordfish with Tomato Olive Vinaigrette

• Pan-Seared Swordfish with Tomato Olive Vinaigrette
• Harry's Berries Yellow Wax Romano Beans Sautéed in Olive Oil and Chopped Garlic
• Finley Farms Baby Kale Sautéed with Chili and Slivered Garlic
• Rockenwagner Olive Ciabatta

I was sitting on the floor in my parent's kitchen only half paying attention to what Fe. was saying, trying to figure out what on earth to do with the swordfish I'd picked up at Santa Monica Seafood, when it hit me. Tomatoes and olives! Both perfectly suited to swordfish's hearty steak-like flesh. There are cherry tomatoes a plenty in the garden right now. I had olives, capers, parsley, spring onions, and beautiful garlic from the farmers' market on hand. What would hold those tasty bits together?

A vinaigrette.

Perhaps one of the best sauces going -- and certainly the easiest -- vinaigrettes are obvious for salads, but they make spectacular sauces for fish, vegetables and chicken. Come to think of it, meat too. For what is Chimichurri, if not a vinaigrette?

To complement the swordfish and the strong flavors of the olive, caper, onions and garlic, I opted for red wine vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil (a good one). I had the whole thing put together in about ten minutes.

You can easily use a whole tomato. I used the salty, wrinkly Moroccan black olives, but my preference would be kalamatas. Spring onions are what I had available, but a shallot or green onions would work great. I was feeling parsley in the end, but I was very tempted by fresh basil. The recipe is absolutely flexible. You taste your way through the preparation.

The easiest ratio for wine vinegar vinaigrettes is two parts vinegar to five parts oil. So I used two tablespoons red wine vinegar and five tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil. So simple.

I haven't purchased, prepared, or eaten swordfish in ages. I love it, but it was overfished and it is no good for pregnant or nursing mamas, not to mention that it is expensive. Yep, $27.99/pound at the fish market. I just cannot justify that. So when I saw the decidedly unglamorous end pieces going for $14.99, I decided to go for those. I wasn't too worried about appearances, because it would just be A. and me for a quiet Saturday night at home.

It turns out this was all good thinking, because I felt rather proud of the meal. Super summer fare.

Tomato Olive Vinaigrette

15 cherry tomatoes, halved

8 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

1 shallot, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 heaping tablespoon capers, chopped

1 large handful parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the first six ingredients together in a bowl. Add the vinegar and stir. Drizzle in the olive oil, stiring. Taste for salt and pepper.

Spoon over fish, chicken, or vegetables.

Serves 3-4

Canal House Cooking -- Soft Zucchini with Harissa, Olives, and Feta

It's the middle of summer and just about everyone with a garden has a ton of zucchini that needs using. Yes, you can make pickles and soup and ratatouille. And I'm certainly not going to turn down a delicious stuffed squash. But after the fifteenth serving of grilled zucchini, who isn't craving something a little different?

In Canal House Cooking Volume No. 1, the women of Canal House have come through with yet another gem -- Soft Zucchini with Harissa, Olives, and Feta. Apparently, this is their adaptation of a Gabrielle Hamilton (of Prune in New York City) dish that she created to help beat the pants off Bobby Flay on Iron Chef.

Hamilton's victory will make perfect sense, once you prepare and taste this winning dish. Brimming with North African ingredients like harissa, preserved lemons and cured olives, this dish will surprise and delight you.

I'm quite serious.

Perhaps, you will find that you are not as sick of summer squash as you were beginning to believe.

I suppose this zucchini could be served warm, but I prefer the idea of it as a room temperature salad. Easily a vegetarian main dish served with a loaf of crusty bread, this dish is also a natural cozied up next to a bloody rack of lamb.

To begin, you will prepare the harissa vinaigrette, whose usefulness is only limited by your imagination -- think spicy chicory salad or marinade for grilled beef.

It is a nice change to bump into a recipe using caraway. If caraway is not your thing, the Canal House women provide an alternative -- a mixture of fennel and cumin seeds.

This is the perfect moment to pull out your sturdy mortar and pestle. Furiously smashing up the toasted seeds and plump garlic is fun work, and the perfect moment to get your toddler in on the act.

If you've got one handy.

Making the harissa vinaigrette is a quick and easy process. Slicing the zucchini into thick rounds can be done in the blink of an eye, plus they only take about five to seven minutes to cook once you've thrown them into the vat of heavily salted boiling water. All in all you're in about for about twenty minutes. That is nothing compared to what you end up with.

The flavors are naturally a bit spicy and garlicky, but refreshing from the heavy dose of acidic lemon juice and kick from the preserved lemon. The olives and feta cheese provide just the right amount of salt -- there is plenty of it, but not too much.

If there were no feta and no olives in the pantry, this dish would survive. It would not be up to its most glorious potential, but it would still be a very tasty way to enjoy zucchini as an accompaniment to meat or poultry.

I would miss the parsley however, if there were none about. It brings more of the bright green garden into the dish, and its clean herbaceous flavor should really not be omitted.

One final note. Please don't overcook the zucchini. It must be very tender, but you absolutely do not want this summer squash reduced to mush.

Canal House Cooking's Soft Zucchini with Harissa, Olives, and Feta

1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds or a combination of fennel and cumin seeds

1 clove garlic

Salt

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons harissa paste

6 tablespoons really good extra-virgin olive oil, plus a bit more for drizzling at the end

4 zucchini, sliced into thick rounds

Handful cured olives, a combination of oily and briny ones is nice, pitted (I used oily ones exclusively and did not bother pitting them.)

1/2 cup coarsely crumbled feta

Small handful parsley leaves, chopped

Rind of a quarter of a preserved lemon, chopped

Toast the caraway seeds in a little heavy pan, until fragrant -- only a couple of minutes. Pay attention, because they will burn quickly! Smash the seeds with a pestle in a mortar. Add the garlic and a pinch of salt and smash it into a paste. Add the lemon juice, harissa and olive oil. Season with salt.

Bring a vat of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the zucchini and cook until very tender, but not mushy or falling apart, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Drain well. Toss the warm zucchini with the harissa vinaigrette in a large bowl.

Add the olives, feta, parsley, and preserved lemons. Drizzle the finished dish with good olive oil. Serve at room temperature.

Serves 4 to 6