Choclo!

My Argentine grandmother Josefina, whom we simply called by the spanish word for grandmother, "Abuela", used to make a wonderful creamed corn for us whenever she visited us; it is called choclo, and it is usually a filling for that Argentine favorite, empanadas.  As a side note, empanadas, a pocket pastry that has its equivalent in many other cultures, such as the pasty in Cornwall and the bureka in the Middle East, to name a couple, have another variation of  a beef, hard boiled egg and raisin mixture - that is the other version of empanada I remember eating as a child.
My Mother learned to make the choclo from Abuela, and she makes it for me from time to time, if she wants it, or I guilt her into it.  Well, I guilted her into it recently, and luckily she happened to have a can of creamed corn when I did,and voila!  She made the beloved choclo.
Those are fried onions on the side, as she also cooked up a steak with fried onions.  I LOVE this choclo - it has onions it in as well,and starts out with a roux with butter and flour; salt, pepper, nutmeg and then the can of creamed corn. This is all according to feel, except for the creamed corn, it is a large can of it - Del Monte is the brand we tend to use.
I ate this up, and in fact, Mom let me eat most of it.  I felt like an 8 year old again.

The Tomato Tart

Ok so I love to receive the Williams Sonoma catalogs, especially for the recipes they feature.  I was flipping through one today, looking for ideas on something summery, not too complicated, and kind of light to make for dinner today.  I know tomatoes are in season, and they are also prominently displayed in this current catalog.
I came across a tomato heirloom tart, that looked colorful and cheesy; upon closer inspection in the website, it seemed pretty easy to do, if I used an already made pie crust.  I also would not have the ability to choose from a wide selection of tomatoes from the local corna supamarket, but I figured a few different sizes and shapes of the red plum and hot house tomatoes would be quite delicious.
You can find the recipe online as well at the Williams Sonoma website, so I won't repeat it here; but I will say I substituted the pie crust recipe with puff pastry dough (am very grateful the corna market carries it in the summer).
I also used less parmesan cheese than the recipe called for, I used about half  of it, because of some of the comments underneath the recipe saying the tart came out too salty.
I baked the puff pastry dough in a non-stick pie pan for 10 minutes, then let it sit and cool a bit.
I mixed up the tart filling.  (Oh how I love the smell of fresh basil!). I dolloped it onto the pastry crust and spread it around with the back of a spoon.
I achieved a thick filling,a nd then sliced the tomatoes, about 1/4 inch thick, and slicing in half again the slices of tomato from the bigger tomato.
I drizzled a little bit of olive oil over the top, and then, in accordance with a comment under the internet recipe again, I popped the tart into the oven for 10 minutes to warm it up and let the flavors of the cheeses and herbs blend a bit.
It smelled wonderful - my husband commented on it, as the scent wafted out of the kitchen.

I sliced into it a few minutes later - and it was a little hard to cut, as the ricotta mixture was thick, and I realized, kind of weighed the crust down.

I served myself the unsightly first piece, then served my husband.
Then it was time to taste.
I really liked it; it was akin to a calzone, thick ricotta, the tomato and then the thin crust.  I eagerly eyes the tart, planning on my next piece.
Hubby ate slowly and asked if we were eating cottage cheese.  I explained that it was ricotta and he told me he doesn't really like ricotta.  Well, not in a huge quantity.  He really liked the crust though.
So ok, the votes are split on this; I had seconds and thirds, and gave hubby my crusts.  Hubby later had a sandwich.
I would try this again, but use less ricotta mixture on the tart; I do think the recipe intended there to be a thin layer on a larger circumference; I had used a pie pan and not a tart pan.
I have a quarter of the tart left, and I am going to have my sister try it too.  But ok, I am pleased I tried this.
And I have a lot of lovely tomatoes and basil left over.