Actually, Tomato and Courgette Pizza recipe says Summer in the South of France.
In this case it means near Montauban where interior designer Kathryn M. Ireland turned a rambling farmhouse with sixteen hectares of land into her slice of summer of heaven.
In Summers in France (Gibbs Smith, 2011), she shares the fruits of her labor over the years to get to the near perfect place that La Castellane has become for her pleasure and that of her guests.
Look forward to my interview with Kathryn very soon, in the meantime here's one of her recipes, Tomato and Courgette Pizza.
The genius thing about the French supermarket is the roll-out, pre-prepared pastry. Brise, Sable, Feuillette, etc. This is how I survived in the early years when it was me rushing to do pick-ups from the airport, changing sheets, making dinner; it was only when the beloved Dr. Cornelius put me into the hospital with exhaustion that I realized I needed to delegate. Anyhow, the pastry, of such excellent quality, can be used for pizza, quiche, tarte tatin, any kind of vegetable; it all really depends on what’s ready in the garden. This pizza is one of my favorites, especially since there is always a plethora of courgettes (zucchini), which often, before you know it, grow to church fête size.
– 1 portion of packaged pastry dough
– flour for rolling
– 2 cups Homemade Tomato Sauce
– 4 small courgettes, thinly sliced
– coarse salt
– freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F or 200 degrees C.
Dust your work surface with flour and roll out the tart. Place the thinly rolled tart on a cookie sheet and bake blind for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and evenly spread with the tomato sauce. Layer the courgettes (of course, you can add on other vegetables as well, but I can’t bear to hear “What’s that?” so I tend to keep it simple). Sprinkle the entire pizza with salt and pepper and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until the courgettes are cooked through and lightly browned. Serve immediately. I make at least two of these and sometimes three, depending on how many we are.
(*Photograph by Tim Beddow from Summers in France by Kathryn M. Ireland. Recipe Reprinted with permission by Gibbs Smith)