Show off the season's colorful heirloom tomatoes and creamy burrata in this quick and easy appetizer

It's peak summer season, which means ... it's peak tomato season! The farmers' market tables are piled high with tomatoes galore, and if you have a garden, chances are your tomato plants are weighed down with ripe cherries, robust Beefsteaks and sassy Early Girls ready for the picking. The best way to enjoy a freshly picked tomato, in my opinion, is as simply as possible, so its natural sweetness and sun-kissed flavor shine through.

In our kitchen, a favorite preparation is the Italian Caprese salad, a platter of thick slices of vine-ripened tomatoes layered with fresh mozzarella and just-plucked basil leaves. All that's needed is a drizzle of good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and the ingredients speak for themselves. Another equally popular preparation is tomato bruschetta -- thick slices of grilled garlicky bread topped with a jumble of juicy chopped tomatoes, basil and, ahem, more garlic. This is finger-licking, hands-on fare, best served family-style, accompanied by a pile of napkins to wipe up the sweet dribbling juices.

On a recent weekend, I combined these two recipes into one for a simple yet elegant presentation -- including burrata cheese, grilled bread and fresh basil -- layered into small glasses. It was a smart and fun way to portion the tomatoes and dress things up for entertaining, while saving our summer whites from wayward juices. I am a sucker for heirloom tomatoes with their variety of colors, patterns and bulbous shapes, and these glasses perfectly displayed them like confetti. A dollop of creamy burrata and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar resulted in a fresh and savory parfait that is as beautiful to look at as it is delicious to eat.

Considering how fresh and minimal this recipe is, it's important to use high-quality ingredients. Choose firm yet ripe tomatoes with a range of colors, and be sure to use a good extra-virgin olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. You will need six (8-ounce) glasses for this recipe.

Heirloom Tomato and Burrata Parfaits

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Yield: serves 6 as an appetizer

Crostini:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 small garlic clove, minced

Sea salt

6 baguette slices, cut on the diagonal, about 4 inches in length and 1/4 inch thick

Parfaits:

2 pounds assorted heirloom tomatoes, seeded, cut into 1/4-inch dice

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper, plus more for garnish

1 burrata, about 8 ounces

6 teaspoons aged balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup small basil leaves (or large leaves, chopped)

Make the crostini: Preheat the oven broiler or prepare the grill for direct cooking over medium heat. Whisk the oil, garlic and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Lightly brush each bread slice with the oil. Broil or grill the bread until crisp and golden on both sides, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove and set aside while you assemble the parfaits.

Combine the tomatoes, oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and gently stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and add more salt if desired. Divide the tomatoes between six (8-ounce) glasses.

Cut the burrata into 6 wedges and place one wedge in each glass. Drizzle about 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar in each glass, and garnish with the basil and black pepper. Top each glass with a crostini and serve immediately.

CAPTIONS AND CREDITS

Caption 01: Photo by Lynda Balslev for TasteFood.

A big refreshing bowl of salad is a great dinner in the heat of summer. Too veggie, you say? No worries, there is a happy, meaty answer to that: bacon ends. Yep, contemplate that. I did my own contemplating when I spied a bag of bacon ends for the first time at the farmers' market and had to examine them. The bag was hefty, lumpy and thick with triangular hunks of bacon jumbled in vacuum-packed togetherness. It was bacon indeed, but not the neatly fanned slices I usually buy in the deli department.

After asking a few questions, I learned that when those tidy pre-sliced bacon packages are created, all of the irregular hunks and ends are discarded in order to produce supermarket-packaged perfection. I knew I was onto something revelatory, so I snagged a package. Now I am here to tell you that you want those ends. They are veritable chunks of heaven for bacon lovers, evoking salty pork-induced delirium.

I find the best way to cook bacon ends is in the oven or on a grill. While the ends cook, their fat renders, leaving behind crispy chunks of meaty bacon you can sink your teeth into. Honestly, they are addictively good. The danger is gobbling them all up in one go (not recommended, by the way -- just saying).

So try to exert some restraint (after taste-testing a few pieces, of course, as any cook should), and add them to salads, pasta, eggs -- wherever you want your bacon. I like the salad option, as the fresh vegetables and leafy lettuce nicely balance out the hunks of salty meat. I call it a deconstructed BLT in a bowl and toss it with homemade croutons that are brushed with the rendered bacon fat and toasted on the grill. Got your attention, right?

As for finding these ends, ask your butcher or the nice people in your supermarket's meat department if they have a stash. You can be sure they know exactly what you are asking about -- they just might not want to share.

BLT Salad With Bacon Ends and Avocado

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Grilling Time: 30 minutes

Yield: serves 4 as a main course salad

1 1/2 to 2 pounds bacon ends, excess fat trimmed, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 cups coarsely torn bite-size pieces of country or sourdough bread

Dressing:

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salad:

1 large head lettuce, leaves washed and torn into bite-size pieces

4 small vine ripened tomatoes, cut into wedges

Corn kernels cut from one ear of corn

1 large Hass avocado, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

Prepare the grill for indirect medium heat (about 400 degrees for a gas grill). Trim any excess fat from the bacon ends. Cut the ends into 1-inch chunks and arrange on a grill rack (or grate) set over a grill pan to capture the rendered fat. Grill until the fat is rendered and the ends are crispy and golden, about 25 minutes. (You can do this in the oven with a broiler pan, if you like.) Transfer the ends to a plate.

Toss the bread in the rendered fat. Spread the bread on a grill pan or the grates and grill until golden and crisp, turning as needed, 3 to 4 minutes. Set aside.

Make the dressing: Whisk the vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add the oil in a steady stream, whisking constantly to emulsify.

Place the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Add the bacon, half the croutons and dressing to your taste and toss to combine. Garnish with the remaining croutons and serve with any remaining dressing.

CAPTIONS AND CREDITS

Caption 01: Photo by Lynda Balslev for TasteFood.

Blueberries are a summer treat. Inky blue, sweet and juicy, they are a healthy snack you can pop in your mouth, fold into yogurt and bake into desserts. I grew up in New England and lived for many years in Scandinavia, where blueberries grew wild in our garden and forest. We would forage for hours, searching for the little berries hiding in the shrubs, passing up the little clusters of unripe lilac-green berries, and plucking the midnight blues. You had to work hard to harvest a significant amount, and it was likely hopeless, since half of the harvest would be devoured on the spot.

Wild blueberries are smaller than their cultivated, or high bush, cousins, but their size yields a whopping amount of flavor and a feisty snap when your teeth break through their skin. Now, years later, I live in California, where I rely on my local farmers' market to deliver punnets of farmed blueberries, helpfully arranged in neat rows on the market tables, no picking required. These berries are larger, plumper, more sweet and less tart than their hardy wild cousins, but equally delicious and healthy. I often buy a double amount, because I know from experience that I will devour at least half of them on my way home.

I made these gorgeous tartlets with the few berries I managed to salvage from my last market trip. The luscious filling is 100 percent yogurt, not cream cheese or sour cream, so you can almost say they are healthy. I use whole milk Greek yogurt, which is naturally thick and creamy, with a slight tang that perfectly offsets the mellow sweetness of the cultivated blueberries. As for the crust, it's a traditional graham cracker crust, which, admittedly, has sugar and butter (as any self-respecting graham cracker crust should). So these tarts are rich yet light, and just a little bit wicked, which is OK if you ask me. It's a dessert after all, and we all deserve to be a little wicked.

If you prefer, you can make one large 9-inch tart, but I recommend the individual tartlets, which are fun to present.

Blueberry Tartlets With Yogurt and Lemon

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 10 to 12 minutes

Yield: makes 6 (3-inch) tartlets. (If you prefer, you can make one large 9-inch tart, but I recommend the individual tartlets, which are fun to present.)

Crust:

5 ounces graham crackers, finely ground, about 1 1/4 cups

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:

2 cups whole milk Greek yogurt

1/4 cup runny honey or sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, plus extra for garnish

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups blueberries

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the graham crackers, butter, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and mix until combined and sticky. Spoon 3 tablespoons crumbs into 1 ramekin or mini-tart shell and press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides; place on a baking tray. Repeat with the remaining ramekins.

Bake the shells until the crusts begin to turn golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove and cool completely on a rack.

While the crusts are cooling, whisk the yogurt, honey, lemon juice, zest and vanilla in a bowl.

Spoon the yogurt into the cooled crusts, smoothing the tops. Dot the yogurt with blueberries and garnish with lemon zest. If you have any remaining crumbs of crust, you can sprinkle a few pinches over each tartlet if desired. Refrigerate the tartlets until serving, up to 4 hours.

CAPTIONS AND CREDITS

Caption 01: Photo by Lynda Balslev for TasteFood.