When life hands you tomatoes.....

We love tomatoes in our pasta and sandwiches. So it was a delight to see all the juicy ripe tomatoes at the farmer's market last week,indicating a good harvest. As much as we tried to restraint from buying too many tomatoes, OCT and I still bought far too many for our weekly consumption. Sure tomatoes aren't expensive, but my heart still aches remembering throwing out lots of those that went bad. A consequence of overbought what we could consume.

Anyway, I was thinking of trying out a new recipe I had bookmarked from the september issue of Cookinglight. The recipe that garnered the test kitchen's highest rating is a sure way to catch my attention.

Chicken Breasts with Gorgonzola-Tomato Salsa is a simple dish that packs in lots of flavors. And I love its bright color.It instantly transformed the dull chicken breasts into a photo-worthy kind of dish. Since there's just two of us here, I cut down the amount of chicken used and paired it with way too much salsa. But nobody is complaining. Eating the juicy ripe tomatoes at their peaks is a real treat! Not to mention its many beneficial properties, of which "rich in antioxidant" is one of them.Because I didn't have red onion on hand, I simply omitted it and substituted with shallot. It still tasted pretty good. I think the recipe is fairly forgiving and one can certainly use more or less of the ingredients listed, to taste. Just remember to use the ripest tomatoes you can find!

I am submitting this anti-oxidant packed recipe to Sweetnick's weekly ARF 5-A-Day. Be sure to check out the roundup at her blog later tonight!

Chicken Breasts with Gorgonzola-Tomato Salsa
adapted from Cookinglight Sept 2007

Combine the ingredients for the salsa--except the cheese--up to a few hours before dinner, and store at room temperature; pound the chicken ahead of time, and keep chilled.

Ingredients
2 cups chopped tomato
1/3 cup minced red onion
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons extravirgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
6 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
3 tablespoons crumbled Gorgonzola cheese


Preparation
Combine tomato, onion, basil, oil, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature.
Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound each piece to 1-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 3 chicken breast halves to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until chicken is browned and done. Remove from pan; keep warm. Repeat procedure with remaining 3 chicken breast halves.

Stir cheese into tomato mixture. Place 1 chicken breast half on each of 6 plates; top each serving with about 1/3 cup salsa.

Yield
6 servings