Dinner Last Night

I made the two tarts in the Around My French Table cookbook with amazing results. One, a traditional margherita with an olive tapenade as the base. The anchovy in the tapenade was really perfect. I can't believe I've never thought to include it in my previous lacklustre tapenade attempts.

The other, an unbelievably tasty combination of deeply caramelized onions, pancetta, and thinly sliced raw scallops fired under the broiler to barely cook at the last second. By far my favorite of the two. Though the huge diver scallops were on the pricey side, you really only need 2 for the dish (I made 4 pastry rounds per recipe, so 8 total), so I appreciate how the recipe makes frugal use out of the most expensive ingredients.

The photos are crappy; turns out the sun really does set at five, even if you're not finished with the dish until 5:30 and actually expect the sun to wait so you can take pictures in decent light. Rude.