We had some vine tomatoes which were pretty ripe – just perfect actually.  And we had some raw asparagus in the ‘fridge – left over from a Costco run, it was sitting in water for a few days, so it was still crisp, but we did want to use it before we lost it.  Dickie came up with a very involved thing involving those items, plus a baguette, olive oil, and a lot of fussy work.  C’mon, it’s Monday night, I didn’t want to be messing around all night!

I should mention that we are in a 6-month apartment lease, just winding down to the last month or so, and we don’t have our full kitchen – no real pans or utensils to speak of, no flour or sugar or normal kitchen items.  There’s a full chain grocery store just downstairs, so we tend to buy “meal parts” for now, instead of really cooking from “scratch”.  Without further ado, here’s our “not a pizza”.

• 1 thin 12″ Boboli “pizza crust”
• some butter and olive oil (no margarine, please!)
• handful of asparagus spears
• tarragon (a dry herb)
• fresh basil – the leaves from about 3 stems (we have some growing in our window)
• Olives – Ideally some Greek mixed olives (black and green) but “regular” green ones will work
• sharp white cheddar cheese
• two ripe tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Starting with the pointy end of the asparagus, snap off about 1″ sections, until the stalk is too hard or wimpy to snap (throw that end away).  Rinse well, drain well, and in a bowl, drizzle some olive oil on the asparagus, add about 1/2 teaspoon of tarragon (to taste) and salt, toss to mix well, and spread on a cooking sheet.  Bake in the oven till the asparagus is bright green and has just a few “grill marks”; it should just take 2-3 minutes (maybe longer depending on how thick your asparagus is.)

Meanwhile, spread a little butter on the Boboli.

Clean the basil leaves in a bowl of water, then be sure to dry them.  I use a salad spinner, but before I had that I would spread them on a towel and blot most of the water off.  Coarsely chop the leaves, then distribute on the Boboli.  By this time the asparagus has finished cooking and has cooled off a bit – distribute them over the Boboli as well.

RINSE the olives – my goodness those things are salty!  Rinsing leaves the happy olive taste, but takes out the brine.  Once rinsed and squeezed a little to get the extra water out, chop and add to the Boboli.

If you can find the “dry” sharp white cheddar cheese (it’s kind of crumbly when you cut it), that is great.  I used the not-so-dry tonight and it was still good.  The cheese is a condiment for this dish, so I only used an ounce or two.  Since we didn’t bring any of our graters on this move, I pulled out my potato peeler and just put shavings around the Boboli – leave lots of space between the shavings!

Finally, top with sliced tomatoes.  A little pepper and salt and pop it in the oven, straight on the top shelf under the broiler, with no pan – we want the Boboli to be a little crispy.  After a few minutes in the oven, turn on the broiler – Check every few minutes, you want the Boboli to bake up and the tomatoes to broil, but not burn.

When done, turn off the broiler!  (I’ve forgotten before).  Slide out the rack and then slide the “not a pizza” on to a tray and let cool a minute or so – it will be very steamy as the tomatoes continue to cook.

Slice into narrow slices (I found that cutting in quarters, then each quarter into 4 slices worked great) and enjoy!