I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's nothing better than fresh greens in summer. There's not a thing that compares to seeing those huge, leafy bouquets come in our CSA basket – and soon they will be out of season. So, to go out with a bang instead of a whimper, I decided to make a pie that celebrates these beautiful flavors along with a rainbow of peppers and two cheeses.

There are some things that you can only make once or twice a year because of availability or cost. In this case, homemade tomato juice fills both those slots. It takes a LOT of tomatoes to make, so it would be cost-prohibitive to make any other season. Also, the tomatoes need to be really ripe to the point of being almost over ripe, so the end of summer crop is perfect for this amazing juice.

And because you are spicing it yourself you can make it as mild or mind numbing as you would like. We use ours for bloody marys, so I like to make it extra hot by using fresh chilies.

Because I'm not (much) of a masochist, I don't make homemade pasta very often in our small kitchen. Like I was telling my cousin the other night, the last time I undertook that endeavor I ended up with flour on the front of my shirt, in my hair and somehow all over the back of my shirt too.

Seriously. The back of my shirt. How does that even work?

So, needless to say when I want ravioli I cheat and use wonton wrappers. They aren't perfect, but they get the job done. And recently I desperately wanted some ravioli, because I had gorgeous herbs from my mother's garden and some beautiful tomatoes from our CSA.

I finished them in browned butter with thyme, and they were fantastic. Crispy on the outside, cheesy on the inside and covered in delicious thyme butter. Also, this is a good recipe for a quick dinner when you don't feel like hanging out in the kitchen.

Summer's bounty of vegetables is a wonderful thing – but just like the saying goes – there can be too much of a good thing. But my motto is: When drowning in vegetables make a beautiful tart with them.

Earlier this week Jedd called me on his way home from his father's.

“Dad gave us a lot of tomatoes.”

“Sweet. We can't have too many tomatoes.”

He laughed.

“Yeah. You might change your mind when I get home with them.”

He walked in with a box of ten pounds of cherry tomatoes that were so ripe and beautiful that I had to use them or lose them.

So, I frantically spent the next day making sauces and salsas and roasting them. And after the day was over, I had a freezer full of treats for fall and winter.

After I shut the freezer door for the last time, I turned to the pint of the most beautiful cherry tomatoes that I had sorted and set aside for dinner.

I was going to make a succulent tomato tart as a reward for being a one-woman processing plant.

This is an incredibly simple tart, that only requires only a few ingredients and if you use store bought pie dough, it comes together in less than 10 minutes. Even though I made the dough from scratch, it was still a really quick meal.

I highly recommend this tart. It is full of the flavor of summer, and is perfect for a weeknight meal or to bring to a party.