Aug

window with the sun coming through, all bright, colorful and shiny.

This recipe was adapted from “Miss Maggie’s Kitchen” by Héloïse Brion (Flammarion, 2020), which has the subtitle “relaxed French entertaining.” The cookbook is one of those fantasy tomes with glorious photos that makes you imagine that this recipe was made with sun-warmed tomatoes plucked from a French garden.

The ingredient list may look a bit long, but preparation is simple and takes just 15 or 20 minutes. First, you slice and cook the onions. While they are browning, you toss multicolored cherry or grape tomatoes and thick slices of large tomatoes with your choice of fresh herbs and a little honey and garlic. For weeknight dinners, I usually buy my pizza dough, if I don’t have any in the freezer. I layer that with creme fraiche, which gives the pizza a little tang, the sweet, browned onions and the varied fresh tomatoes.

The pizza is baked until the edges are browned and the center bubbly. Then comes the best part: the finish. While the pizza is piping hot, scatter chunks of burrata over, and as they melt into the pizza, you can finish it with a sprinkling of fresh herbs. I like basil, but use your favorite.

Pizzas are easy to customize. If you don’t have creme fraiche, you can use goat cheese or even Greek yogurt. If you prefer meat on your pizza, you could add bits of ham or cooked sausage. One thing I hope you won’t find a substitute for is the burrata. It adds a creamy deliciousness that is difficult to replicate. If you don’t have burrata, however, you could drop small bits of fresh mozzarella or dollops of fresh ricotta.

My only rule for this pizza will be that I will make it only during the summer — during Tomato Season. We’ve tossed it together four times already, cutting it into small chunks and serving it as an appetizer or slicing big slabs for supper. I know we’ll make it again.

Brion writes in her cookbook that “sharing is essential in my life.” I’m glad she shared this recipe, so I could pass it along to you.

BIG LITTLE SUMMER

TOMATO PIZZA

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 40 minutes 4 to 6 servings

Take full advantage of summer’s tomato and herb bounty with this pizza. The ingredient list looks a bit long, but the recipe is simple. You brown the onions and toss multicolored cherry tomatoes and thick slices of large tomatoes with fresh herbs in a bowl. Then, layer the pizza with creme fraiche, the onions and the varied tomatoes. After it bakes, you add the chunks of burrata and a few fresh basil leaves. We offer links to pizza dough recipes, but you can make it easier on yourself and pick up store-bought. Serve with a green salad.

Creme fraiche and burrata give this pizza a tangy richness, but if you don’t not have creme fraiche, you can use Greek yogurt. If you don’t have burrata, try fresh mozzarella or dollops of fresh ricotta.

S t o r a g e N o t e s : S t o r a g e Notes: Leftover pizza can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. To reheat, place in a preheated 350-degree oven or toaster oven for about 10 minutes.

The pizza is cut and ready to enjoy. Scott Suchman/Washington Post

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus an additional 2 teaspoons for serving, if desired 1 small yellow or white onion (4 to 6 ounces), thinly sliced 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt, plus more as needed 1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper, plus more as needed 1 tablespoon honey 2 tablespoons blend of chopped fresh herbs, such as basil, oregano, rosemary and/or thyme (or 2 teaspoons dry), plus more for serving, if desired 2 cloves garlic, minced or finely grated or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1 pinch cayenne pepper 3/4 pint (about 7 ounces) multicolored cherry tomatoes, halved 1 large tomato (6 ounces), cut into 1/4-inch slices 12 to 14 ounces white or whole wheat pizza dough 3 tablespoons crème fraîche (See headnote) 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese 1 (8-ounce) ball burrata cheese, broken into pieces (See headnote)

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Place a pizza stone or unrimmed baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a skillet over medium-high heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil until shimmering. Add the onion, 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are golden brown, about 10 minutes. If the onions begin to burn, reduce the heat and add a little water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

While the onions are cooking, in a large bowl, combine the honey, herbs, garlic, cayenne pepper and a light sprinkling of salt, and stir to combine. Add the cherry tomatoes and the slices of tomato. Gently toss to coat.

Place a piece of parchment paper that’s about 12-by-16 inches on the counter. Stretch or roll out the pizza dough into a thin oval or rectangle, about 10-by-14-inches, on top of the parchment.

Spread the creme fraiche over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border around the edge. Scatter the browned onions and grated Parmesan over, then arrange the tomatoes on top in a single layer. Scoop any stray herbs and garlic from the bowl and add to the pizza, leaving behind any accumulated juices. Discard the juices.

Using the parchment, lift the pizza and carefully transfer it to the hot pizza stone or baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the crust is browned. Scatter the burrata and additional fresh herbs, if using, over the hot pizza, drizzle with the remaining 2 teaspoons of olive oil, if using. Slice and serve.

Nutrition per serving (1 slice), based on 6 | Calories: 288; Total Fat: 17 g; Saturated Fat: 8 g; Cholesterol: 44 mg; Sodium: 333 mg; Carbohydrates: 22 g; Dietary Fiber: 2 g; Sugar: 6 g; Protein: 11 g

Adapted from “Miss Maggie’s Kitchen” by Héloïse Brion (Flammarion, 2020).

Texas, whose White Buffalo Bar is often named as one possible originator of the drink. But, she admits, “there’s really not hard details. It’s been such a popular drink for such a long time that everything gets a little fuzzy.”

This is not unique to Texas. Stories about the provenance of cocktails are notoriously loaded with the kind of longhorn-produced substances you’d find in actual ranch water. While it’s sometimes possible to verify that cocktail X, composed of eight ingredients in specific proportions, came out of Bar Highfalutin in 2004, people have been combining spirits, soda water and citrus for a good, long while. I suspect what we’re now calling Ranch Water has been around for many decades, but don’t underestimate the value of a good handle. A name helps a drink travel. (You know, the kind of name that makes idiots wonder if it contains ranch dressing.)

Still, over the past month, I joined a fair number of people trying to track down its origins. Several sources noted that I was the latest in a string of callers and didn’t have anything more definite than they had for the last hack hoping to dig up the Deep Throat of Ranch Water, some Stetsoned Sam Elliott-type who could meet under the rodeo stands to pull a bottle of mineral water out of his saddlebag and spin a convincing origin story.

The closest I found to a plausible originator and namer is Kevin Williamson, chef and owner of Ranch 616 in Austin, who says that he has had the drink on the menu since it opened in 1998, and that he and his team trained the folks at the Gage Hotel more than a decade ago. He’s firm enough in his claim that he has applied for a trademark on the Ranch Water name.

Several brands now marketing canned versions tried to partner with him when they were launching, but he turned them down. “If I were smarter, I’d be rich,” he says. Still, the drink has served Ranch 616 pretty well: Per their receipts, they’ve sold $18 million worth of the drink over the years.

“The way we served it, which I think is one of the reasons it was a hit, was as a strong margarita, three-quarters of the way up in a Collins glass, and we gave the customer the full bottle of Topo Chico, so they were in charge of diluting their own drink,” Williamson says. “Some people would just sip the Topo Chico back. Sorority girls from UT put as much water as they could so they could drink more. Everybody has their own sense of ownership for it.”

As loose and varied a tipple as the Ranch Water may be, there’s broad agreement that Topo Chico, a mineral water from Monterrey, Mexico, is key. Topo Chico has a high level of carbonation and a faint salinity that make the drink more flavorful (and using some fancy French bubbly to make a Ranch Water is probably a hangin’ offense in some parts of Texas).

Williamson made it with Topo from the start, even though at the time he opened Ranch 616, he couldn’t find a distributor, so his source was the grocery chain Fiesta Mart, which was founded to cater to Latin Americans. “I would drive to Fiesta Mart three or four days a week to buy all the Topo Chico I could,” he says. If the restaurant ran out of the water, the Ranch Water was off the menu. Today, he says, they get it at the back door because Coca-Cola owns it.

Seeing the drink he originated spread, Williamson wrestled with his feelings hearing bull-hockey origin stories. “At first, I had an attitude about it,” he admits. “And then I just figured that was doing me no good. But if I was sitting at a bar, I always liked to ask the bartender, where did this drink come from?” He’s heard some doozies, including that it was created by a grizzled old Mexican man who lived at the top of the Davis Mountains and would travel two days by donkey to a bar.

Ranch Water has spread well beyond Texas now. In D.C., Tracy Wisse, bar manager of the Tex-Mex hotspot Republic Cantina, says they added Ranch Water to their menu within the past year, at the request of Texas transplants. “We have a bit of a Texas cult following, so people were kind asking for it,” she recalls. At first their’s was the bare-bones tequila, lime and Topo Chico, but it evolved: The bar now adds some agave syrup and a little Tajin (a Mexican brand of chili-lime salt) for flavor and texture.

Maybe it hasn’t hit wider in Washington because we’ve already got something pretty close. After all, the basic Ranch Water is one lime-half away from Washington’s tart homegrown cocktail, the Rickey, which has been around since the 1800s. Usually made with gin or bourbon, it’s a similarly tart, bubbly highball, also made with lime and a slightly saline mineral water, also perfect for defying wretched summers.

It may irritate some Texans to know that something very close to Ranch Water was made right here in the Deep State more than a century ago. Maybe we could rename the Rickey the Swamp Water? RANCH WATER 15 minutes 1 serving

At its most unfussy, the refreshing Texas drink known as Ranch Water barely needs a recipe; many just throw together a good glug of tequila and a generous squeeze of lime and top it with mineral water for a tart sparkler. Others prefer to sweeten it a bit with orange liqueur or agave; our version uses both. Think of it as a margarita stretched into a highball with soda, which is one version of how the drink came about. The use of Topo Chico mineral water from Mexico is, per most recipes, nonnegotiable; its assertive bubble and faint salinity serve the drink well.

From C3

this tasty, four-episode treat in which six imaginative ice cream makers from across the country compete for the sweet honor of creating an original Ben & Jerry’s flavor of their own. Premieres 9 p.m. Aug. 16, Food Network.

“Raid the Fridge” — Hosted by Dan Ahdoot, this series challenges pro contestants to turn ordinary items from mystery refrigerators into extraordinary dishes. Each episode begins with the chefs using their intuition to choose a refrigerator based only on how it looks from the outside, seeking clues from the photos, magnets, calendars and art on the door. Premieres 10 p.m. Sept. 1, Food Network. Ice 1 1/2 ounces tequila, preferably silver 1 ounce fresh lime juice 1/2 ounce Cointreau or other orange liqueur (optional) 1/2 ounce agave syrup (optional) 2 to 3 ounces chilled Topo Chico mineral water Fresh lime slices, for serving (optional)

Fill a highball glass with ice. Add the tequila, lime juice, Cointreau and agave syrup, if using, and stir to chill and combine. Top with the mineral water, gently stir again, and serve garnished with lime slices, if using.

Nutrition per serving (1 cocktail, without optional ingredients) | Calories: 104; Total Fat: 0 g; Saturated Fat: 0 g; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Sodium: 5 mg; Carbohydrates: 3 g; Dietary Fiber: 0 g; Sugar: 1 g; Protein: 0 g