I love the simplicity of summer cooking, mostly because my summertime philosophy is to send as much of the cooking outside to Mr. Friday and his grill as I possibly can, without seeming churlish. Or manipulative. Or lazy. He is better suited to repel the advances of mosquitos, and Luke the wonder dog lives in hope of a game of The B Word. I am naturally inclined to stay in the kitchen, monitoring the wine levels, while washing berries or whipping cream. Or checking Instagram.

The end of September is that odd time of the year when some mornings it is cool enough for a light jacket, which we will regret wearing along about eleven, when the temperature rises. The angle of light is changing, the sun is going down earlier, a handful of leaves is falling, and we are about ready for a change. Summer is a grand season, but I am looking forward to sweater weather.

And while we wait for the weather to catch up with the calendar, let’s move out to the back porch for a glass of wine. It’s almost dinnertime. There are more cardinals squawking in the hedge. I can hear geese some afternoons, and I watch the squirrels’ hunting parties rustling around while they are checking on this year’s pecan harvest. Luke is grateful for the extra distractions.

I anticipate the delights of the upcoming change of season, but I am also kvetching about the things I didn’t accomplish this summer: books I didn’t read, the croquet we never played, the back porch we didn’t paint, the European trip that was cancelled because of COVID, the domestic travel we couldn’t manage because of COVID; just lots of time at home, frozen in anxiety-ridden pandemic angst. Something has got to give!

Cooler weather means I will return to the kitchen and will rummage about for the big stew pots, the loaf pans, the Crock Pot and the recipes that will stick-to-our-ribs and our COVID bellies. Stews, chilies, spaghetti sauces, meatloaves, lasagnes, breads, brownies and pot pies. Spices swirling in the air. Baking. Planning Thanksgiving. I’m dreaming of a change from this stinking hot long, long summer. And then there are sugar plums that arrive in December! And having to figure out what to do for the Christmas card this year!

We do not ease our way back inside from the summer spent cooking outside on the grill. It is an abrupt change. Labor Day has come and gone, slamming the screen door behind it. I hear there might be some football. And while we wait for a vaccine I might as well get back into the kitchen – the summer holiday is over.

It’s going to rain this weekend with remnants of Hurricane Sally tooling around out there and if you can’t get outside to the grill – never fear. This is a good transitional side dish: oven roasted broccolini with lemons and Parmesan. Mr. Friday has been experimenting with broccolini on the grill this summer, and now it is coming inside. https://heronearth.com/roasted-broccolini-and-lemon-with-crispy-parmesan

If you don’t mind shopping for slivered almonds, you can try this version: https://daniliciousdishes.com/roasted-broccolini-w-garlic-parmesan-and-charred-lemon/

I’m going to ask Mr. Friday to help me with the cast iron skillet prep for hamburgers. There is one more week of September left, and I plan on relishing one last burger.

“Do you remember the 21st night of September?
Love was changing the minds of pretenders
While chasing the clouds away
Our hearts were ringing
In the key that our souls were singing
As we danced in the night
Remember how the stars stole the night away…”
-Earth, Wind & Fire

https://genius.com/Earth-wind-and-fire-september-lyrics

Lunch has always been my favorite meal. I look forward to it every day, even when it is just a sandwich and a handful of chips. (I’ll save the apple for a mid-afternoon snack.) I love walking away from the studio, strolling the 25 feet or so into the kitchen, where I generally sit at the counter and eat by myself. (There is nothing that relieves the existential boredom of a morning of solitary cross hatching like a little blue glass bowl of potato chips.) Perched on a stool, I can look out on the neighbors’ comings and goings, read a magazine, drop a bread crust (by accident!) for Luke the wonder dog, and just enjoy a slight change of scene. Life is not very exciting when you have always worked from home, and sometimes all it takes is a ham sandwich on rye, with a generous schmear of spicy brown mustard to get creative enough for the demands the afternoons bring .

This year, the COVID-19 year, there are greater challenges for some that merely changing the view won’t help. The lucky ones, we who can work from home, are now sometimes juggling a couple of children and assorted class curricula on top of our work. There are others who are able to send their masked children off to actual real life school rooms. Will the children eat their lunches in a cafeteria or from social distances at their desks? Maybe there will be picnic tables outside, while the weather is still nice? Will the children bring lunches from home, or eat school-provided meals?

Whether you are sitting at the kitchen table by yourself, or packing a lunch for someone else, you need good ideas every day. Which can be a daunting prospect. Making lunch interesting and healthy is a real concern. Energy! Nutrition! Protein! Variety! And you can’t just slide by using up the hurricane-supply-peanut butter. On Sundays, while you are planning your dinners for the week, you need to plan out lunches, too. Take a page from practically perfect Amanda Hesser from Food52. She packs fabulously original lunches for her children. We could hate her if she wan’t so clever. And her ideas are reasonable. They don’t call for too many obscure and expensive ingredients. With a little practice, we might just be trainable. Because we know there will be dessert.
https://food52.com/blog/17941-13-greatest-hits-from-amanda-s-kids-lunches

Get out the tiny little Tupperwear containers, find all the maddeningly elusive lids, and start chopping. Make little Bento boxes of luncheon-y delights for every day. Shake up your routine, and experiment. Swipe on some chutney. Dust a sandwich with a handful of sprouts. Forgo the Pepperidge Farm white bread and try Naan bread. Don’t forget leftovers! Our Tall One made some interesting combinations with leftovers from Thanksgiving, theorizing that everything tastes delicious on a crescent roll, especially when daubed judiciously with cranberry sauce.

I haul this list out this out annually, without shame. Feel free to make your own spreadsheet, so you will never have another moment of hesitation. At least with regard to lunch. The Spy Test Kitchen came up with this flexible list of ingredients for packing school lunches a few years ago. It is just as timely today:

Luncheon Variations

Column A
Let’s start with bread:
Ciabatta bread
Rye bread
Whole grain breads
Hard rolls
Portuguese rolls
French baguette
Italian bread
Brioche
Flour tortillas
Croissants
Bagels
Challah bread
Crostini
Cornbread
Naan bread
Focaccia bread
Pita bread
If storing overnight, top bread with lettuce first, then the spreads, to keep sandwich from getting soggy.

Column B
Next, the spread:
Mayo
Sriracha
Ketchup
Dijon mustard
Honey mustard
Italian dressing
Russian dressing
Cranberry sauce
Pesto sauce
Hummus
Tapenade
Sour cream
Chutney
Butter
Hot sauce
Salsa
Salsa verde

Column C
Cheeses:
Swiss cheese
American cheese
Mozzarella
Blue cheese
Cream cheese
Havarti cheese
Ricotta cheese
Cheddar cheese
Provolone cheese
Brie cheese
Cottage cheese
Goat cheese

Column D
The main ingredient:
Meatloaf
Turkey
Chicken
Corned beef
Bacon
Crumbled hard boiled eggs
Scrambled eggs
Corned beef
Salami
Italian sausage
Ham
Roast beef
Egg salad
Tuna salad
Ham salad
Crab salad
Chicken salad
Turkey salad
Lobster salad
Tofu

Column E
The decorative (and tasty) elements:
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Basil
Onion
Avocado
Cucumber
Cilantro
Shredded carrots
Jalapenos
Cole slaw
Sliced apples
Sliced red peppers
Arugula
Sprouts
Radicchio
Watercress
Sliced pears
Apricots
Pickles
Spinach
Artichoke hearts
Grapes
Strawberries
Figs

Column F
Finger foods:
Cherries
Carrots
Strawberries
Green Beans
Broccoli
Celery
Edemame
Granola
Rice cakes
Apples
Bananas
Oranges
Melon balls
Raisins
Broccoli
Blueberries

“ ‘We could take our lunch,’ said Katherine.‘What kind of sandwiches?’ said Mark.
‘Jam,’ said Martha thoughtfully, ‘and peanut-butter-and-banana, and cream-cheese-and-honey, and date-and-nut, and prune-and marshmallow…’”
-Edward Eager, Magic by the Lake

It’s the calendar end-of-the-summer moment even though the temperatures tell us something completely different. It’s almost time to start squirreling away the acorns, can the tomatoes, clean the gutters and haul the boat out for the last time. Then again, you have a three-day weekend, nowhere to go, and a perfectly good back yard that encourages social distancing. It is time for you to have an end-of-summer blowout with the half dozen people in your quarantine pod. Let’s cook all those dishes that we never have got around to this summer and have some great Instagram-envy-inducing moments.

Crab fest! Hooray. https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/fooddrink/how-to-throw-the-perfect-crab-feast/

Kabobs. Here are dozens of ideas: https://www.southernliving.com/food/holidays-occasions/easy-grilled-kabobs-recipe

Baby back ribs. Stay home. Stay safe! https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/the-best-baby-back-ribs-1241297

Lobster. And lobster rolls. Go to the source: https://lobsterfrommaine.com/steaming-lobster/

Grilled Shrimp. Variety is the spice of grilling shrimp: https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-best-grilled-shrimp-recipes-333576

Grilled pizza. We stick to the basics, because we value our finger prints, but you can get very fancy if you wish. https://www.brit.co/grilled-pizza-recipes/

Grilled corn. We usually just wrap the ears of corn in aluminum foil, with a couple of pats of butter and a handful of Maldon salt, but we are set in our ways. Feel free to experiment: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/honey-buttered-grilled-corn

Grilled potatoes. Thanks, Martha! https://www.marthastewart.com/355490/grilled-potato-wedges

Grilled asparagus. You can’t go wrong with Alice Waters and garlic: https://www.mountainfeed.com/blogs/learn/homemade-aioli

Pesto. Shame on you. Get cracking: https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/fat/basil-pesto

Be slightly au courant. Watermelon Frosé: https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/a32702671/mason-jar-watermelon-frose/

Pina coladas. It’s the last weekend of summer. It’s your last chance: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bas-best-pina-colada

Key Lime Pie. This is the best never-fail Key Lime Pie recipe we have ever found, and yet, we haven’t made one this year. Shocking. Look in the bottled lemon juice section of the grocery store. Buy a graham cracker crust. Make good whipped cream. You will never regret the calories. Trust me: https://keylimejuice.com/nellie-joes-key-lime-pie/

S’mores. Forget the campfire, and do them on the grill: https://www.grubstreet.com/2020/09/adam-platt-on-smores.html?

Goodbye, Summer!

“Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.”
― Carl Sandburg

By the time you read this I should be out of the studio, out of the kitchen, and off-line. Maybe I will even switch my phone to airplane mode so I stop getting pinged by spam and requests for political donations. That is an excellent idea. I will wedge myself into a comfy position on the bank of the river with my book, my watercolors, and look out adoringly at Mr. Friday as he casts away for trout. Though he keeps muttering about “Non-hatch. Non-hatch…” I guess we will be flipping burgers over the campfire tonight and not fish.

Because I am feeling generous (and grateful) for being out of town and enjoying myself, I will share with you these easiest of dessert ideas. I cannot call it a recipe, because it is time-honored, greatly revered, summertime, PTA, Junior League cookbook, crowd-sharing genius notion of combining ingredients. The only skill you need is for whipping cream, and I trust you can do that without having to look at YouTube videos. (And do not disappoint me by using Cool Whip. It is fake and phony and an anathema.)

Summer Classic: Ice Cream Pie

1. Go to the store and buy a prepared pie shell. Spend $3. It’s worth it. I bought a shortbread pie shell, but you can use a graham cracker pie shell, or a chocolatey Oreo shell. (Shameless shill that I am, I used a Keebler pie shell. If you want to toil earnestly in a hot kitchen, you can grind up gingersnaps and make your own, but I am on vacation, and with all the time I am saving, I will write you a postcard.)

2. Buy half a gallon of ice cream. I opted for Breyer’s strawberry, but I bet a blueberry ice cream, or even French vanilla would be yummy. Here is an edited list of the veritable panoply of Breyer’s ice cream flavors: Cherry Vanilla, Peach, Chocolate Truffle, Heath Bar, Tiramisu, Butter Pecan, Butterscotch Blondie, Coffee, Chocolate, Thin Mint, Samoas, Waffle Cone, Oreo Cookies and Snickers. Those are just the ice creams. There are even more gelatos! Ben and Jerry have a kabillion flavors, too: https://www.benjerry.com/flavors/ice-cream-pints

3. Buy a pint of heavy whipping cream. I always buy the store brand. But you can get fancy and go all organic and buy an over-priced name brand is you wish.

4. Find some deelish seasonal fruit. Mr. Friday’s eyes were bigger than his breakfast stomach, so we had a lot of strawberries and blueberries in the fridge. Sliced peaches would be very pretty. Raspberries or blackberries are always enjoyable. Use your head, and whatever you have on hand or can score at the farmers’ market. Think about what would be easiest to eat while sitting in the dark on the back porch when you are waiting for the Perseid Meteor Showers to explode over your head.

5. Open the pie shell packaging. Open the ice cream container. Let the ice cream soften up a little bit. Be sure to take a couple of test spoonfuls. Use an ice cream scoop to dig the ice cream out of the container, and to plop it into the pie crust shell. After a couple of minutes I schmeared the ice cream nice and flat using an offset icing spatula, which gave me the Food52 vibe of urbane sophistication. I like to look like I know what I am doing, even if it is only me and Luke the wonder dog alone in the kitchen. Pop the ice cream-filled shell back into the freezer while you whip the cream.

6. Slice the strawberries or peaches. I always toss strawberries in a little lemon juice and sugar.

7. Using your sophisticated city slicker offset icing spatula, twirl the freshly whipped cream onto the layer of ice cream. Delicately arrange the fruit on top of the ice cream. Somehow the blueberries that I centered carefully drifted a little to the northwest, after I moved on to the strawberries, but that is a gravitational mystery that will never be solved. Put everything back in the freezer to firm up.

8. Flip your burgers. Or grill the trout. Have some green salad. And then slice up the pie. Sit back. Settle in. Tune out. Cool down. Enjoy.

https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/10-minute-ice-cream-pie/ (They advocate Cool Whip! Heresy!)

Another family fave: https://butteryourbiscuit.com/chocolate-wafer-icebox-cake/ Although ours never look quite so pretty!

https://www.keebler.com/en/yummy-recipes/pie-crust/raspberry-shortcake-pie/

“Have you ever spent days and days and days making up flavors of ice cream that no one’s ever eaten before? Like chicken and telephone ice cream? Green mouse ice cream was the worst. I didn’t like that at all.”
― Neil Gaiman

These are the longest days of the year – waiting for summer to depart and for the cool breezes of fall to waft over our fevered brows. Trying to stay home during lockdown and being socially distant has taken all the spirit out of us. Even Luke the wonder dog is loathe to walk in the afternoons: we lurch from shadow to shadow, seeking coolth and respite as we stagger through our mindful paces. We don’t even have the first day of school to look forward to – no lunch boxes this year, for a while, anyway. We have been overcome by ennui.

It has been time to get a grip, and make changes ourselves. It’s time to do some easy peasy baking; baking that delivers deliciousness for our minimal investment of time (and skill). It’s time for focaccia. Which is sublime when hot from the oven. It is good warm, it freezes well, and can be eaten for any meal. It is deeply satisfying to bake something warm and oozing olive oil and garlic – without all the bother of the bother of sour dough starter maintenance or that ubiquitous banana bread that found its way onto every homebound COVID-19’s avoiders to-do list.

Focaccia can be mixed up after breakfast, and ignored until an hour before dinner. Or you can make the dough after watching the Reid Out, letting it rise over night, to be put it in the oven tomorrow night. Yet, if you are suddenly seized with the yen for warm, home-baked bread, you can start the dough at lunch and hurry it along through the afternoon, and start baking in time for cocktail hour. We spent this week experimenting.

Years ago I found a mix for focaccia at our local IGA market and it was a revelation to someone who had grown up on Pepperidge Farm white bread, Levy’s Jewish rye bread and the occasional loaf of freshly baked Italian bread from the red sauce Italian restaurant my family frequented for high holy days. I wasn’t used to crusty, fresh, yeasty bread. During my European interlude I had the standard American food epiphany upon discovering baguettes, brioche, pain perdu, tigella, naan, crumpets, scones, hot cross buns, broa, zopf, sfincione, challah, pita, ciabatta, and finally focaccia di Recco col formaggio. Translation: my unformed suburban brain was blown.

Moving to the south brought me a deep appreciation for the complex simplicity of the biscuit. Moving further south (though considering Florida “south” is often debated, volubly) we found a wonderful French bakery, and we worked our way through their inventory of baked daily epi breads, baguettes, pain aux chocolate, croissants, and brioche. These days I cannot wander down Flagler Street into Jim and Kim’s bakery. I am stuck at home, but luckily the internet provides me with all kinds of inspiration.

This week our first batch of homemade focaccia was wrong in so many ways. The pan I used was too small, so the dough rose to epic, cornbread-y heights. Focaccia is considered a flatbread, or a hearth bread, not a soufflé. I also relied on the recipe, instead of my experience, and merely coated the pan with olive oil. What I should have done was use a larger, shallower pan, (thank you, Food52 for the sheet pan suggestion) and line it first with parchment paper, and then generously coat it with olive oil.

The second batch was better, and more attractive. I dotted the dimpled top with halved cherry tomatoes, and a scattering of Maldon salt, finely minced garlic, and fresh rosemary. You can also consider cheese, basil, and onion. To bask in the glow of the Mediterranean, you could add lemon slices and green olives. For a more abundantly flavored focaccia you could add Prosciutto, mushrooms, and arugula. If you’d like something sweeter, for a breakfast dish, consider honey, apples, raisins, raw sugar, orange peel or lemon zest.

I aspire to baking airy, crisp baguettes, and hope in time I will master some of the necessary skills. In the meantime, I am content to have spent a week learning about the simple goodness of focaccia. In these perilous times, it is good to ratchet down some of the anxiety with soothing oozy, warm, crunchy, garlicky goodness. And with the stash in the freezer, it is always close at hand.

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight…Bread making is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells… there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
― M.F.K. Fisher

https://www.tasteatlas.com/focaccia

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/easy-no-knead-focaccia

https://food52.com/blog/23694-focaccia-bread-recipe-weekend-baking-project-with-kids

Things have gone back to the new normal here in the Spy Test Kitchens. Last Friday, after a week of enforced cool meals, the gas oven was successfully repaired. I sat at the kitchen counter and yakked away with the repair man as he worked. (It was odd, sitting in my own kitchen wearing a mask, but he was thoughtful enough to wear his, too.) I must admit that before calling the repair service number I had Googled “gas oven not working”, only to be confronted with myriad choices for what could possibly be wrong; the ignitor being the most popular YouTube answer. But who knows exactly where that little piece of equipment lurks? Luckily, the repair guy thought the ignitor was the likely cause (Go, Google!) and he actually knew where in the depths of the oven it resided. Many screws off and on, a couple of layers of metal shelving removed and replaced, and soon we were back in business. Friday night pizza went off without a hitch.

The repair was a complicated process to the uninitiated. Not at all like when we had to replace the ignitor on the outdoor gas grill: it was the doohickey located right behind the instrument panel. Google came in handy that time for that DIY home repair. I will be ready for the next ignitor failure, now. It is sometimes like that with new recipes. Many steps and starts and measurements are made the first time you prepare a dish for the first time. Then, happily, forever after, you can knock it out with much less faltering.

Mr. Friday found the recipe that he thought we should try, now that we were able to bake again. It is filled with our favorite ingredients, which we have in rotation for several meals a week: tomatoes, garlic, basil and cheese. Luckily for us, the window sill was newly brimming with sun-warm farmers’ market tomatoes, garnered in our latest hunting and gathering trip. In fact, this would be a tasty appetizer or hors d’oeuvre – if we ever get to socialize again. What a concept!

Please keep in mind that you can eyeball these ingredients – I think this must have been a party-sized recipe, when we were only baking for two. I used one pie crust, which gave me enough dough for three 6-inch mini tarts – which was more than plenty.

2 packages refrigerated store-bought pie crust – or make your own if you have time to kill and want to show off
4 tablespoons of EV olive oil
4 green onions, sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 teaspoon Maldon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan, plus a generous heap of shaved Parm (I used the vegetable peeler)
4 ounces goat cheese
3 medium tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
6 to 8 large fresh basil leaves, cut into ribbons
Dash of balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

I used the 6-inch tart pans I had bought for Thanksgiving, back when I thought I would be baking oodles of pies and tarts. It turns out all anyone wanted that year was pumpkin pie – no one craved Sweet Potato–Miso Pie with Chocolate-Sesame Crust or yearned for Pear Pie with Red Wine and Rosemary . Philistines.

I rolled out one pie crust just to get a little more acreage out of the thinner dough. I used a 6-inch saucer as a template, and cut out 3 rounds, which I inelegantly plopped into the shallow tart pans. I put the pans on a cookie sheet.

Heat some of the olive oil in a skillet, and lightly sauté the onions and garlic, until the onions are translucent, but remove before the garlic browns. Add salt and pepper.

Sprinkle about a tablespoon of the grated Parmesan in the center of each tart pan. Divvy up the onion and garlic mixture, and spoon into each tart pan. Place one or two slices of tomato in each, drizzling them with olive oil, and then sprinkle the basil shred,and some more salt and pepper. Shave Parmesan lovingly over each pan. Crimp the sides of the dough, to make a retaining wall so none of the cheesy goodness can ooze away. Bake about 20 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown. We ate ours cooled, as a side dish.

Imagine doing this in mini muffin pans, using puff pastry. Served warm. Yumsters.

This week we have made: pizza (tomatoes, garlic, basil and cheese), panzanella salad (tomatoes, onions, cukes, garlic, basil and cubes of fresh mozzarella cheese), a BLT salad (lettuce, tomatoes, garlic, bacon, croutons), tomato sandwiches (tomatoes and mayonnaise) and cheeseburgers (cheese, tomatoes, onion slices). It is a glorious summer rut.

Here’s a recipe that will make sure you never waste another tomato: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/tomato-tart-recipe-fresh-herbs/

“Again and again, the cicada’s untiring cry pierced the sultry summer air like a needle at work on thick cotton cloth.”
― Yukio Mishima

We are having a crisis in the much vaunted Spy Test Kitchen: the gas oven suddenly stopped working, and the repair people won’t be here until Friday morning (the day you are reading this, we hope). The range is still working fine, so Mr. Friday has been able to brew his coffee every morning, but the oven has been cool as a cucumber all week. This will prove problematic if it isn’t repaired in time for Friday night pizza, but I am not going to borrow trouble just yet. I’ll still make the pizza dough, and we can grill it outside, and indulge in tasty Big Love Pizza once again.

In the meantime, we have had to get a little more creative with our weeknight meals this week. Luckily, as summer swelters on, our palates are pitched toward lighter fare – caprese salad, pasta salad, tuna salad, and gazpacho. We have been learning to adapt to social distancing, so we are being more diligent about cleaning out the fridge and using up the leftovers instead of venturing out for daily recreational and socializing visits to the grocery store.

This is what we ate for dinner this week:

Monday night we had leftover chicken piccata with a side of pesto pasta. That was the night we discovered that the oven didn’t work. Originally I was going to heat up the leftover chicken, but we discovered that it tasted just dandy cold with the accompaniment of pesto pasta.

I followed Marcella Hazan’s recipe for pesto found in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and raided the container garden for our first basil harvest of the summer:

2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 or 3 garlic cloves
Sea salt (we always use Maldon salt)

Toss everything into a food processor and then while it chops, drizzle the olive oil in a thin stream until a coarse paste is formed.

After whizzing the basil, oil, garlic and pine nuts, transfer the mixture to another bowl, and by hand add:

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons freshly grated Romano cheese
3 tablespoons of room-temp butter

After boiling your favorite pasta until al dente, reserve a cup of the pasta water, just in case, to add a little to the pesto, to thin it out. You can always add more olive oil, too. Combine the pesto with the pasta, and be sure to have extra grated cheese in a bowl on the table.

http://www.suzanneelizabeths.com/2011/07/homemade-pesto-from-marcella-hazans.html

Samsin Nosrat’s version is more labor intensive and probably more deelish. She visited Italy for her Netflix series, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and believes in the craft of using a mortar and pestle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkKWtGQxjwM I was delighted to use my little food processor, and did not once feel as if I was cheating. And we use our own homegrown basil, which probably isn’t as wonderful as anything harvested in Italy, but we think it is pretty damn tasty.

Tuesday night we had a crazy and quick caprese salad, with an entire container of sweet cherry tomatoes, prosciutto, olives, fresh mozzarella, capers and a fistful of basil. (You can toss anything you like into the salad bowl, really – roasted peppers, croutons, anchovies…) I drizzled it with olive oil and a smidge of balsamic vinegar, added a pinch of Maldon salt, and we enjoyed it with a loaf of crusty French bread, good Irish butter and the usual cheap white wine.

Wednesday we made gazpacho. Because it is summer. And if we can’t be in Spain, then we can pretend that we are enjoying ourselves at a sophisticated Barcelona café, waiting for the night’s adventures to begin. And because we are such experienced cooks and eaters, we like recipes that we read once, and follow instinctively forever after. In the summer, after a fulsome trip to the farmers’ market, we have our pick of fine tomatoes – which are key to the success of so many summer dishes. Samsin Nosrat has the answer to our prayers, again:
http://fullbellyfarm.com/recipes/gazpacho/

I have been listening to the ever delightful Samsin Nosrat and her co-host, Hrishikesh Hirway’s, podcast Home Cooking. You should try it. They are smart and funny – and wildly entertaining. https://homecooking.show

Last night we had basic boring tuna salad, using my mother’s secret ancestral recipe, which is probably just like yours: mayonnaise (we couldn’t find Hellmann’s, so used Duke’s for the first time and it was perfect) and chopped celery. I also made a humble macaroni salad: adding mayo, chopped green onions, carrots, and red pepper to a bowl of elbow macaroni. We also had a handful of cherry tomatoes. And wine. Also, candles.

It’s hot and muggy this July. I hope you are staying cool and calm and safe. Now we are waiting for the repair folks to show up to fix the oven. Cross your fingers. Wear your mask, and go hunt up some tomatoes that taste like summer. Winter will be here before we know it.

“In Spain, we mainly use red plum tomatoes, but it is always fun to experiment. Try using a mix of colors or substitute green tomatoes for plum next time you make a tomato dish.”  Jose Andres