- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
The letters thread is now closed.
This article made me, a former country mouse myself, want to scrounge up some fried clams, a cold beer, and a threadbare copy of "Summer Cooking."
Oh, right, and some seasonal produce for good measure.
I inherited tattered copies of all David's books from my mother, who cooked a lot of her recipes in 1960s Scotland and I'm pleased to see her work getting some exposure in the US. It's a bit of a stretch, though, to claim that seasonal food was "subversive" in the UK in the 1950s. On the contrary, it was well into the sixties before fresh peaches (from Israel) were available at Christmas, or hothouse tomatoes (from Holland) became other than an expensive treat. Outside of cans, seasonal food was all we had, especially for vegetables. And believe me, whole winters of nothing but cabbage and brussels sprouts and canned peas are not nearly as much fun as the neo-luddites claim.
Thanks for the article about one of the early pioneers in seasonal, local, fresh foods. She really sounds marvelous. I immediately warm to anyone who describes a recipe as an "excuse to eat pesto".
However, with the recipe--which sounds divine--when exactly are you to add the pesto to the gnocchi (masquerading as simply a pesto delivery system)? I'm guessing that it's after you've baked & cooled the pasta since pesto is generally a raw sauce. Perhaps I'm just a dolt but when it says "To Combine", well, the 2 components never actually appear to combine. Unless you really are to add the pesto to the ovenproof dish. Any clarification would be welcome.
Still, her book sounds super and I'd never of heard of her w/o your article, so thanks again.
