The vegetable garden is in a spring shambles. But some parts of it are waking up all on their own. I can see from inside the house that the parsley […]
Food & Drink
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KITCHEN TABLE
Nettles Make a Silky Spring Soup
Wild things to make hearts sing
The nettles are up! I’ve never been so grateful to see a wild green. Nettles sting, yes. But they’re free and prolific. And right now, they’re tall enough to harvest. […]
Cocktail Hour
Raising a Glass to New Orleans
The fun of the “quarantini” behind us, get serious with a Sazerac
To my mind, displays of humor during a crisis evince a certain resilience and creativity. I found the idea of the “quarantini” — a martini variation to drink under quarantine […]
KITCHEN TABLE
Big Easy Oysters
Wellfleet oysters make a New Orleans favorite even better
My friend Sophie’s mother, Lillian, was famous for her deceptively slow-paced, Southern-accented way of talking, and for her oyster patties. I never understood why these beautiful appetizers were called “patties.” […]
KITCHEN TABLE
Red Lentils With Bright Flavors
Reach into the pantry for a comforting supper
We’re hunkered down, working through one big shopping binge and the supplies in our pantry. We’re eating simple meals, but we’re still trying to keep them interesting. This red lentil, […]
PAIRINGS
Mussels Meet a Lively Match
A lively white wine with crisp acidity fits the bill with these mussels. Sauvignon blanc is always a good bet and it is widely available across the price spectrum. Sauvignon […]
CHEF AT HOME
Mac’s Mussels
Because who can say ‘moules marinière aux fines herbes’?
We serve local mussels whenever we can get them. I like how substantial and flavorful they are compared to some of the farmed ones. When they come in really large, […]
BAKEOFF
It’s Pie for Pi Day
We’re adopting Pi Day (March 14 = 3.14) as our own here at the P.I. with a pie recipe roundup. Everybody loves pie, we’re pretty sure. Here, local bakers offer […]
RECIPE BOX
Midnight Pasta
A simple dish you can be endlessly creative with
For a time in the 1990s I lived in San Diego — in the Windansea neighborhood in La Jolla, to be precise. I had known nothing about San Diego, but […]
PAIRINGS
Wines for an Almost-Anything-Goes Dinner
This midnight pasta recipe is basically a version of spaghetti aglio e olio — spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. The dish is said to have originated in Naples, though […]
RECIPE BOX
Recreating Iruña’s Pork Tenderloin Estofado
A Cambridge taste memory, brought back with some detective work
When I was in college in the 1990s, there was a restaurant in Harvard Square called Iruña — which is the Basque name for the city of Pamplona. A friend’s […]
KITCHEN TABLE
Homemade Ravioli with Spinach and Ricotta
Love lessons learned from making fresh pasta
Making pasta can teach you a lot about love. Like relationships, fresh pasta requires both enthusiasm and patience. It certainly can be frustrating. Primarily, though, pasta’s lessons concern the development […]
KITCHEN TABLE
Unforgettable Bar Nuts
With barely enough rosemary, brown sugar, and cayenne
We didn’t start drinking Manhattans at our house until after the election of 2016. After that, for a while, anyway, we’d mix up one cocktail, late at night, pour it […]
COCKTAIL HOUR
The Manhattan
A winter drink with an amber glow
As winter settles in for the long haul, thoughts turn to the warming properties of brown liquors. Such tipples include Scotch whisky (blended or single-malt); Irish whiskey (on a tear […]
KITCHEN TABLE
Mushroom Bisque
A rich winter soup, but one that’s made without cream
It seems like nobody suggests dinner at our place these days. But I’ve got a great mushroom bisque from the old days that is definitely company-worthy. It came originally from […]
