This is one of those small, small things that makes such a difference! I discovered it a few years ago in Joy’s strawberry shortcake recipe and I’ve been making it ever since!
Read moreChicken Larb Salad
Last week, Jenny Rosenstrach wrote about easy dinners that have been loved to death on Cup of Jo. For us, Bon Appetit's chicken larb is definitely the dinner that runs the risk of being loved to death.
So far, what’s saved it is that it’s such a malleable recipe and it can be served so many different ways, with rice, pickled onion, and lettuce; with mixed veggies and steamed greens; with rice and raw and pickled vegetables; and of, course, as a salad, pictured above.
Creamy Grilled Corn Pasta with Basil and Snap Peas
I keep making and also tinkering with Melissa Clark's Creamy Corn Pasta with Basil and, spoiler alert, everyone is hotter in sunglasses, and everything is better grilled.
Read moreLemon-Basil Pesto
I also had basil from the Ithaca Farmers Market in the fridge that was wilting, so I went on a bit of a blending kick and made some lemon-basil pesto too. This is probably controversial but I don't like too much garlic in basil pesto, I think it can really overwhelm the basil.
Blend together: 60g of dry basil leaves; 20g of Parmesan cheese or soft goat cheese; 1 large garlic clove, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, zest of half of a lemon
Two notes, first, my favorite increment of measurement when cooking is weight, but I use volume intermittently but for something like basil, using weight is so, so much easier, I've read so many recipes over the years the include loosely packed or densely packed volume amounts for herbs and I find it incredibly difficult to decipher
And second, yes, Parmesan cheese or soft goat cheese, if you don’t like goat cheese, obviously don’t, but if you do, try it, it makes for a great soft consistency
Makes about 150g of pesto which is about how much you need for 6 servings of pasta.
Fresh Herb Risotto
My usual salad eating has been a bit limited the past week because I had to have two wisdom teeth out. Yeah. Not particularly fun. So I did what any normal salad loving person would do: I made a risotto that's as salad-like as possible. Also, risotto is really the perfect thing to cook when you are stuck at home and slightly loopy because gentle, mindless stirring and slightly loopy go extremely well together.
I have made one small change to this recipe, it's an extremely minor one, once the risotto is almost done, when I'm at the point where I'm adding the minced herbs and the last ladleful of stock, I briefly add that last ladleful first to my blender and blitz it for 10-15 seconds as to unstick all of the bits of herbs that have stuck to the sides of the blender. It's a minor, minor change, it's probably just a symptom of me hating to waste fresh herbs and vegetables.