I pulled this pasta together one night when I had leftover sausage and summer squash in the fridge and a daughter eager to help out in the kitchen–the pesto came as much as an activity as an element of the dish. We went to the garden together to pick the basil and Noemi pounded the pesto together in our mortar and pestle. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, use a blender and add warm water by the tablespoon as needed to blend.
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This is one of my favorite ways to serve summer squash. You can use any type of squash, but I prefer the denser, green-fleshed varieties, such as zucchini. It’s a great summer squash recipe to use up a bumper crop. I also like to add a dash of Guatemalan smoked chile pepper a friend of mine gave to me; this is a great dish to be adventurous with anything special you want to play with too.
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Moms ask me all the time if my daughter is a good eater, and I’m happy to say that she is. Part of the reason is that I put her to work in the kitchen (from an early age … see the video below). I’ve said before and I’ll say again that the more kids get involved with their food, the more likely they are to eat it. Here are a few ways that Noemi (4-1/2) and I cook together in the kitchen.
We snap beans and peas together, and husk corn … often at the table outside or on our front stoop (I think God made front stoops as a place to husk corn and eat popsicles).The point is, the kitchen is a really fun place for kids if you invite them to do things that they can excel at and enjoy … no matter what their age. Start them young and your kids will become naturally curious towards food, rather than looking at it as something foisted upon them.
Last night after making her pesto, for instance, Noemi was enthusiastic about sitting down for dinner. And, yes, she did eat the zucchini.
Yes, we all know how important it is to have a well-stocked pantry. Those beans and grains and canned tomatoes come in quite handy during months when produce is bleak. But what about at the height of summer, when veggies are at their peak? I’d argue it’s just as important to keep your pantry strategically stocked, so you can turn those mounds of tomatoes and zucchini and eggplant (oh my!) into healthy summer meals at the drop of a hat.
Here are seven things I like to keep stocked in my pantry during summer:
These are seven things I’m never without come summer. What are yours?
True barbecue involves indirect heat and smoke, and dedicated barbecue aficionados invest in a smoker. But you can set up a standard charcoal or gas grill for smoking, which works fine for tender cuts like tri tip, seafood or poultry. Tri tip (also called triangle roast) is a lean, quick-cooking cut of beef sirloin that’s an ideal introduction to smoking. It’s the cut used in Santa Maria-style barbecue in California’s Central Coast. I’ve added a touch of brown sugar to the spice rub for a little flavor of the Deep South. The result is smoky, spicy, subtly sweet, incredibly tender and, as my husband says, very “more-ish.” Serve this with our Santa Maria-Style Beans, corn or flour tortillas and your favorite salsa. Sometimes I’ll serve it with our Roasted Red Pepper Romesco Sauce (only I’ll put the veggies on the grill to smoke with the meat). Leftovers make divine sandwiches for lunch!
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Bulgur wheat is a quick-cooking whole grain you’ll want to keep on hand for an easy side dish. Chop up the herbs while the bulgur stands. You can vary this recipe in any number of ways – use vegetable or chicken broth in place of the water, stir in your favorite fresh herbs or garnish it with toasted nuts and a sprinkling of feta or goat cheese.
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I love Cristina Ferrare’s cookbook Big Bowl of Love (Sterling Epicure)! Her way of using fresh, seasonal ingredients in simple preparations is our idea of nourishing. This salad dressing recipe is inspired by Ferrare’s Caesar dressing. It has a lovely, light texture and authentic flavor. Adjust the amount of anchovy to suit your taste. Serve this dressing over romaine lettuce with crunchy croutons.
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If you’re part of the NOURISH Evolution, you have a strong connection to your food. You like to know where it comes from, how it was produced and who was responsible for it.
And chances are, you also like to take matters into your own hands by growing your own food. Whether that means you cultivate a pot of herbs on a condo balcony (like me) or plant an extensive vegetable garden (like Lia), there’s no better way to know your food.
Whatever the size of your garden, you should check out the Union of Concerned Scientists’ new report, The Climate-Friendly Gardener: A Guide to Combating Global Warming From the Ground Up. It’s filled with practical tips for home gardeners – everything from skipping the gas-powered leaf blower and raking those leaves by hand to cultivating a planet-friendly lawn (yes, it can be done).
One of the smartest things you can do, says the UCS, is grow your own food. It saves miles that food has to travel from the field to your plate. And the food you grow extends far beyond the vegetable patch to include berry bushes and fruit trees.
We asked our Facebook community what they’ve planted in their gardens this summer, and it turns out NOURISH Evolutioners are avid home farmers. Here’s what we’re growing:
What are your top crops? We’d love to hear. Share here or with our Facebook crew.
English cookbook author Nigel Slater reminds me a bit of Marcella Hazan. Like Hazan, Slater is adamant that he’s a cook, not a chef, and he’s a champion of simple, straightforward home cooking. The American edition of his book, Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch (Ten Speed Press) came out recently, and it deserves a place in your cookbook collection. His signature unfussy approach lets the flavor of seasonal produce really shine. Roasting summer-fresh tomatoes heightens their sweetness and deepens their flavor. Slater recommends serving these as a side dish with fresh mozzarella or basmati rice. They’re equally delightful served over sliced baguette as an appetizer or light lunch.
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Last weekend I made gravlax for the first time. That Swedish cured-salmon specialty is the epitome of slow food. But as I waited two days for the fish to cure in its salt-and-sugar rub it occurred to that I wasn’t the one “making” anything.
Time was doing most of the work. And there wasn’t even heat involved.
That’s just the way I like it these days. Over the last couple of years I’ve come to appreciate time as a lazy cook’s best friend. If you’re willing to put in a little (often very, very little) effort on the front end and patient enough to wait a bit, you’ll be rewarded with incredible flavor.
Time is a lazy cook’s best friend. If you put in a little (often very, very little) effort on the front end and are patient enough to wait a bit, you’ll be rewarded with incredible flavor.
It’s a different approach to quick-and-easy, dinner-in-15-minutes cooking, but one worth adding to your arsenal. In fact, you can use the take-your-time strategy one day to prepare components for stellar speedy meals another.
That gravlax is a perfect example. I unwrapped it, rinsed off the rub and and thinly sliced the fish. Then I served it alongside a simple butter-lettuce salad and our All-Purpose French Lentils. With a glass of rose Sancerre, it was a fast, light summer supper. The gravlax has since made other lunch and dinner appearances.
As Lia and I developed our new Nourish Weekly Menus (if you haven’t checked them out yet, here’s a taste with our free e-cookbook), we realized that the Sunday cook-ahead is the heart of our strategy. That’s because we often find ourselves taking advantage of a leisurely weekend to make a dish that takes a bit longer – roasting a chicken, perhaps, or braising a pork shoulder – that yields a fantastic Sunday supper plus great leftovers to spin into fantastic (and fast!) weeknight meals.
Want to give it try? Here are 3 things you can do this weekend:
Like this idea? Please share it with your friends!
