Life is Like Rhubarb and Strawberry

The combo of strawberry and rhubarb always makes me think of my Mom. Her strawberry-rhubarb pie would grace the table each spring as surely as tulips would burst from the ground. When I was a child, I turned my nose up at it for being so tart. By the time I grew up and learned to actually like it, it had become to me like a painting that’s hung on the same wall in the same place for twenty years–I didn’t pay it much attention.

I first made this crostata four years ago as my own spin on mom’s traditional pie. A year and a half later, in the dead of winter, mom had a massive stroke. There were no pies on the table that spring, and there never will be by her hand again. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t kicking myself just a little now, wishing I’d appreciated her version more while it lasted.

But those if-only’s only sour the present moment, which is quite sweet when I choose to see it as such. Whereas in the past, Mother’s Day meant a card and a gift exchanged across the country, now Mom–and Dad–live right here in Healdsburg. For the second year in a row, we get to celebrate with three generations of mothers and daughters in my family, and I can finally ask mom for her recipe … while serving her my Strawberry-Rhubarb Crostata.

At the risk of sounding a whole lot like Forrest Gump, life is like rhubarb and strawberry. A little bit sour, a little bit sweet, each one intensifying the properties of the other. There’s balance there, and both need to be tasted in order to embrace the full pleasure of the whole.

From my family to yours … happy Mother’s Day.

An Apple a Day

I tend to have three types of encounters with fruit. One is the almost soundtrack-worthy experience of eating a ripe plum or peach straight from the tree as ambrosial juices dribble down my chin. Another is facing down bowls of shiny apples at a Starbucks thinking “I should eat this,” yet knowing that it’ll be like biting into Styrofoam. The third, when I’m at my local organic market, is akin to browsing the bins at a vintage music shop, feeling the pressure rise as I try to remember what, exactly, I like. Some people are naturals in those situations, I’m not.

Needless to say, fruit and I have a complicated relationship and, as a result, I don’t tend to reach for it when my stomach rumbles. But last week, help literally arrived on my doorstep in the form of a box from The FruitGuys. The FruitGuys source local (mostly), organic (when specified) fruit for weekly delivery to offices around the country. For me in California, that translated into a box brimming with oranges large and small, several shades of apples and pears, and even an avocado. And I’ve got to tell you, I’ve eaten a lot of fruit this past week. Happily.

Try these 4 steps to work more fruit into your meals>

I’m finding a lot of my new-found enjoyment has to do with seasonality and curiosity. When a fruit is grown locally, it’s picked at the peak of its flavor; its purpose in life is more about titillating your tastebuds than surviving a cross-continent trek and you can tell as soon as you bite into it. I also find that when I approach fruit from a place of curiosity, it’s not such a big deal if I don’t remember the details the next time around. Fruit is sort of like wine in that way; part of the pleasure comes from the trying and retrying itself.

But the best thing is . . . now I actually look forward to raiding the fruit drawer.

So following that “apple a day” advice is easy — when it’s a good apple.

This week, join me in eating at least one piece of fruit a day–preferably seasonal–whether in a salad, from the fruit drawer, or even plucked straight from the tree. And yes, the strawberries in the crostata count.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crostata

One of my mom’s springtime standards is strawberry-rhubarb pie. Here’s my take in a rustic crostata–a type of free-form tart. In any form, rhubarb’s tart taste is a perfect foil to sweet strawberries.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crostata

 

1-1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose unbleached flour, divided
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons nonhydrogenated shortening (like Spectrum Organic)
1/4 cup ice water, as needed
1 pound rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch chunks with any ‘stringiness’ peeled off and discarded
1 pint strawberries, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Pulse together 1-1/2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in a food processor. Pulse in butter and shortening, adding ice water by tablespoons as needed, until mixture comes together and there are still a few lumps of butter. Form dough into a ball, then flatten into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out dough into a 12-inch circle (dough should be between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick) on parchment paper.

Mix together rhubarb, strawberries, lemon zest, 1 tablespoon flour and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla. Mound on dough, leaving a 1-inch border along the edge. Fold up the edge and crimp as you go along so that the edges stay up and are well-secured. Ease crostata, still on the parchment paper, onto a cookie sheet and bake 40 minutes, removing  parchment paper after the first 15 minutes. Dough should be golden-brown and the fruit bubbly and syrupy. Let cool before serving.

Serves 8