gar­lic: one of the Four Basic Food Groups

I know, Avery has already point­ed out to me that “they” have done away with the Four Basic Food Groups.  Now there is a pyra­mid, or some such.  It’s very com­plex, with dif­fer­ent sorts of Fats To Remem­ber.  I liked the old sys­tem, but I’ve made some adjust­ments.  How about 1) But­ter, 2) Salt, 3) Foie Gras, and 4) Garlic.

I LOVE garlic.

And it’s good for you!  Not just in a “Twi­light” kind of way, but tru­ly good for your health, which is won­der­ful to hear because my fam­i­ly must reek of it.  I like it minced to a tiny pulp with lemon juice and salt, sprin­kled on a toma­to.  Sim­mer­ing in a toma­to sauce, wait­ing for meat­balls.  Stuffed under the skin of a roast­ing chick­en, or mixed with goat cheese to spoon into a red pep­per and baked till bubbling…

And then there’s pesto.  My Ital­ian moth­er-in-law first intro­duced me to pesto, which she made in vast quan­ti­ties in her Iowa kitchen with basil from her gar­den.  When would that have been?  As ear­ly as 1984, when I sat down at her kitchen table and watched her work her mag­ic as we chat­ted about my boyfriend, who we both agreed was prac­ti­cal­ly per­fect in every way… that’s a hap­py mem­o­ry.  Her freez­er was always full of lit­tle jam jars of the green elixir, ready to be brought out on cold win­ter days to be mixed with hot spaghet­ti for a sim­ple sup­per.  She inspired John and me to go to the Union Square Farmer’s Mar­ket in New York and come home with arm­fuls of pun­gent basil to fill our own freezers…

Lemon in pesto?  I think so.  But it’s up to you.  It could­n’t be simpler…

Just whizz up in your food proces­sor the fol­low­ing ingre­di­ents, in the quan­ti­ties that appeal to you (but I’ve giv­en some basics):

Pesto

(serves four as sauce for starter with pasta)

4 cups loose­ly packed whole fresh basil leaves
¾ cup extra vir­gin olive oil
juice ½ lemon
3 tbsps pine nuts
3 tbsps grat­ed pecori­no or Parme­san cheese
2 cloves gar­lic, rough­ly chopped
pinch sea salt to taste

Place all ingre­di­ents in food proces­sor and blend till smooth, tak­ing care to scrape the pesto away from the sides of the proces­sor to incor­po­rate all bits.

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And then, for some­thing lighter, to driz­zle on your “every­thing in a let­tuce leaf” sup­per, or just sprin­kle on a piece of moz­zarel­la-topped toast, there’s

Sal­sa verde

(makes plen­ty, save it)

1 large bunch each of flat-leaf pars­ley, arugu­la and cilantro, leaves only                                                                                                                                               2 cloves garlic
juice of half a lemon
sea salt to taste
extra vir­gin olive oil till liq­uid (per­haps 1/2 cup?)

Blend every­thing in the cuisi­nart and bask in the green glo­ry. It’s lovely.

And then there’s baked gar­lic… just cut the tops off real­ly firm bulbs of gar­lic, driz­zle them with olive oil, sprin­kle them with lemon zest and sea salt and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes…

I can’t explain what hap­pens to gar­lic when you bake it.  All the sharp­ness dis­ap­pears into a vel­vety, dreamy spread­able but­tery stuff to put on toast, and top with a cou­ple of scram­bled eggs, a slice of sausage and a sprin­kle of chives.

Are you hun­gry yet?

I’ve been hav­ing so much fun read­ing oth­er peo­ple’s blogs late­ly.  This is unusu­al for me, I must admit, because nor­mal­ly I find that liv­ing, and think­ing and writ­ing about liv­ing, take up all my time!  It’s hard to find time to read about oth­er peo­ple’s lives, but I have just hap­pened upon sev­er­al late­ly that are well worth a vis­it.  And gor­geous pho­tographs, which make it even more sat­is­fy­ing.  Try dol­lop, which is writ­ten by my col­lege friend Ann in Texas.  Talk about mak­ing you hun­gry!  Gor­geous pho­tographs, you’ll be inspired.  And 365 Kitchen, the brain­child of my new friend Sarah in Brook­lyn… and Din­ner: A Love Sto­ry, by a lady I don’t even know but am severe­ly envi­ous of, because her blog has become… a cook­book.  I like these ladies and their work because they all share my phi­los­o­phy: life is nicer when you cook good food for your fam­i­ly, every­one sits down togeth­er and enjoys it, and now and then you get extra peo­ple in your kitchen and around your table to enjoy it too.

Speak­ing of which, my kitchen and a pork ten­der­loin beck­on because our friend Kath­leen is com­ing and bring­ing her daugh­ter Cici to have lunch.  Cici and Avery met when Avery was three days old, and they have nev­er looked back.  They were insep­a­ra­ble for nine years until we cru­el­ly sep­a­rat­ed them to move to Lon­don, but dis­tance has not dimmed the silli­ness when they see each oth­er.  So I will head into the kitchen, grate some gin­ger, zest some limes and make a splen­did mari­nade for my pork.  Oh, and I’ll have to mince a lit­tle… gar­lic, while I’m at it.