By Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Scripps Howard News Service
Dear Lynne: What do you think of someone who eats their asparagus with their hands? Our friend does this in restaurants. What can we do about it? —Embarrassed in Indianapolis
Dear Embarrassed: This is a proper way to eat asparagus (and ribs and chicken wings and other stuff as well) and much more fun than fumbling with a knife and fork. Submit to utensils only if the asparagus is dripping with sauce.
Dear Lynne: Which basil should I plant? With something like 12 different ones, I don't know what to do. I love pesto. —Basil crazy
Dear Basil crazy: Take a deep breath. This is obviously another case of basil frenzy, a common ailment at this time of year. It flares up again in farmers markets in July and August.
The good news is there actually are around 33 different basils to confuse you. The bad news is we can't plant all of them (which is why there is always next year). So pick a few sure-bets and a few experiments.
As a fellow basil fiend, I've had good luck with spicy globe, little bushes of peppery, sweet, herbal leaves for a unique pesto; Genovese, from the home of pesto; cinnamon and Thai basils for Asian dishes and freestyle pesto; lemon, and green bouquet with little leaves of big true basil flavor.
Lettuce-leafed and overgrown basil disappoint. Pick basil young, stagger plantings and don't keep pinching leaves back. Old basil is bitter.
In Genoa, prime pesto requires the leaves of juvenile plants, 6 or 7 inches high, and the local olive oil that's gentle and buttery. This recipe comes supremely close to tasting like "there."
King of Pestos
(for 1 pound pasta)
1 large clove garlic, remove any green center
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 tightly packed cups young basil leaves
2 heaping tablespoons pine nuts
1/4 cup grated Fiore di Sardo sheep cheese, or American Stella Fontinella
Scant 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (Ligurian preferred —Roi, Ardioino, Dinrabbo or Rainieri brands)
- In a mortar and pestle, or food processor with the motor running, puree the garlic and salt. Gradually add basil and then the pine nuts, crushing or processing everything into a rough paste.
- Blend in the cheeses, and finally enough oil to bring the pesto to the consistency of heavy cream. Turn it into a pasta bowl.
- Stir in about 1/3 cup hot pasta water from cooked pasta and immediately toss with drained noodles. Season to taste, and serve.
Dear Lynne: Is there a trick to melting chocolate and adding liquid to it? Mine clumps up and hardens. —Lacy in Minneapolis
Dear Lacy: Chocolate is devilishly tricky. A few drops of liquid or even steam can convulse it into a lumpy mess that refuses to melt back down. The solution: When adding any kind of liquid or fat to chocolate, the proportions must be a minimum of 1 tablespoon for every 2 ounces of chocolate.
In melting chocolate, temperature is important. With milk chocolate and white chocolate, keep the heat very low. They burn if heated beyond about 110 degrees. Semisweet, bittersweet and unsweetened chocolates can go up to about 120 degrees. Invest in an instant-reading thermometer. It could save a good deal of money in burnt chocolate.
Dear Lynne: I have a recipe from a friend calling for dried cranberry beans. If I can't find them here in the boonies, is there an acceptable substitute? —Mike in the wilds of New York state
Dear Mike: Try organic dried pinto beans. They taste meaty and slightly sweet, similar to cranberry beans. Also, at farmer markets you might run across some of the 15 or so varieties of cranberry beans. They all share a speckling or spattering of deep red on a cream to tan bean. Scarlet Beauty Elite, Tongue of Fire, Vermont Cranberry and Lingua di Fuoco are especially good. For some adventure, why not try growing them?
(Lynn Rossetto Kasper is host of "The Splendid Table"(r), Minnesota Public Radio's national food show. Find recipes, station listings and more at splendidtable.org, or 800-537-5252. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)
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