Carrot cake is a quintessential dessert of spring. This recipe is moist slightly sweet, and perfectly spiced. It is paired with a rich and velvety cream cheese frosting.
Asparagus is so beautiful this time of year, so I wanted to create a recipe around it. I made some basil and pumpkin seed pesto, and drizzled it on toasted bread with asparagus, avocado, and shaved Parmesan.
Because his family is a true-to-the-bone pancake family, I really wanted him to share with me the secrets to making a good pancake, thin and delicate, perfectly browned on the outside, soft on the inside. He gave me a recipe, one that he has memorized. A set of very specific instructions, the right temp, the right amount of time for frying. I followed it to a tee, and sure enough, the pancakes came out the way I had always dreamed they would.
I got this idea last week, for an olive oil, parsley, garlic, lemon, Parmesan cheese pasta. A meal that can be easily pulled together in less than 20 minutes. We've been really into that quick and easy style of cooking lately, and pasta always falls into that category, unless you're making it from scratch.
Speaking of signature recipes, just last night I made Marcella Hazan's butter tomato sauce. As I watched the tomatoes simmer and the house fill with the most wonderful aromas, I thought about the history of this particular recipe, about Marcella, and I wondered if her family feels the same excitement and enthusiasm that I feel each time I ladle a generous serving onto my pasta.
