#94 | In Pursuit of Perfectly Green Pesto
Foggy with a Chance of Anchovies
Hello!
THE GOOD LIFE
When some people talk about money They speak as if it were a mysterious lover Who went out to buy milk and never Came back, and it makes me nostalgic For the years I lived on coffee and bread, Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday Like a woman journeying for water From a village without a well, then living One or two nights like everyone else On roast chicken and red wine.
—Tracy K. Smith from From Life on Mars
By the way, I'm Bruce Cole, Publisher of Edible San Francisco. If you’re new here, welcome to EAT.DRINK.THINK., a newsletter spotlighting seasonal recipes, the latest SF Bay Area food news, poetry, and more!
👉 ICYMI: The most-clicked link from last week’s newsletter was Hetty McKinnon’s recipe for spinach and chickpea curry with paneer.
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We've been obsessed with this perfect green pesto since watching the video featuring Marcia Gagliardi of the Tablehopper with then Farina chef Paolo Laboa. Pounding basil leaves in a mortar and pestle by hand, he produces a luxurious, verdant green sauce that he spooned onto mandilli, a handkerchief-shaped pasta. If you subscribe to the notion of "We, eat first with our eyes" (first coined by (Apicius, the 1st Century Roman gourmand), sitting down to eat this dish at Farina back in the day, you were already halfway to culinary nirvana. But every time we've followed Laboa's technique with our mortar and pestle, even taking great care to rinse our basil leaves in water as he does in the video, we end up with a sad army green-colored pesto, not the bright green perfection he spoons onto his pasta. We've tried briefly blanching the leaves to set them to bright green, but blanching also leaches out the basil flavor. Finally, we may have found a solution: in David Lebovitz's latest newsletter, he shared a recipe (via Mindy Fox and the Kitchn) by Laboa using a blender instead of a mortar and pestle. He first stashes the blender jar in the freezer, claiming that the cold blade and jar help reduce the basil leaves' oxidization, keeping them green and reducing bitterness. Needless to say, we're willing to try anything at this point. Follow our stories on Instagram if you want to see how it turns out when we make it this week: @ediblesf. In the meantime, you can try it yourself by downloading the recipe here:
Genius (or are we the last to know about this #protip?)! Via @eatinghealthyfeed
Better To Burn Out Than Fade Away: The legendary Trouble Cafe in the Outer Sunset on Judah has closed. Trouble was the birthplace of the hipster toast craze, with owner Giulietta Carrelli slinging inch-thick slices of toast covered in cinnamon sugar and ice-cold whole coconuts, the perfect fuel for her post-Ocean Beach swims. Laura Seymour of DamnPizza/Coffee will take over the iconic space. SF Chronicle
Related: Our profile of Trouble Coffee’s Giuletta Carrelli with illustrations by Wendy MacNaughton. Edible SF
Related: Burnt - A Heated Hullabaloo Over $4 Toast. However you slice it, this saga starts with trash talk about $4 toast. Edible SF
Today’s Weather Forecast: Foggy with a chance of anchovies? Anchovies are reportedly raining from the sky across San Francisco. SF Gate
Too Many Salmon? Hatcheries in the United States, Canada, Russia, and Japan have released billions of pink salmon into the ocean for decades (leading to the production of roughly 82 million adults each year), and it’s now impacting the survival of other salmon species. Chinook salmon in Alaska have shrunk eight percent in size, compared with those caught in the ‘80s. Hakai Magazine
Related: As Salmon Precipitously Decline, So Do Orcas. The salmon that these whales coevolved with used to be over 100 pounds...Now, when the average size of a Chinook in Washington state is 12.5 lbs, whales have to forage a lot more to find the same amount of food." For the past 20 years, Orca populations have trended dangerously downward. The Relevator
The Best Things Come In Fours. Tamar Haspel pulls no punches with her list of food principles to live by, but she notes: “I am shocked, shocked that I have persuaded basically nobody that these four things are true. But the fight continues.” The Washington Post
Mothershuckers: “New York was the oyster capital of the world and we’re eating hot dogs?” The New York Times
🍓 The Easiest Strawberry Ice Cream: Ruth Reichl doesn’t subscribe to this newsletter, but all the same, she shared this recipe (a serendipitous variation on the one we posted last week) in her latest newsletter. La Briffe
Buy Nothing Project: Outer Richmond resident Cilla Lee San created a food pantry from scratch using Facebook groups, to feed neighbors in need. Her hyperlocal food pantry has morphed into “a feel-good familial event, where members can meet their neighbors and build community.” Civil Eats
Queer Farmers Putting Community First: “A big piece of our work is around reclaiming practices that are often unsafe for us to access as queer folks and people of color,” says Niko Alexandre, cofounder of Shelterwood Collective, a Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQI-led healing retreat center in Northern California. Sierra Club
American Made: Garnet Geoffroy, also known as GStacks, is making custom smokers, trailers, and pits in Suisun City for barbeque enthusiasts and professionals. Still, his end game is to buy a youth facility where he can introduce young folks to skilled trades he learned to turn his life around. “Geoffroy, a person who had hiccups in American schools and spent time in American jails, has learned to make something out of nothing, the American way. And now he uses his creations to assist people in making food that has the power to heal.” KQED
A Flowery Nose: Aaliyah Nitoto, founder of Free Range Flower Winery, ferments roses, lavender and marigolds into wine. “As the business grows, Nitoto finds herself having to explain to customers that making flower wine isn’t some newfangled innovation, as many assume.” SF Chronicle
Listen: EAT.DRINK.THINK. July 2022, the Tidal playlist we listen to while cooking dinner every night. Busting out with the classic Summertime, from Billy Stewart and new tracks from J. Rocc, FKA Twigs, Cowgirl Clue, Nicki Bluhm, Cléa Vincent, Lo Moon, and more.
That’s all for this week.
We’re outta here. Be well and take care,
–Bruce
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"Despite its artistic intentions and its many accomplishments, humankind owes its existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains." —Anonymous