Last night, the heel of the peasant boule proved too stale for spreading with homemade butter, so I crisped a few slices of bacon, then a few slices of bread in a pan, setting them aside to cool with a beautiful heirloom tomato, a shallot, and a baby leek. Panzanella, the cheerful name for an [...]

Yesterday, I traded stories with my friend Dianna when we met for lunch at Go-Go’s. With buttery empanadas (try the steak chimichurri and the shrimp scampi) and salads full of good things, I can see why they know Dianna’s name here (I think they will soon learn mine). Here, she gestures how she cannot be [...]

This recipe is largely in service of my favorite new technique for peeling tomatoes: with a blowtorch. The tip comes from a book I bought at Maker Faire called Chef’s Secrets, and Chef J. Bryce Whittlesey (who once worked at Keswick Hall near Charlottesville) instructs the reader that the blowtorch option prevents the tomato from [...]

Friends came over last night, and drinks at the magic cottage turned into small plates of dinner. I stirred this tomato pesto into sautéed corn and annelini pasta, little ring shapes sometimes found in soups or salads. Smaller pastas are often reserved for children, but why should they have all the fun? Like green pesto [...]