No. 249: Joan Nathan's Pesto Pasta with Fried Almonds + A Look at Her New Book
Plus: Two Food Films, Asparagus Tart, Casablanca Chicken, Berry Pavlova, and our Passover Recipe Collection.
📚 A Memoir, in Recipes
If you are invited to a Passover Seder next week, bring a copy of Joan Nathan’s new book, My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Recipes (Alfred A. Knopf, April 2024) to your hosts. They will thank you! Joan is the author of 12 books (King Solomon’s Table, Jewish Cooking in America), has long written for The Washington Post and The New York Times, and as many of you know, has spent summers on the Vineyard with her family for decades. But while the two-time James Beard award winner is our go-to expert on global Jewish cuisine, it’s the stories of her fascinating life that resonate so strongly in her new memoir + cookbook.
For each experience — childhood in Providence, Rhode Island, and Larchmont, New York (Sweet and Sour Salmon with Lemon, Ginger, and Brown Sugar), a year studying in Paris (Tarte des Demoiselles Tatin), three years working in Jerusalem for the mayor (Baba Ghanouj), traveling to the Soviet Union (Crispy Potato Onion Bread), marriage and work life in Washington, D.C. (Baked Fish with Red Peppers and Saffron), summers on Martha’s Vineyard (Piled-High Blueberry Muffins), and, most moving – the experience of motherhood (Maria’s Rice with Herbs and Zucchini), there are corresponding recipes in addition to fascinating anecdotes and photographs.
We’re fortunate to have a recipe excerpt from the book.