Food & Nutrition

All About Pancetta and How to Cook with It We don't cook with or serve pancetta often, but it is a treat when we do. There are some recipes like carbonara sauce that require it, and then I will look for it at our local market. Pancetta is an Italian bacon made from pork belly that has been salt-cured and seasoned with various herbs and spices. It is a popular ingredient in Italian cuisine, known for its rich, savory flavor and versatility in cooking. How Is It Made? Traditionally, pancetta is made by rubbing a pork belly with salt, black pepper, and other spices such as juniper berries, nutmeg, or garlic. The meat is then rolled up and tied with string before being hung to dry for several weeks. The curing process gives pancetta its distinctive flavor, which is less smoky ...

Compound butters are undeniably delicious, and they’re all over the food internet. But I stick to infusing spices and aromatics into homemade ghee instead. The result? A complex fat that’s perfect for making quick pan sauces, frying pancakes, searing steaks, and preparing pretty much any dish that typically calls for butter—only shelf-stable and with a higher smoke point.  Ghee, or clarified butter, is what you get after straining the milk solids out of freshly browned butter. For centuries, South Asian cuisine has harnessed the full effect of ghee and its tantalizing nutty notes on top of dals, in pots of rice, and in countless desserts. But its 465°F smoke point (55 degrees higher than olive oil) and its buttery flavor have popularized ghee ar...

I live in Seattle, where spring almost never comes early, whether the world’s only famous groundhog predicts it or not. As winter stretches on, the cozy stews and roasts I once found comforting suddenly seem too rich and heavy. It’s not only spring I desire but the bounty that comes with it—tender asparagus, ruby-hued strawberries, and sweet peas. But as root vegetable season drags on, I find myself turning to frozen peas instead.  Frozen vegetables get a bad reputation. They can be mushy once no longer frozen, as any firmness associated with fresh produce is lost in the freezing process. But frozen vegetables can at times rival their fresh counterparts—at least in terms of flavor. Most vegetables in the freezer section were picked at their prim...

Fish sauce is nothing new. The salty, sweet, and seafood-y condiment, typically made by fermenting small salted fish like anchovies, has been flavoring dishes in Asia for thousands of years. But for the last couple decades, articles in Western food media have frequently cast fish sauce as a “secret ingredient,” used by “chefs” to imbue just about anything with umami on the sly—Caesar dressing, Bolognese, or beans on toast. A furtive dash of a potent, exotic elixir. It’s true that a splash of fish sauce makes for a good marinara. But the implication was that you had to hide fish sauce, sneaking it into the food of unsuspecting diners, lest they balk (“You put what in the tomato sauce?”). Everyone loves a good secret, but fish sauce—which is known...

I’ve often found that my appreciation for a store-bought jar of pasta sauce can be considered slightly controversial. “Just make your own,” my friends who are most likely to go full Dan Barber when setting up a dinner party will scold me, condemning me for spending my time making something they’ll say is better because it’s “fresh”—as if I don’t do that already. And yes, when I’ve got a little more time, I’ll crack open a can of Central California and Napoli peeled tomatoes—instantly defeating the idea of freshness, by the way, as if I’ve got vines of ripened tomatoes at my disposal all year in New York. I’ll crush them with my hands, add in the oil and garlic and some (never too many) onions, then wait to toss some basil in there. But I’m only hu...

On a street corner in the South London neighborhood of Peckham stands Persepolis, a Middle Eastern foods shop painted canary yellow. Peer through the big front windows, and you’ll find a pastry case filled with Turkish delight and crisp paklava, shelves stocked with dried barberries and jarred mango pickle, and a few tables and chairs occupied by happy diners. Back in the kitchen is Sally Butcher, recognizable by her signature halo of red curls, who runs the shop with her husband, Jamshid.  “I had the advantage of spending a lot of time with my [Persian] mother-in-law, who is an excellent cook,” Sally told me. “I learned Farsi and cooking simultaneously—food is an excellent way to communicate.”  Sally and Jamshid have been together for almost ...

All About Olives I love olives and the products prepared from them. I can't imagine not having olive oil to cook and drizzle on foods. And how can you have a charcuterie board with no olives? And what about pizza?  What Are Olives? Olives are small, oval-shaped fruits that grow on olive trees and are native to the Mediterranean region. The tree is an important species for human civilization, as it has been cultivated for thousands of years for its fruit, oil, and wood. Olives come in different varieties, each with its distinct flavor and texture. Some of the most popular types of olives include Kalamata, Picholine, Manzanilla, and Niçoise. Green olives are usually picked before they are fully ripe, while black olives are picked when they are fully ripe. Olives are often ...

Tuna melts are said to have been discovered accidentally in the 1960s when, at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s department store in Charleston, South Carolina, a bowl of tuna salad fell onto a grilled cheese sandwich. It may sound like the meet-cute from any number of romantic comedies—and equally rife with sexual tension—but it turned out well for the tuna melt, which has become one of America’s essential sandwiches.   The tuna melt remains an icon, but one that is ever evolving as plant-forward diets become increasingly popular. Chickpeas are a familiar alternative, usually mashed and flavored similarly to a classic tuna salad, but other, more veggie-forward options exist as well. Take, for example, Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen’s broccoli m...

Pick up a bottle of herbes de Provence off just about any American grocery store or fine food store shelf and you’ll find a familiar lineup of bucolic French herbs: thyme, rosemary, basil, tarragon, and lavender flowers. But in France, where the heady blend is widely used on roast chicken and grilled lamb chops, not a single petal of the potent purple flower makes it into the jar.    “Everyone in the United States thinks herbes de Provence [traditionally] has lavender, but it was added to the American blend because Americans associate lavender with Provence,” says Ethan Frisch, cofounder of the spice company Burlap & Barrel. “Whoever came up with that was trying to cover up subpar herbs by adding this ‘French ingredient’ to it.”  This is j...

All About Imitation Crab Have you ever had a California Roll and wondered what the imitation crab like substance really is? You know it's not real crab but it looks and tastes a lot like crab but it isn't. I've been wondering about this for a while so I wrote this post to explain what it is, how it is made and how to use it in cooking. What Is Imitation Crab? I have wondered about this for a long time. Imitation crab is a seafood product made from surimi, a type of fish paste that is shaped and flavored to resemble crab meat. It is often used in dishes like crab cakes, sushi rolls, and salads. Imitation crab is typically lower in cost and milder in flavor compared to real crab meat. Where Does It Come From? Imitation crab is made from surimi, a type of fish paste made ...