It’s Pumpkin Season! Ok, honestly, I could take or leave a lot of the crazy pumpkin flavored products that flood the market this time of year…but I have always loved Fall. I love the cooler days and the gorgeous foliage here in New England; I especially love feeling inspired to spend Sundays in the kitchen with the range running and delicious smells filling the house. And one thing that says “It’s Fall!” to me is pumpkin ricotta gnocchi (with a healthy dose of sage brown butter, of course!).
Everybody has a favorite chocolate chip cookie. Crispy or chewy? Thick or thin? Nuts or no nuts? “Salted Brown Butter and Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies”–it’s quite a mouthful! But each of those elements, mixed together, makes the most magical combination of crispy and chewy cookies. They have a nutty flavor without any actual pieces of nuts to interfere with the perfect texture. (Sorry, nut lovers! But do feel free to add nuts, if you prefer).
This is not a “I am in the mood for cookies right now” kind of recipe. It does require a bit of planning, but the end result is more than worth the effort. The cookies are best if the dough is refrigerated overnight (or up to a week) and they are also best eaten the day they are baked. But strategy is everything here! With chilled dough in the refrigerator, you can have hot, fresh from the oven cookies every day. Let that sink in for a minute……!
BB: Before Barcelona…..vermouth was a liquor cabinet staple, an essential ingredient for a Manhattan or the occasional Negroni, but I would never have thought to drink it on its own. That changed on our first trip to Barcelona, where we discovered vermouth culture, where locals and tourists “fer el vermut” or ” do the vermouth” as the perfect excuse for day drinking Sunday morning after church or as an aperitif. It is low in alcoholic content, big on taste, and quite inexpensive. Naturally that means that we had to learn how to make homemade vermouth!
Vermouth was probably first created in Turin, Italy in the late 18th century, where various botanicals were added to wine for their medicinal effects. The name comes from the German word for wormwood, which is the ingredient that creates its typical bitter taste. Today this aperitif is made by large producers as well as small, artisanal ones, but each has a proprietary blend of herbs, bark, roots and spices.
