Two recipes for LOVE: Pesto!

Cooking with Mary

Two recipes for love—one philosophical, one to cook.

Philosophical recipe:

Never forget the Laws of Thermodynamics. C.P. Snow provided this shorthand to remember the laws: 1. You cannot win. 2. You cannot break even. 3. You cannot get out of the game.

But if you stay in the game, you can dance even when it seems that the dancers have all gone under the hill.

Now go to the farmers market, buy corn and tomatoes and lots of basil —or grow the basil in your garden. In summer, it will bloom in a small patch of earth.

Slice the tomatoes, sprinkle with some grated parmesan and asiago cheese, preferably from The Cowgirl Creamery that when I lived in D.C was around the corner from me, sadly gone now but still available via the web and in many grocers. Add a chiffonade of basil, salt and pepper. Then make Angel Hair Pasta and Pesto. I refer to this as my McDonald’s meal ’cause to me this is fast food fast—and it says summer.

Angel Hair Pasta and Pesto

1 or 2 bunches basil (about two cups, leaves only)

1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (or more; I don’t measure; just look)

4 cloves of garlic

thyme (fresh is best): add to cold water

very cold water (just a bit so you use less oil)

the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford

Put the garlic cloves, the basil and the cheese in your food processor. Give it all a whirl while you pour in olive oil and a bit of cold water (with thyme) until you see the green of summer like grass in a field.

Boil ever so briefly angel hair pasta (the best homemade brand you can find or use DeCecco) . Put the pasta in a beautiful bowl, scrape all the pesto on top, pour a quarter cup or so of the pasta water on top. Toss and serve with corn and tomatoes.

Click on the bowl for another recipe that I’ll add soon and a memoir chapter—and a rom-com trailer to go with it. ⬇️

My favorite pasta bowl

Serve with a nice wine, a light red—my son used to make Woop Woop (He designed the wine and the label, and the wine won all kinds of awards; super affordable)—or a Sauvignon Blanc.

Don’t forget to tell jokes and kiss while cooking: You will taste both in the pesto. And remember Robert Hass, the poet, who says in “The Privilege of Being,” “Many are making love. Up above, the angels/ in the unshaken ether and crystal of human longing/ are braiding one another’s hair, which is strawberry blond … .”

Table of Contest for Cooking with Mary

Love.