Roasted purple tomatillo gazpacho

I've always found the start of a new academic year to be an exciting time. Since I go out of my mind too easily when left to my own devices, I've always appreciated the school year better than the summer. The freedom and unstructured days and particularly the weeks and months on end without interaction with other souls is a bit too much for me to deal with. So, I prefer the busy-ness that the school year brings. I don't know, maybe some people just focus better amidst chaos rather than in quiet solitude?

The opening of a new school year brings with it lots of fun events that I love, too. The ritual of first-of-the-year all-department/hands-on-deck meetings, the handing out of syllabuses at first classes: like, what are we going to learn this year? What new knowledge are we going to discover? The meeting of new people, the catching up with old people. This year, I'm particularly excited about things like attending my first faculty meeting as ... well... faculty! I'm sure I'll grumble about meetings in a few months' time, but right now, it's new and shiny and an exciting hallmark of "leveling up."

One tradition coming back now that school is in session is our lab ladies teas! (Previous teas here and here.) A few of us are no longer in the same lab (or university, for that matter), but luckily, we've all managed to stick around within 50 miles or so of each other, so continuing the wonderful tradition of our teas is possible. It's so wonderful to get together with fellow female scientists outside the lab, catching up about our new positions, our research, our summer travels, our new school year plans. There's something so beautiful and joyous to me about hanging out with these incredibly brilliant people over a shared love of linguistics, tea, and delicious food. I can't help but to be inspired.

Our teas are potlucks, but we've gotten so comfortable that no one really ever announces what they're going to bring ahead of time. Yet, we always manage to end up with a delicious spread from savory to sweet, which I really appreciate. This time around, we had berry-lemon-pecan coffeecake, jam-mascarpone almond tarts, challah cheese rolls, drop biscuits with cabernet-macerated plums, black currant tea, chai tea, oolong tea. My contribution was a bit off the wall for a tea: roasted purple tomatillo gazpacho, with cotija cheese. I wanted to bring something to share that was really inspired by my new location, and Mexican food ingredients are a big thing around these parts. Until moving here, I'd never even see purple tomatillos before, and the cotija cheese is so much better here than what I'd had back in Berkeley. The gazpacho was so refreshing and satisfyingly savory (the roasting lending the flavor a nice bit of depth), with squeaky bites of crumbled cheese on top. The tomatillo taste is sort of reminiscent of a salsa, but nicely tempered by the coolness of the cucumber. ... perfect for these still-hot days at the beginning of the fall semester.

Read on for recipe....

Spinach, Tomato, and Tortellini Soup -- and Rome.

When I'm traveling, not many desserts get made, since desserts usually require ingredients and tools beyond the scope of the rental flats that I've been living out of for the past few weeks. --Plus, given how much gelato I've been eating, I really don't feel the need to add more sugar and cream to my diet! On the other hand, though, I do get the opportunity to do a fair amount of normal cooking. Since the pace of life is so much more leisurely, I actually find myself not rushing to scrape a meal together (or worse yet, heating up something from the Trader Joe's freezer section while feeling sheepishly guilty that I'm taking the time to eat and not work, as I normally do while at home), and I have the time to spend in the kitchen, stirring together an easy but delicious and piping hot pot of soup from fresh market ingredients, like this spinach, tomato, and tortellini soup I made while in Rome.

[click on photo for a larger image]

The soup was perfectly tomato-y and brothy for the sunny but cold, wool-scarf-needed, wintery days when I was there, and I slurped it happily while sitting by a third-story window overlooking the winding, narrow Trastevere alleyways below and reading a good book (this and this were amongst my favorites that I read on this trip). Ah, the slow life.

Thank you so, so much to those of you who wrote in with wonderful suggestions for my Italy trip! I just got back a few nights ago, so I'm still in the post-trip whirlwind of sorting through photos and catching up with all of the life and work that I've missed for the past few months of traveling. Much more to come in the next few weeks on the blog, as well as getting back to regular dessert posts!


Read on for recipe....

What to do with pea pods = Pea-pod and Pecan Pesto (An Addendum)

I know, I know--this is supposed to be a dessert blog, and here's yet another savory dish!  But I promise, we'll return to sweet-tooth-satisfying desserts come next week.  For now, though, I really wanted to share with you my ingenious (if I may say so myself ;-P) solution to not wasting all of those pea pods from which peas are shelled, just in case your heart aches as mine does when you have to throw them all into the compost bin.  Here it is: pea pod and toasted pecan pesto!

I really love experimenting with non-traditional pestos, and when I saw a heap of green sitting in front of me after shelling my peas for this week's pancakes, pesto was the first thing that popped into my mind for using them up.  Then, thinking through the idea, the creaminess of pine nuts from a traditional pesto just didn't seem like quite the right accompaniment for the fresh, springtime taste of the pea pods, so instead, I opted for something nutty and slightly sweet: toasted pecans.  I also threw in a handful of home-grown mint leaves to enhance the brightness of the taste of the pea pods and because peas and mint are a tried and true awesome combination.  The rest of the pesto is actually quite straight forward: a punchy parmigiano, a healthy pour of fruity olive oil, one garlic clove for a bit of kick, and salt and pepper to taste.

The resulting pesto was surprisingly light and fresh with just enough depth from the garlic, cheese, and toasted pine nuts to balance out the crispness of the pea pod taste.  And, it was quite unexpected to boot, which I find to be a refreshing change from traditional basil-pine nut pestos.  I served mine with gnocchi, and then the next day had it slathered on pieces of French baguette.  For some reason, though, I can't get past the fact that this pesto would go really well with lamb, but I don't really cook meat, so someone please try this pairing and let me know how it goes!  Be forewarned, though, that you should really, really like peas before you try this pesto, because you really get a concentrated flavor of peas from the pea pods.  Note, also, that this recipe only works with sugar snap peas; unfortunately, English pea pods are still meant for the bin.

What are some of your favorite non-traditional pesto experiments that have turned out really well?

Back to desserts next post!  Have an excellent weekend!  (Though I have a trip to the SF Farmer's Market planned, the rest of my weekend is unfortunately devoted to paper-writing--ah, the woes of being an academic--so please have my share of fun for me!)

Read on for recipe...

PotW: Garlic-Chive Goat Cheese + Whole Wheat Rosemary Pancakes + Fresh Peas

[last Pancake of the Week: Sweet Corn Cherry Pancakes with Sour Cream]

This savory pancake recipe comes from the pancake tasting menu that I made in Los Angeles a few months ago, and it has its original inspiration in Los Angeles, too--all starting from this garlic-chive goat cheese spread.

^My best friend, in Malibu, post garlic-chive goat cheese picnic

Every once in a while, I head down to LA to visit my best friend who's there studying Important Medical Stuff.  Every time I'm there, without fail, she asks me to make this goat cheese spread, which we "invented" during my first Thanksgiving visit back in 2008. (OMG, 2008 sounds like so long ago!)  And I totally know why she does--because it's GOOD.  Like, on everything.  We slather this garlic, chive-y, creamy goodness on basically everything that we can get our hands on, from crackers to leftover Persian lamb wraps.  It even tastes better by the beach. (Because, really, what doesn't? ;-P)

So when it came time to come up with a savory pancake to accompany all of the sweet ones on the pancake tasting menu during this past visit, I reached for the foremost thing sitting in her fridge that I could think of: our tub of garlic-chive goat cheese spread.  The rest of the pancake idea fell right into place with all of our loot from the awesome Wednesday morning Santa Monica Farmers' Market: rosemary and sugar snap peas.  (Thankfully, also, we've been having a really long pea season this year on the West Coast.  I'm still seeing loads of fresh peas at the farmers' markets in my area!)

While this isn't the first time I've put rosemary in pancakes, it is the first time I've paired them in a savory pancake dish, and I love the way they, along with the robustness of the whole wheat, worked out, providing a wonderfully herb-y undertone to the whole dish.  The garlic-chive goat cheese spread packs most of the punch and flavor here.  Finally, fresh, crispy sugar snap peas lightly steamed and tossed in a bit of olive oil and salt add the perfect textural crunch and snapiness to lighten up the creamy goat cheese and dense whole wheat pancakes underneath.

Note that the recipe provided for the garlic-chive goat cheese spread below might yield more goat cheese than you'll need for the pancakes.  But, don't fret!  Grab some crackers or a baguette or a Persian wrap (I know, some will call me sacrilegious!) and your leftover goat cheese will disappear before you know it.

Read on for recipe...