Cooking
This fast, straightforward recipe has all the summery flavors of pine nuts, Parmesan and basil in a bowl of soft, warm, comforting beans.
Good morning! This is Tejal, filling in for Sam.
I was with friends at a very fancy Italian restaurant in Los Angeles the other day, and we ordered a twirl of glossy, pesto-slicked pasta. It was bright green and gorgeous, but the pasta itself was dry and almost crumbly at its core. No one enjoyed it. Why do some kitchens insist on serving aggressively, belligerently al dente pasta?
Don’t get me wrong — I don’t want squishy, overcooked noodles. I just want a bit of tenderness. Enough complaining! Here’s a solution: Christian Reynoso’s new recipe for pesto beans. This fast, straightforward recipe has all the summery flavors of pine nuts, Parmesan and basil in a bowl of soft, warm, comforting beans. Use canned beans or fresh — it’s great with chickpeas, too! — and swap out the pine nuts for almonds, if you like. If you’ve recently been let down by a restaurant, you can always cook a dish the way you really want it and set things right at home.
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Pesto Beans
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When it’s too hot to grill, I turn to the broiler. Vallery Lomas has a fun recipe for a shrimp broil with baby corn that’s ready in 25 minutes. And Yasmin Fahr’s sheet-pan garlicky chicken would be delicious with a pint of Sungolds. Coating fish with a mix of mustard and olive oil to make Melissa Clark’s broiled salmon is really easy and rewards you with a delicious brown crust.
It’s my brother’s birthday next week and I’ve been combing through new cake recipes I might try, but he will probably be happiest with a candle stuck in a vast, cocoa-dusted tiramisu, a punch bowl of île flottante drizzled with dark caramel or fruit syrup, or a torched dome of baked alaska.
I have made so many variations of these three desserts for my family over the years, and I will never, ever get tired of them! There’s always something new to try within the boundaries of the form. Something to change, revise, improve — or customize for the people you love.
Tejal Rao is a critic at large for the Food section and contributes regularly to The New York Times Magazine. More about Tejal Rao