Home Again, Home Again

Today I'm cooking a simple, homey meal.

Hello from my blessedly cold, dark and solitary basement where the brown recluses and I are doing what we do best: hiding from people. Vacation is such a forcefully social thing, isn’t it? We had a great one, but I’m almost relieved it’s over.

Highlights included:

Dinner on the patio at Desfina in Cambridge— if a Greek restaurant identifies as a taverna, is named after the owner’s village in Greece, and has a drink list almost exclusively made up of afforable Greek wine, that’s the trifecta; the food is guaranteed to be fantastic. We ordered saganaki (set on fire tableside, of course), lemony horta, and a painstakingly tender lamb shank braised in tomato sauce with potatoes. For dessert, heavenly portokolopita drowning in orange syrup.

Then there was an evening in one of my favorite places in the whole world, where Allston and Brookline kiss on the edge of Boston. Within a half mile-ish radius, you can smoke hooka and buy Korean skincare and eat hamantaschen, sushi, burritos, regional Chinese food, Thai food, etc. (when I lived there you could also get absolutely exquisite Eastern European cakes in the back of a convenience store). We went to an unassuming spot called Little Tao to enjoy a huge bowl of silky mapo tofu with strong málà and cold, creamy eggplant in mashed green chili sauce.

Finally, over in New York state we were delighted by Zinnia’s Dinette. I picked a tin of fish from their incredible selection— tuna belly in Galician butter— and let them surprise us with pairings. It came out alongside toasted sesame bread, fig jam, pickled onions, pickled peppers, and baby lettuces in a yellow mustard vinaigrette. The french fries? The best I’ve had in years. The vanilla soft serve sundae layered with tahini and halva and sesame seeds and salt? Perfection.

As great as all that was, I’m looking forward to a simple and comforting dinner tonight. We came home yesterday afternoon to what I’d classify as an attack of tomatoes, half of them rotten and the other half demanding to be used immediately.

So this morning I got to work proccessing them into sauce. I started with olive oil and finely chopped yard garlic in a cold pot which I heated slowly, just until the garlic was fragrant. Then I dropped in a big spoonful of red miso and a glugg of sherry followed by the tomatoes, salt and a bit of water. I let that simmer for about half an hour before I pureed everything in my very old, very loud blender. Since it wasn’t perfectly smooth, I pushed it through a fine mesh sieve back into the pot where it simmered and thickened for another 20 minutes. Later I’ll mix it with cooked farfalline, white beans from the freezer and a pat of cold butter to emulsify. Off the heat I’ll stir in grated Pecorino and a handful of basil. On the side, mint iced tea.