Midnight Smack BY FU

and sounded fancier than it was

also perfect for company

Really the goal was simple. Cook and write a blog post using something from a book in the Lending Library. Though honestly it’s becoming less “lending” and more “Please Take We WANT to Share” which I’m perfectly happy about, but it takes convincing.

I also need to send a hug out to my friend Sandy who has gifted the library with many pristine and still highly sought after cookbooks that you absolutely should look through. She clearly knew good food writing and good recipes long before the rest of us were chasing sun-dried tomatoes around Minnesota.

What I was looking for was those cookbooks that always opened naturally to the page. Maybe there was a turned corner or a little splotch of something on the paper because all of that told you the recipe was THE recipe. Well loved. Well used. Probably made for company more than once. There aren’t really any stained books in the FU collection currently, but there are definitely some oddballs. Like The Mayberry Cookbook. Not one but TWO Celebrate Minnesota cookbooks featuring delectable treats like Cheesy Ham Broccoli Bake should you happen to have a can of cheddar cheese soup and two tablespoons of FLAV-O-RITE on hand. Followed immediately by Pink Velvet Pie, apparently in case you still had more FLAV-O-RITE to use up. 

Since I didn’t have any cheese soup or FLAV-O-RITE on hand, I decided to move on to another book. It was then I realized that the late 80’s-early 90’s had a special familiarity and uniqueness to them. There were no glossy photos. Instead there were hand-drawn sketches of the food. Mushrooms with little shading. Chicken breasts fanned out over rice. Swirls of raspberry coulis. Raspberry what? NOW we were talking fancy. The drawings were so carefully illustrated like fine art.

That reminded me that chefs would do that too (and still do on Top Chef) while creating new menu items. I remember that happening at Broadstreet Cafe when we purchased the business in the early 90’s. New dishes would literally be sketched out for development. I didn’t quite understand why. I suppose the chefs wanted specific plating. Though honestly everything was served with little new potatoes and a crazy little mixture of rice and golden raisins that I still crave. So the protein either sat next to or on top of rice or potatoes and the veg nestled in. Basically two plating options.

Now all that feels funny in a world where every meal gets photographed from twelve angles and quickly added to Instagram long before anyone takes a bite. But in the cookbooks I think the drawings gave us home cooks some comfort. These extra fancy recipes were attainable not intimidating. And weren’t your guests going to be impressed when dessert arrived with a coulis? The hardest part was straining the raspberry seeds out.

This all got me to thinking and remembering how much I loved cooking from books like these. Though in Rochester, Minnesota circa 1989 not everything was easily available. Israeli couscous, sun-dried tomatoes, frozen artichoke hearts… these were exotic ingredients at the time. Back then, if you added sun-dried tomatoes, people assumed you had traveled.

I actually did travel to The Cities to find sun-dried tomatoes and when I got them they were leathery and floating in questionable oil, but we were trying sophistication on for size. And I loved every minute of it. Balsamic vinegar? If I dug hard enough I might find a brand called Roland and they had a vinegar of some sorts.

Two side notes. Frozen artichoke bottoms are at Trader Joe’s and are fabulous. And Pomodoraccio tomatoes (semi sun-dried) are so superior to the grocery store equivalent even now and yes I have them. Be prepared for a bit of sticker shock but the jars are big, last awhile and really are truly a prized possession. Imported because we do that now.

So back to the cookbooks that started this right?!

I also noticed those cookbooks held recipes I made on the regular. Most were technically “for entertaining” but my kids ate well too. Finally, thanks to Barlows, we did start getting some prized ingredients and canned artichoke hearts were suddenly at my fingertips. My kids ate a chicken breast and artichoke bake on the regular and hot artichoke dip appeared at every single Christmas party. Yes, we had Christmas parties back then.

These non-glossy books with overly formal recipe names weren’t trying to go viral, they were trying to teach people to cook something other than Hamburger Helper. And best of all? No glamorized photo to compare your end result to. Nothing says fail like a tart that’s less than golden. The recipes seem simple now, but honestly they still hold up. I still have a poppy seed cake recipe I look for and yes, I know poppy seed cake has since turned into muffins and chocolate bars, but in the 90’s it was served with fresh strawberries macerated in orange liquor and Chantilly cream.

And those cookbooks made us feel very cosmopolitan. Highly sought after in the 90’s.

So I grabbed one of these late 80’s-90’s books and leafed through it wondering what I could make this weekend. Betty Rosbottom’s Cooking School Cookbook was just the right pick. I settled on Summer Pesto Tart.

I will come clean immediately. The recipe walks you through making a pesto. But I carry Rustichella Imported Pesto at Food Union and happened to have an open jar at home. I was absolutely not making my own.

However, if I were making my own, I am lucky enough to also have pine nuts that are not from China which is of huge importance to both me and Paul McDonald. My friend Paul used to bake bread at Broadstreet and we talked food constantly. Actually he introduced me to imported cheeses long before that was even a twinkle in my eye. Anyway he once told me about contracting pine mouth and I lived in fear of the idea. Sure enough after tossing back a few Chinese pine nuts one day I got it. Need more info? I wrote a blog post about it here.

So I started the tart process and that meant the dough. The recipe called for solid vegetable shortening and I don’t really do that anymore. So I added extra butter and a little beef tallow instead. The instructions for making the dough were quite lengthy and involved smearing it across the work surface and… well, no, why? Luckily I kept reading and found the food processor option and had the dough together in minutes. Refrigerated overnight. Done.

Since it was so buttery I had a hard time rolling it out so I eventually gave up and just pressed it into the tart pan which worked out just fine.

Time for the ricotta filling. My eggs are from my brother-in-law’s new hobby farm. Not only are they as fresh as can be, they are stamped with the fantastic name Two Frenchie Farms and the date. Love love this so much.

One thing I did not account for was the bright orange yolks creating a very bright orange ricotta filling. Slightly alarming at first, but no harm no fowl. (See what I did there.)

I drizzled on the pesto and finished off the tart. It baked up beautifully though as mentioned it was aggressively golden thanks to those eggs.

I couldn’t sit idly by though and have that be the end. I had to add a little freshness. Chopped cherry tomatoes, minced garlic, fresh basil, and a proper Italian EVOO took it slightly out of the 90’s… but that’s how I roll.

So those lovely recipes sitting in the library like a pound puppy waiting to get chosen still have a place in my heart. Throw them a bone. Update them or don’t. Underneath the hand-drawn mushrooms and “Perfect for Company” recipe titles… they still hold up.