Good morning, Fare companions. This week you hear from two readers, one who goes back to the recipes of old, another who finds her 2025 specialties in a recent New York Times supplement. As to the former, it does seem there is a recipe or two in any household that survives the changes of culinary life; it becomes the family’s emblematic recipe. Take Queenie McCallie’s family of many descendants, for example. It just may be her Dijon chicken, printed more than once in this column. Or in the extended clan of Sadie Hodge, there was a chosen recipe from each branch, it seemed, when her caramel sticks began the Fare Exchange conversation among them.
Perhaps you would choose a food you all always carry to others. A Chattanoogan named Julia shared her family’s recipe they privately called “Funeral Cake.” When there is a loss anywhere, it’s comforting not just to see Julia or one of her kin coming up the walk, but even more comforting to know she’s bringing her family’s favorite comfort food.
What is the emblematic recipe among your people? The rest of us would like to know. And as we consider what foods define a household, shall we define household? It refers to one place and the one or ones who occupy it. A household can contain just one occupant, or people not bound by kinship. It’s you whom your house holds … and that holding sounds comforting, too.
This last sentence reminds us to remind you that we are hungry for recipes and ideas prepared for one — or your week’s worth of ease and variety.
Here’s another installment on the gracious plenty of recipes shared by a former Nashvillian, who filled her growing family’s summer meals from a New York Times cooking supplement. This one calls for mint, broccoli, Parmesan and walnuts combined with pasta shells or other pasta of your choice. Our reader substituted sunflower seeds for walnuts.
BROCCOLI-WALNUT PESTO PASTA
Short pasta gets dressed in an unexpected and highly enjoyable mint-broccoli pesto that is equally at home at dinner or lunchtime. For crunch, top with walnuts, but if you’re not a fan, leave them out or use sunflower seeds, which still impart a gentle nuttiness.
Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
4 cups broccoli florets (10 ounces from 2 crowns)
1 pound cut pasta such as medium shells
1 large garlic clove, smashed
2 packed cups fresh mint leaves (about 2 ounces from 1 small bunch)
Black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
1 lemon, zested and juiced
Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped, or sunflower seeds
Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add ¼ cup salt then add the broccoli. Cook, stirring occasionally, until bright green and just tender, about 5 minutes. Use a spider or slotted spoon to transfer to a food processor; keep the water boiling.
Drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook according to the package’s directions for al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water.
Meanwhile, add the garlic to the broccoli and pulse, scraping the bowl occasionally, until smooth. Add the mint, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Pulse until smooth, then add the oil with the machine running.
Drain the pasta well and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in the pesto. Add 1 tablespoons lemon juice and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper and toss until the pasta is evenly coated. If the mixture seems thick, fold in the reserved pasta water, 1 tablespoon at a time. The mixture will thicken as it cools, so you want it to be saucy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Divide among serving dishes and top with lemon zest, then grate cheese over. Sprinkle with the walnuts or sunflower seeds, grind more black pepper on top, then drizzle with olive oil. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Tip: The pasta with the pesto will keep in the refrigerator for up to three days. Garnish with the lemon zest, cheese, walnuts or sunflower seeds, pepper and oil right before serving.
Note that the pesto will oxidize after a day and darken into a khaki green. If packing for lunch, put the pasta in an airtight container and scatter the garnishes on top. If you want to keep the walnuts or sunflower seeds extra crunchy, you can keep them separate and sprinkle them on right before eating.
In a certain family, as in many families certainly, a storage unit divulged its final boxes of the remnants of a life and a family home. In the next-to-the-last box, our correspondent Champ discovered a small-town cookbook from, well, “a while back. I liked looking up the recipes attributed to favorite cooks I grew up with, in Temple, Texas. There were lots of Jell-O salads and also croquettes of various kinds.
“I went right past Candied Tongue, whatever that is, and then discovered my aunt’s recipe for Braised Brains. Kept moving to the gingerbread and was satisfied with the two recipes I am sharing. I can vouch for the cook who submitted them.”
GINGERBREAD
1 cup softened butter or shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark molasses
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups flour
4 eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
4 teaspoons cinnamon
Preheat oven to 325 F.
In a large bowl mix together butter, sugar and molasses. In a separate small bowl mix sour cream and soda. When mixed, add to the first bowl along with egg yolks and beat well.
Stir in flour, ginger, allspice and cinnamon until well mixed.
Fold in egg whites.
Put in two greased and floured (9-by-9-inch) pans. Bake in a 325 F oven for 45 minutes.
DILLED GREEN TOMATOES
Fresh dill
Washed green tomatoes — small ones, like Roma
Garlic cloves, as many as you want
4 1/2 cups vinegar
3/4 cup salt
2 1/2 cups water
Put dill in the bottom of pickling jars. Packed washed green tomatoes in the jar and top with dill. Add a clove of garlic or more.
In a pan on the stovetop make a brine by mixing vinegar, salt and water. Bring to a boil, pour over fruit and seal each jar. Let stand several weeks to season.
Variation: Small, firm plums may be dilled by the same method.
Here endeth your reading, except for a final toast, albeit only virtual. Behind every ingredient of this column for many years has been the watchful but also gracious editing hand of Lisa Denton. She has caught the missing bacon in the ingredient list, and asked a clarifying question so you wouldn’t be puzzled upon reading. As with all things culinary, a generous person makes all the difference. That describes editor Lisa Denton — always — and into her well-earned retirement.
REQUESTS
— “The” family recipe
— Meals for one
— Easy weeknight options
To reach us
Fare Exchange is a longtime meeting place for people who love to cook and love to eat. We welcome both your recipes and your requests. Be sure to include precise instructions for every recipe you send, and know we cannot test the recipes printed here.
— Mailing address: Jane Henegar, 913 Mount Olive Road, Lookout Mountain, GA 30750
— Email: chattfare@gmail.com
Dining and Cooking