{"id":346,"date":"2011-08-07T18:28:04","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T22:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=346"},"modified":"2011-08-07T22:41:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T02:41:16","slug":"a-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=346","title":{"rendered":"A Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a while, a long while, since I last posted.\u00c2\u00a0 A difficult break-up, followed by finals, followed by studying for the bar kept me out of the kitchen and off the blog.\u00c2\u00a0 The last few months have been arduous.<\/p>\n

I sat for the last day of the bar exam on July 27 and on the 28th<\/sup> began my return to the real world. \u00c2\u00a0But, when I tried to get back on ECL on the 29th<\/sup> I found an unfortunate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fatal Error\u00e2\u20ac\u009d message.\u00c2\u00a0 After only a few hours of work behind the scenes I was able to break the blog even more\u00e2\u20ac\u201dno contact with the server.\u00c2\u00a0 But today, I final got everything back up and running. \u00c2\u00a0I had no idea when I started this thing that I would learn so much about computers.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday, for the first Saturday in recent memory, I woke-up and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t open a bar study book.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead I grabbed an ice coffee and made the mile and a half walk to the farmers market for the first time this summer.\u00c2\u00a0 I went from stand to stand looking at all the green, red, yellow, and orange delights.\u00c2\u00a0 But I had a mission: caprese and pesto.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I found a huge plant of basil for only $3.\u00c2\u00a0 I say plant because it really was still a plant with roots and all.\u00c2\u00a0 It kills me to think about how\u00c2\u00a0much I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve paid in winter for a handful of sorry looking basil from the supermarket.\u00c2\u00a0 For the tomatoes in the caprese I got some bright red cherry tomatoes. \u00c2\u00a0Other random finds included some garlic scapes (long shoots that grow out of the head of the garlic) and a head of broccoli.\u00c2\u00a0 [My apologies for the details on the mundane.\u00c2\u00a0 What can I say?\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited.]<\/p>\n

On the way home I picked-up pine nuts from Russo’s Mozzarella and Pasta<\/a> up the street from me.\u00c2\u00a0 On the walk home from Russo’s I realized I had forgotten the cheese!\u00c2\u00a0 So I stopped in a Union Market<\/a> and picked-up some Parmigiano Reggiano and some amazing mozzarella.<\/p>\n

Now when I say this was amazing mozzarella I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not doing it justice.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize when I bought it, but I had gotten Burrata<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Burrata is basically cream filled mozzarella.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rich, silky, and decadent\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlike no other cheese I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had in my life.\u00c2\u00a0 Outside is a layer of the familiar fresh mozzarella, inside is a semi-solid pudding like structure.\u00c2\u00a0 I started cutting the fist size balls to make caprese but quickly turned to tearing with my hands.\u00c2\u00a0 I then cut the cherry tomatoes in half and cut about a half dozen basil leaves into strips.\u00c2\u00a0 After mixing it all together with some good olive oil and some coarse\u00c2\u00a0sea salt I enjoyed an incredible afternoon snack.<\/p>\n

But I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget the pesto.\u00c2\u00a0 I used the following recipe as a template (it’s almost identical to the one in Loren’s pesto post<\/a>), but improved it with two more cloves of garlic and about another cup of basil. \u00c2\u00a0Also, make sure you buy actual\u00c2\u00a0Parmesan Reggiano and some decent olive oil–the extra few bucks are worth it and can be spread over several batches.<\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n