Leftovers #13

The heatwave may have subsided but inside I am melting. Projects, to-do lists, mental notes, a spooling Google Calendar and errands to run not helped by a near week-long tube strike. I wrote this sentence almost an hour ago and remembered ten other things on my list that I’d either forgotten or had to do so I wouldn’t forget, and on top of that I’m thinking about breakfast (eggs, tomatoes on toast, frozen banana and spinach smoothie, wish I had some comté). Luckily my fridge is much more ordered and tranquil than my brain: it’s bursting with greens (spinach, rocket, cucumbers, fennel, courgettes, chives from mum’s garden) and fruit (strawberries, bananas, raspberries). I’m having a renewed love affair with new potatoes and of course that means a new packet of Kerry Gold butter. Barbecues are back, evenings are light-filled and come with pizza and a pint of beer in the park, and there are all manner of salads to make.

• It’s officially BLT season (because it’s officially tomatoes on toast season). The method is simple. Grill your bacon until it’s crispy. Toast your bread (I like a seeded sourdough), butter AND mayo both sides. Place one thick slice of tomato on one piece, salt, pepper, chive and extra v it; add two pieces of super crunchy lettuce (recently used a butter lettuce as it was from mum’s garden, but would ordinarily suggest a cos or romaine). Layer on the bacon, sandwich it then cut it in half. It’s a perfect meal.

• I think about ricotta gnudi on a weekly basis and my fear of flour and doing anything that resembles the measured tendencies of baking means I never do it. This recipe looks far more simple and I actually might try it (if I ever end up eating a meal at home in the next two weeks).

• Happy to report that Alison Roman’s newsletter is back and she’s making Smash Burgers and they look absolutely perfect.

• Part 2 of the Vanity Fair piece on the Grey’s Anatomy writer Elizabeth Finch, who stole stories from those suffering around her. It’s wild.

• I raced through Alice Vincent’s memoir-meets-biography-meets-horticulture-diary, Rootbound, in a few days. It begins with a break up and all the swirling emotions that come from uncoupling your physical and emotional life with someone – the remnants of love, the guilt at moving on, the summer of London parties, the trying to forget and struggling to remember of it all – felt particularly relatable and pertinent to me. Next up, Crying In H Mart (finally).

• Desperate to get my hands on some Tart vinegar but alas it’s only sold in the States. Anyone want to start a condiment brand with me?

• Ordering sushi and nasi goreng takeout twice in one week and feeling good about it when I woke up to leftovers and could have a true nasi breakfast:

• The gorgeous simplicity of a bowl of fettucine covered in buffalo butter, parmesan and black pepper.

• I met a lovely woman from Goa the other day and we spoke about Indian curries and I told her how much I miss them. More of a side than a curry, but then this recipe for Saag Paneer popped up from Hetty McKinnon and I’m excited to try it.

• A final word from Virginia Woolf. My mum referred to it as “a real good foodie’s word”: