Spring Pistachio Butter Pasta with Spring Peas and Mint

Plus! Bonus recipe for pickled mustard seeds, and recommendations for what to read right now.

Last week I had the pleasure of supporting my friends’ artist residency in Oaxaca, Poco a Poco, by catering a dinner at the studio of Upstate by Kalen Kaminski. The crowd was so appreciative of the meal, I felt a sense of community for the first time since moving back East. I was lucky enough to have the help of the gorgeous Vilda Gonzalez, who donated her time in the kitchen. (Check out her Substack —She’s a cutie and one to watch). The produce was sponsored by Farm to People, my NYC grocery delivery lifeline. (Use the code JULIAS82 at checkout for $25 off your first order).

Left: Diners enjoying their meal Right: A corner of the Upstate studio full of hand-blown marbled glass

We made a vegetarian meal, heavy on the Spring produce. There was a simple Parmesan broth with fennel and chayote, topped with tons of fresh basil and pea tendrils (soupy salad!), followed by a big gem salad with sliced snap peas, asparagus, and a crème fraîche dressing. My favorite way to finish a salad these days is with yellow pickled mustard seeds, simply brined until plump like caviar. (Bonus recipe down below).

The entrée for the event was my version of a mac n’ cheese (it’s possible that I’ve never really eaten mac n’ cheese, so if this doesn’t look familiar, that’s why). It all starts with a pistachio butter made in the food processor — just nuts, oil, and salt. When you toss this and grated pecorino with the warm pasta and a cup of its starchy water, it turns to spoonable silk. Once the nut butter is made, the pasta is fast, and kids love it too. The recipe is down below for my loyal, paid subscribers.

Before we get to cooking, I am sharing a couple things I am loving right now, from books to my urban kitchen scrap solution.

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My Copy of The Long Island Compromise, after getting washed up in high tide on the Costa Rican beach.

I hadn’t been able to focus long enough to read since the fires, until I found myself on the beach devouring The Long Island Compromise. This book will speak to, and likely repel, my fellow Jewish New Yorkers who will find the characters and cadence of the dialogue eerily familiar. (Brodesser-Akner’s previous hit, Fleishman Is In Trouble was made into a TV show that I also recommend). The book is a dark and humorous look at epigenetic trauma, privilege, and the intersection of class and Jewish American identity. Brodesser-Akner deftly slips between the inner monologues of each member of this fucked up family as they acquire and eventually lose a grip on their industrial empire.

“Your poverty will create a great drive in your children. Or your wealth will doom them into the veal that Jenny described at her science fair, people who are raised to never be able to support a life so that when they’re finally allowed to wander outside their cages for the first time on their way to their slaughter, they can’t even stand up on their own legs. But the people who rise to success on their own never stop feeling the fear at the door, and the people lucky enough to be born into comfort and safety never become fully realized people in the first place. And who is to say which is better? No matter which way it is for you, it is a system that fucks you in the ass over and over, in perpetuity, and who is to say which is better?”
― Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Long Island Compromise

Mill home food cycler, takes everything from chicken bones to avocado pits.

The volume of produce scraps I produce in a single week is astounding. In CA, I had a compost bucket set into my countertop and I emptied into my worm bin once a day. In NY, I people freeze their scraps and bring them to the farmers market on Sundays, but I would need an Uber XL to accomplish that.

Enter Mill, a food cycler that breaks down my waste while I sleep, greeting me with a dry, odorless powder in the morning. With my Mill, I empty my organic kitchen waste into the city green bin once a week.

From today until Monday 5/26, Mill will be offering $125 off each purchase, applied automatically at checkout at mill.com.

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Pistachio Butter Pasta with Peas and Mint

This is the kind of recipe that works for adults and kids alike, a great weeknight vegetarian entrée. I am including the recipe for more pistachio butter than you need to make the pasta, since it keeps in the fridge and is so delicious stirred into oatmeal, spread on toast, or on pancakes.

My Spring pasta dish served in a new East Fork Pottery Bowl and East Fork napkins.