Taffy's Asparagus Penne

My Sad Asparagus Patch

Here is one more asparagus treat, perfect for the weird miscellaneous stalks that come up in my alleged garden every year. (I know that they would be healthier if I actually weeded the bed, but weeding has never been my specialty.) Since I cut the stalks into small pieces they don’t have to match in any way.

My family served this to my mother Jan (a.k.a. Taffy because she likes to swim in salt water) for Mother’s Day one year. It has become a May staple for us.

Cousin Jane (left) and Sister Leigh present the Penne to Taffy.

Ingredients:

1 pound penne
2 pounds fresh asparagus, washed, trimmed, and cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (plus a bit more if you like)
10 large cloves of garlic cut lengthwise into thin pieces
freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional—if you put lots of salt in the penne and asparagus water you won’t need it) 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) sweet butter
1/2 pound Prosciutto, thinly sliced and then shredded (optional) freshly grated Italian cheese (such as Parmesan or Pecorino Romano) to taste—at least 1 cup, and maybe more
1 handful fresh parsley, finely chopped

Directions:

First, cook the penne according to the package instructions. When it is cooked al dente drain it, rinse it in cold water to cool it off, and drain it again.

While the pasta is cooking, place the asparagus in boiling water, and boil for 2 minutes. Carefully drain the asparagus, rinse it with very cold water, and drain it again.

When the pasta is ready and drained, pour the oil into a LARGE skillet, and let it heat over medium heat for about a minute, until it begins to shimmer. The oil will be very hot. Carefully add the pieces of garlic to the oil and cook, stirring vigorously, until the garlic begins to brown. (This won’t take long.)

Add the asparagus, salt (if needed), and pepper to the garlic. Cook for another 2 minutes, shaking or stirring gently. Add the pasta and the butter and cook until the vegetables and pasta are hot and well mixed, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn off the heat, and toss in the Prosciutto.

Carefully transfer the mixture to a serving bowl, and toss in lots of Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle the chopped parsley on top. Serve it to your mother and other guests immediately. Serves 8.

My Grandmother's Johnnycake

My grandmother as a young woman (right) with her older sister Alma (I love that hands-on-hips attitude!)

My mother tells me she has been thinking of her own mother a lot lately. So as Mother’s Day approaches I’m paying tribute to both of them by publishing a recipe from my grandmother’s files.

My mother’s mother, Clara Engel Hallett, was the proverbial good plain cook. Brought up on a farm, she helped her adopted mother with chores and cooking. She polished her culinary skills the summer before her marriage in 1912 by attending Fannie Farmer’s School of Cookery in Boston. One of my great regrets is that I learned about this too late to ask my grandmother what the legendary Fannie Farmer was like!

I do know that a couple of her cooking techniques echo Miss Farmer’s trademarks. My grandmother was scrupulously exact in her cooking and recipe transcriptions, as befitted someone who sat at the feet of “the mother of level measurements.”

And even when she was all alone she took care to make sure that every meal she prepared was attractive and well balanced, as Miss Farmer decreed it should be. I wish I had inherited this instinct; when I’m alone I eat anything from a salad to a bowl of cereal, and balance pretty much goes out the window.

Fannie Farmer’s influence lives on in our family through our near veneration of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Some of my friends identify The Joy of Cooking as their cooking primer; others, Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.

For my mother and me the cooking bible has always been Fannie Farmer. We own hundreds of cookbooks but somehow almost always turn to that one volume when we’re looking for a simple, tasty way to prepare something basic.

Clara and Bruce Hallett with Baby Janice

The recipe below doesn’t come from Fannie Farmer–unless it’s one Miss Farmer herself taught my grandmother to make that long-ago summer. (There’s no attribution on the recipe card.) It’s a basic cornbread. My grandmother grew up in Vermont and used the old New England name Johnnycake, a.k.a. Jonnycake or Journey Cake, for her bread.

When I make it I think of this thrifty, versatile Yankee woman–and of her daughter, my mother Jan. And of course of Miss Farmer, a culinary mother to millions! Happy Mother's Day to all......

Clara Hallett’s Johnnycake

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) sweet butter
1 cup buttermilk or thick sour milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 to 4 tablespoons sugar (depending on how sweet you like your cornbread)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8-by8-inch baking pan or a 9-inch iron skillet. Sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt together three times. Set them aside.

Melt the butter. While it is melting, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and baking soda. Mix them into the melted butter, along with the sugar. Stir this mixture lightly into the flour mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the johnnycake until it is firm and browned a little on the edges, about 20 minutes. Serves 6.

My grandmother later in life (she was almost 90; I, 21).