We’re going to start with the good. Don’t worry, the embarrassing will come later.
Inspired by the leftover pizza dough in the fridge* and the contents of our CSA box, I cooked up two beauties last night: Dino kale/salami/pecorino (below) and green garlic/prosciutto/parmesan.
My almost-5-year-old son helped me grate the cheese for the pizzas. He does an okay job. It’s good. No, it’s just okay. He moves the cheese against the grater but hasn’t really figured out that you need to push the cheese against it a bit (he’s been given explicit instructions, I assure you). He ends up with a dusting of cheese on the plate or in the bowl and a lot of compliments on how much he’s helping.
Last night he figured out something. Something big.
“Mama,” he said, “I like cooking.”
“It’s fun, isn’t it?” I responded, trying to harness all his pre-schooler helping energy and build it up for the future.
“Yeah,” he said, cramming yet another pinch of grated parmesan into his mouth, “you get to do the tasting first!”
Damn, my cover is blown. He’ll never leave me alone with a batch of bacon or cheese-crusted potato gratin again.
By the way, I also gently wilted the most delicately bitter radicchio I’ve ever tasted with a few thin slices of garlic in olive oil. Turning this graceful pile of leaves:
Into this tiny gray (but delicious) mess:
With just a drizzle of balsamic when it was done.
* I’m the kind of person who has half a batch of pizza dough left over and slow-rising in the refrigerator because last week I invited a friend to lunch when I was testing some pizza recipes. Well, said friend got all excited about the pizza but had to reschedule the lunch date. This friend would in no way then expect the pizza to materialize on the rescheduled day BUT did express great regrets at having missed the pizza AND I had a nagging doubt about one of the recipes SO I cooked homemade pizza for lunch on a Wednesday. Nagging doubts put to rest. Friend happy and very full of a rather extraordinary amount of pizza for one person in the middle of the day.
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