Author: chefalice

I often cook squash and particularly love it roasted as it has a lovely sweet flavour. Don’t throw away the seeds – wash and dry them carefully, then fry them and they make a lovely snack or garnish. Why pay good money for a pack of pumpkin seeds when they’re there for the taking? Harissa is that spicy paste from North Africa and it’s available in jars in supermarkets.

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Like their cucumber counterparts, zucchini pickles are easy to make and even easier to eat. Curtis and I grew zucchini from seed last year. At first it looked like only one seed grew into a plant, but then another couple of plants unexpectedly reared their heads. By the end of summer I could no longer keep up with the dozens of zucchini coming up in the garden, so I decided to try making zucchini pickles. I even made them with a couple of oversized zucchinis that had fairly tough skins and were considered largely inedible. To my surprise, the fermentation…

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You can use store-bought marinara sauce or other tomato sauces for pizzas and focaccias. But if you would like to make your own, the flavors will be fresher and brighter; plus, you can tweak them to your liking. Here’s our favorite recipe for a crushed tomato sauce, from Peter’s book American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza. This sauce couldn’t be easier to put together. It doesn’t even require any cooking, as the canned tomatoes are already cooked and the sauce will be heated during baking. The flavors of the herbs and garlic will intensify during baking, so resist…

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