Making it up as you go along: my friend Brad

People become friends for so many different reasons, it's impossible to draw general rules as to why it happens. In my opinion, people STAY friends for specific reasons, but again, don't try to put a finger on it, because you can't. Just sit back and enjoy it.

Brad sings with Guy in the Chorus that I've written about so often in these pages. We had never spoken at all until two things happened, sort of consecutively. The summer had just started, and I was playing with strawberries and the ice cream maker. Guy and I love strawberry sorbet, but I wanted to do something different. A classic Italian dessert involves putting a few drops of REAL balsamic vinegar on a bowl of fresh, dead ripe strawberries. I began thinking about this as a variation on strawberry sorbet. Coincidentally, there were three recipes in the press and internet that week about the very same thing. Perhaps great minds thinking alike? Well, I made it , and I posted, on my facebook page, that I had made it. Brad was intrigued. He saw Guy at rehearsal and told him so. And then, a few days later, we were at a Chorus function, at a bar where you would not expect to be served strawberry sorbet, let alone strawberry balsamic vinegar sorbet. And that's where Brad introduced himself to me.

I liked him immediately, and intensely. Don't ask me to explain why. Trying to figure out friendship is like trying to take apart a butterfly to see if you can understand why it's beautiful, or trying to analyze why watching an approaching thunderstorm moves you to tears. Just sit back and enjoy it.

And maybe part of the reason we became friends is that I know, when Brad reads the above paragraph, he'll get it. All of my good friends do.

So, as I do with all of my friends, I wanted to cook for Brad. And I learned that he is a "modified" vegetarian. I use that adjective to describe friends who prefer to eat vegetarian, but will stretch to include some other things. There are so many different "flavors" of that it's impossible to generalize. Brad eats chicken, turkey, and vegetarian food. And the first two times I cooked for him, I made chicken.

So Brad was coming over to dinner last night, and I wanted to break away from the poultry (and, full confession here, I'm teaching the puppies how to make roast chicken tonight). So vegetarian it was. And I first thought of spicy macaroni and cheese. Well, spice is not to everyone's taste, and it's not to Brad's. Fair enough. Then I thought about eggplant parmagiana. Nope. Too much work and, frankly, it wasn't sounding like a "this is Brad" dish. So, here comes the day, and I don't have a menu. When that happens, I let the farmers' market dictate what I cook. It never lets me down, and it didn't this time.

I have written, I believe, about squash blossoms. As the weather gets cooler, they will begin to disappear from the market. They're still around, although with a difference. Now, the blossoms are coming from WINTER squash. They're bigger. Some people feel they have a fuller flavor than the summer ones, but I can't taste a difference. I love them both. Normally, I deep fry squash blossoms and serve them as a snack with drinks. When I saw them in the market, I immediately wanted to make something with them, and I began thinking pasta or risotto. But what with them? The blossoms have a very delicate flavor, and texture, and they need to be combined with milder tastes.

Mexican cooking uses squash blossoms with dairy products, like with queso blanco as a filling for quesadillas. Italians stuff them with cheese and bake them. That began to sound really good: dairy and squash blossoms. Still vegetarian, a bit off the standard trail, and doable on a weekday night. But Mexican? No. Standard Italian stuffed? No.

Pasta sauce. With cream. And cheese. I had fontina cheese in the fridge. Fontina is my favorite melting cheese. It has a flavor that moves between very mild, and very strong, depending on how close you are to the rind of the cheese, so you can have different flavors in one dish. And it melts so well, and so smoothly, it makes great pasta sauces. Since we were going with dairy, it sounded like butter rather than oil was the fat vehicle.

Of course as you think about these ingredients: cream, cheese, butter, you are probably feeling your arteries clog. Indeed. Well, don't eat it every night, and serve it with something that contrasts. Still playing with the squash theme, I decided on pan fried zucchini, in olive oil, with some sliced, plum tomato confit. Perfect side dish.

Finally... I always think of Brad as someone for whom the "standard" on things, just isn't right. So when I was picking the pasta, one of the farmers market vendors had pasta made from spinach, and some with beet. Green and pink. Oh, a lovely combination indeed. So that's what it was. And it WAS pretty. The green, the pink, the yellow from the blossoms, the white from the cheese and the cream, and the side dish with its yellows, greens, and reds. Yes, it's either late summer or early fall, depending on how you look at the calendar, and while all those colors are there, use them.

So, maybe we can call this sauce al Brad, or Bradsauce, or whatever. In any event, I'd like to dedicate it to my friend Brad, who became my friend for reasons I don't understand, but remains my friend for reasons I know, but can't articulate. Thanks Brad.

To make the sauce, you need about two tablespoons of butter, unsalted, twenty four squash blossoms or more, a good cup of cream, a half cup of cubed, fontina cheese, a sprinkling of parmesan, and a little fresh ground pepper. For the pasta, I used 3/4 pound each, of fresh spinach and fresh beet pasta. Use one, or both, or use something else, but for this preparation, I urge you to get the fresh pasta. It sucks up the sauce in a way the dry stuff doesn't.

Let's make the sauce first. Melt the butter over low heat, and while it's melting, inspect your squash blossoms. These are always very fresh, and that means you may very well find some of the critters that love squash in them. I once watched a woman recoil in horror as the farmer from whom she was buying the flowers, shook each one, and in almost every case, a beetle flew out. This is the way it is, gang. If it's fresh, you'll find something like this, just about always.

Cut the blossoms in half, or thirds, lengthwise, depending on how big they are, and add them to the hot , melted butter. They will collapse almost immediately. Stir them gently. They're fragile (not as fragile as Annalena, but fragile, nonetheless). Then pour in your cream and again, stir gently. You'll get a very gentle bubbling around the edge. Turn off the heat and add your fontina cheese. It will melt from the heat, and if it doesn't, heat the mix gently until it does. Taste it, and adjust for salt if you need to. If the sauce seems to thick, add a bit more cream until you get it to a thickness you like.

Now, put that sauce aside. Get a big pot of water boiling, or close to the boiling (with fresh pasta, you can get away with water that's less than bubbling). Add a good tablespoon of salt to it, and add your pasta. Testing it after three minutes is not too soon. Fresh pasta cooks quickly. When it's to your taste, scoop it out, and add it directly to the pan with your sauce in it. Stir everything together, and if it looks too dense, scoop a little pasta water into it, and thin it that way. Off he heat, stir in about a quarter cup of grated parmesan, and then sprinkle some black pepper into it. When you serve it up, sprinkle some more parmesan on it if you like (I do), and you've got a nice, complete, filling pasta entree.

I talked about the squash side dish and it's so easy I hestiate to present it, but here it is.

Earlier in this blog year, I presented my recipe for baked, plum tomatoes. Slice up 4-6 of them in long strips. Have them ready. Then cut up about 3/4 pound of the smallest zucchini you can find, and sautee them in olive oil and a clove or two of garlic. When they just get soft, add the sliced tomatoes, stir it around, and you're done. The tomatoes are salty, so don't salt until the dish is done, and you taste it. Put a nice serving of this alongside the pasta, and you've got a great vegetarian meal, made even greater when you share it.