This past weekend, one of our market crew, Amie Bailey, recommended a book, “An Everlasting Meal” by Tamar Adler.  Found the ebook version and started reading first thing Sunday morning.  She was right, it is fantastic.  Not so much a cookbook, however it does have great recipes, but really more of narrative about food, eating and cooking.  Many chapters cover ways of saving or recovering from mistakes like over cooking and under cooking, but what I really loved was the way she explained the process of treating food, primarily vegetables by layering use and process to make multiple meals throughout the week.  Tamar recommends putting all your vegetables out on the counter and cooking many of them right away.  She particularly likes roasting and light boiling.  By doing this preparation step before refrigerating you are half way to a multitude of meals.  A great example is the Garlicky Leaf, Stem and Core Pesto which I think would taste wonderful on steamed or roasted broccoli crowns and the pesto itself of course uses the core which so often is simply tossed into the compost bucket.  It would also taste great on roasted or boiled potatoes! Garlicky Leaf, Stem and Core Pesto from ‘An Everlasting Meal’  Tamar Adler 4 to 5 cups stems, leave, and cores of cauliflower, broccoli, kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, cabbage, sliced or diced into 1/2” pieces 3 cloves garlic 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 tsp Salt Water

Put everything in a pot just big enough to hold it and add water to cover by half.  Cook it at below a simmer until anything you prod with a wooden spoon is smashable.  Keep just enough water in the pot to make sure the bottom’s not burning, adding a little water as you need it.  When everything is soft, puree it quickly in a blender or food processor, or simply smash it with a wooden spoon until you get tired, leaving moments of appealing irregular textures.

This is delicious dolloped on toast with grated Parmesan, or treated as a side dish and served with fish or meat, or, with a cup of Parmesan cheese added, mixed with hot pasta.