Say Ciao To Your Food Processor
There's something that happens when you crush basil with a mortar and pestle. Your food processor doesn't know about it.
Letter from the Kitchen
The Dish My Butcher Changed
Something came up in class last weekend that’s been on my mind.
We were making French Onion Soup — a recipe I wrote twenty years ago, when butchers handed you beef marrow bones for free. (O.K. - I had a dog - but they weren’t for him). I roasted them and then simmered them in water for hours. That stock was the foundation of several soups, but a non-negotiable base for French Onion.
The last time I made that stock from scratch, I spent over $30 for one quart.
So I found a substitute. It’s a good one coming in at about $12 per quart.
But not the same. Homemade beef stock gels in the fridge and has an unmistakably beefy flavor.
That’s what started the conversation in class: every ingredient carries something irreplaceable. A richness, a sharpness, a particular fragrance that a shortcut can’t quite replicate. The marrow and the fat. The bitterness of a specific olive variety. The way fresh basil crushed by hand fills the room with aroma, and the way basil cut with a blade does not.
When one ingredient (or the way you handle it) changes, the dish shifts.
Sometimes subtly. Sometimes completely.
This week, we’re leaning into this — everything matters. AND…what happens when you slow down, put your hands to work making your own pesto? What happens when you press the tortilla yourself or make your own pasta?
Now that I’ve written that, I’m going back to my $30 beef bones.
Last Week, You Answered
Basil. Of Course It Was, Basil.
Last week I asked: What is the first spring green or fresh herb you’re most excited to get back in your kitchen this month?
The answer was almost unanimous. Basil.
Yup, I hear you! Abundant, beautiful basil is my favorite, too!
Your answers got me thinking about something we’ve been doing in classes lately. We’ve started making pesto in a molcajete — a granite mortar and pestle —, and I thought it was just a good teaching moment. But I forgot about how wonderful making pesto by hand is.
The oils release differently when you crush rather than blend. The fragrance is immediate and almost overwhelming — in the best way. The texture is something you control completely, from fine to rough to anywhere in between. A food processor gives you consistent pesto. Making it by hand gives you an experience.
I’ll be honest: most of the time, I still use a food processor. But time permitting, this is how I will make pesto from now on.
A few recipes worth having (skip the food processor):
Smoky Roasted Cauliflower with Pecan Pesto and Butter Beans →
French Bistro Classics
Step into a Parisian bistro without leaving Minnesota.
We’ll work through the kind of food that makes you slow down and actually taste things — a remarkable French onion soup, handmade pasta, Coq au Vin braised low and slow until the kitchen smells like something you want to move into, and Crème Brûlée with that perfect, crackling top.
All of it, in a beautiful kitchen, with good people around the table.
🍽 View Class Date & Book Your Stool →
These classes are limited to 6 people and fill up quickly.
The Podcast Hook
What Heat Actually Does to Olive Oil
Elaine Trigiani knows olive oil the way most of us know our own kitchens — from the inside out. And she answered the questions I’d been waiting years to ask someone.
If you want to know the truth about heat and olive oil — what it actually does, and what it doesn’t — jump to 41:51. It will change the way you cook with it.
Friday, April 24th, at 7:30 AM
Episode 4: Mary Lower — Hacking Salt the Mediterranean Way
May 8
Episode 5: Josiah Christensen — Pleasant Valley Mushrooms: the health science of different mushroom varieties
New episodes every other Friday.
What’s Happening in the Kitchen
New Class That Doesn’t Have a Name Yet
Last Saturday was a private family cooking class — not a class on our regular agenda yet, but it will be. We pressed tortillas. We made Sopa de Fideo with pasta we made by hand. We built four salsas, each one completely different from the last. My plan was to make the four and decide on what to drop. They are all staying. The tortilla-making was a total hit!
The new class is coming (mostly Mexican with Spanish and Latin influences). I’ll tell you its name when it has one. Suggestions?
The Skill: The New Basics
Pesto Without An Electrical Outlet
I’m not saying throw out your food processor. I’m saying try it once without it — and see what happens.
The Quick Win
Use a mortar and pestle — or whatever you have. A molcajete, a suribachi, even a sturdy bowl and a wooden spoon will get you somewhere. Start with the basil, the nuts, and the salt. Grind them together before anything else. What you smell at that moment is what you want the pesto to taste like. Then play with the texture — go coarser than you think you want. Coarser pesto coats pasta differently. You’ll taste every component, and then all of them together.
The Most Common Mistake
Adding everything at once. Food processor logic doesn’t apply here. Build in layers: herbs, nuts, and salt first, then garlic, then cheese. Oil comes last — slow pour, until the texture tells you to stop.
One Tool Worth Having
The more oil, the more color. Olive oil acts as a barrier against oxidation. The more generously you add it, the longer your pesto holds that vivid, electric green. If you’re making it ahead, pour a thin layer over the top before sealing the jar.
Recipe Spotlight
Farro Bowl with Artichokes, Red Pepper, and Spinach
This is another opportunity to make pesto by hand
The Soul
Farro is the grain the Italian countryside has cooked with for centuries — nutty, slightly chewy, deeply satisfying without ever being heavy.
Tender artichokes and sweet roasted red peppers in an herb-laced broth that the grain absorbs completely.
The Bridge
Farro is increasingly easy to find, but if your store doesn’t carry it, short-grain brown rice, quinoa, or steel-cut oats will all hold up beautifully. Any grain that likes to absorb liquid and stay al dente will work.
The Mediterranean Edit
This Week I’m Loving…
Three picks this week — all built around the same idea: the right bowl changes the work.
Tool
Lava Rock Molcajete
Heavy, volcanic, and porous in a way that draws the oils out of everything you mash in it. This one is made by people who know what they’re doing.
Tool
Leaf-Carved Molcajete
Same function, different soul. The carved leaf detail makes this one beautiful enough to live on your counter — and a molcajete that lives on your counter is one you’ll actually use.
Tool
Japanese Suribachi
I own several of these — a few small ones and one large that I reach for when I’m making pesto or grinding spices. The ridged ceramic interior does real work. These last.
Cookbook Chronicles
First Class and Dinner For Two
Pics from our Mexican class (such a great time). Thanks, beautiful fun family!
On the cookbook side: I’m testing my Risotto-Stuffed Roasted Tomatoes recipe. Not finished. Needs more work. But the first version was creamy, and the homemade ricotta and Parmesan I stirred in - made it! Look what’s on top - PESTO!
I’ll write it down. I always do eventually.
What are you more excited about — tortillas or salsas?
Before You Go — This Week’s Question
What is your best kitchen memory?
Just pick one. Don’t worry — I’ll ask you again.
Leave a comment — I read every one.
Until next Thursday — keep a good olive oil on the counter and don't be afraid to use it.
— Chef Laura
Thanks for the basil promise! I will take you up on it!