I like to read cookbooks in bed before I go to sleep. I mull over recipes to try, and the descriptive essays offer a buzzy account of how I imagine I’d live my life if I had that kind of money and long weekends in the renovated farmhouse in Winchester. But cookbooks can edge over into annoying when the writer asserts an Artistic Approach to Life. Case in point with Marlena de Blasi’s A Taste of Southern Italy (1999), which features recipes for wittingly earthy fare like “Suckling Lamb Braised in Milk” and “Honeyed Wild Rabbit with Spiced Chestnuts.” I cribbed her recipe for cantaloupe and fig salad, but skipped her Biblical directive to “drop olive oil in tears over the figs.” Aside from the fact that oil of any kind would be gross on fruit, that kind of poetic writing just gets in the way of the food. So let’s fix this salad and serve it with some goat cheese and crackers for lunch. Invite a friend. That’s art enough.
4 to 6 fresh Mission figs
½ of a large ripe cantaloupe or a whole small one
10-12 mint leaves
Juice from ¼ of a fresh lemon
2 Tablespoons olive oil (Optional)
Slice the melon into long wedges about ½” thick and arrange on a large pretty plate. Cut the figs in half and arrange over the melon. Roughly tear the mint leaves and scatter them over the fruit, then squeeze the lemon quarter overall.
De Blasi suggests pairing the salad with Moscato, a heavy sweet white wine. But I prefer pinot grigio or strong iced back tea.
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