Three Things

The greenest, spring-iest pasta, fun audiobook recs, and your soon-to-be most essential piece of kitchen gear

Greetings eaters and readers! I’m in Lisbon this week and will report back with Vacation Highlights as always — but for now I’d like to hand the mic over to three guest stars who will be taking over Three Things in my absence: Susan Spungen, one of my original food heroes (an original Martha Stewart alum) and writer of Susanality; Lukas Volger whose Substack Family Friend, devoted to vegetarian cooking, strikes just the right balance between approachable and innovative. (He even got me to experiment with tempeh, more on that soon); and Catherine Hong, writer, regular Times book reviewer, and dear friend whose taste in books, interiors, fashion, literally everything is right on the money every time! (Remember her scallion pancakes shortcut?) Also, locals! I’ll be in conversation with Alexandra Stafford about her new book, Pizza Night, at Rizzoli Books on April 25 at 6:00 and would love it if you came to say hi. Ali is so warm and down-to-earth, and perhaps more to the point here, can cook her a$$ off. (Click here to register for the event.) Lastly—I loved

Joanna Goddard

’s list of Substack Reads, and not only because I’m on it! Give it a scroll. And now (😅) your Three Things…

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1. A Spring Pasta, by Susan Spungen

This simple pasta is a favorite early spring recipes from Veg Forward, my book about seasonal vegetable-heavy cooking. It’s very easy to put together and requires no cooking beyond boiling the pasta. It doesn’t even require any chopping! The shaved asparagus is done with a vegetable peeler, and the delicate curls turn satiny and supple from the heat of the pasta. Although you could make this with fresh peas when they come into season, you don’t have to! I say this for a few reasons: A) I am too lazy to shell peas for an easy recipe like this B) Frozen peas are often better than fresh ones you’d find in the supermarket. C) The dish will still be wonderful without them.

Bucatini with Pea Pesto, Ricotta, and Shaved Asparagus
This recipe makes four dinner portions, but if you are only cooking for two, use half the amount of pasta. You could halve the pesto too, but it’s such a small amount for a food processor, and it will keep for a few days, so I suggest making the full batch. Use the pesto for other things, like seasoning vegetables, swirling into a soup, as a sandwich spread, or as an omelet filling. Also note, you can use thick spaghetti instead of bucatini.

1 cup fresh or thawed frozen peas
1 garlic clove
1/2 cup grated pecorino or Parmesan (1/2 ounce)
1/2 loosely packed cup herbs, such as mint, basil, or parsley
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
8 ounces bucatini
1 lemon
1 cup ricotta, preferably fresh
8 ounces asparagus (on the thicker end), shaved with a vegetable peeler
Red pepper flakes

Combine the peas, garlic, cheese, herbs, oil, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Pulse to a coarse purée. Cook the pasta in well-salted water until al dente.

Scoop out 1 cup of pasta water and drain the pasta. Return the pasta to the pot and toss with the pea pesto. Loosen with some pasta water. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide among four warmed bowls and grate lemon zest over the bowls. Squeeze the lemon over each serving. Dollop the ricotta over each serving and top with the asparagus. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes.

Thanks Susan! For more Susan, like these weeknight French Onion Turkey Burgers, check out Susanality.

2. My Mini Spoonula: A Love Story, by Lukas Volger

I never imagined that something named a "spoonula" could bring me such joy in the kitchen. I mean, what a terrible word! But this GIR Mini Spoonula, a small version of what I'd always believed was just a flexible spatula, is the tool I reach for it more than anything else when I cook. I use it for the obvious things, like scrambling eggs, anything involving a nonstick pan, and for scraping out every last dredge from peanut butter jars, bowls of whipped cream, and tubs of yogurt. But it’s also my go-to for carefully turning slabs of tofu that are bubbling away in a glaze, or in baking to fold flour into a batch of blondies, or when I need to scrape cleanly along the edges of a sheet pan to get the saucy bits that might be on their way to burning. Its perfectly tapered edge is thin and bendy enough to reach into any corner and always glide seamlessly beneath delicate foods, and on top of that it's got a solid, sturdy core, which makes it strong in all the right places. This latter detail really sets it apart from the competition! Only rarely, and reluctantly, do I reach for its standard-sized sibling.

Thanks Lukas! For more Lukas, subscribe to Family Friend. That’s his blueberry smoothie up there which looks predictable enough, but when I was home, I had it every afternoon for two straight weeks and it has almost kicked my 4:00 potato chip habit. (Almost.)

Isaac Mizrahi from a scene in Unzipped

3. Three Audiobook Recs, by Catherine Hong

I listen to a lot of audiobooks and lately I have been indulging in my nostalgia for New York City in the 90s. (I know everybody says the same thing about “their” time, but come on, NYC was so much better then!) I recently listened to Isaac Mizrahi’s memoir from 2018, I.M., which I adored. You learn all about his childhood as an Orthodox Syrian Jew in Brooklyn (where he says he “stuck out like a chubby gay thumb”) and how he broke free by convincing his parents to let him attend LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, back then still located in seedy Times Square. (Fun fact: Alan Parker shot the movie Fame there when Isaac was a student and you can see Isaac in the opening credits!) I loved all the old references  –  shopping at Canal Jean, interning for Perry Ellis, making his first sale to Dawn Mello at Bergdorf Goodman, eating at Chanterelle. There’s one passage where he reminisces about how free he used to feel zipping around the city in yellow taxis at night that made me swoon. I went straight from I.M. to Alan Cumming’s memoir, Baggage. Although I’ve never been a particular fan of the actor – in fact, I remember being annoyed by him because there was a time you could not watch TV for five minutes without seeing a commercial for Cabaret — now I have to say I now adore him and his Scottish accent. Like Isaac, he does an amazing job of telling his “artist on the rise” story with emotion, vulnerability and crazy humor. It’s also super evocative of NYC in the 90s (and 2000s), if that’s what you’re craving. And finally, I want to recommend an audiobook that is not a memoir by a 90s gay icon: Julia Whelan’s Thank You For Listening. Julia is my favorite (and really everyone’s favorite) female audiobook narrator, and this novel, which she wrote a couple years ago, is a rom com about a female audiobook narrator who gets involved with a hot male audiobook narrator. If you liked Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy, you’ll like this one. It’s very sexy, not too serious, and never insults your intelligence.

Thanks Catherine! For more Catherine, listen to K-Pod, her podcast devoted to stories from Korean Americans in arts and culture, which she co-hosts with Juliana Sohn.

See you next week,
Jenny

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