Good morning. Super Bowl LVII is on Sunday, Kansas City vs. Philadelphia, a proper feast for millions and millions of fans. Many of us will be stocking up on chicken wings or making chili on Saturday so that it cures into perfection for Sunday night. It’s a weekend for cornbread and jalapeño poppers, potato skins and queso, for cold beer and frozen fudge pops. Ribs for all!
Me, I’ll be prepping to make Nargisse Benkabbou’s new recipe for Moroccan nachos (above), which puts kefta, warmly spiced ground beef (or lamb!), on top of tortilla chips with a harissa salsa and lemony guacamole. Serve it with baked cassava fries and maybe some deviled eggs, just because?
But that’s for Sunday. I’d like to make pasta with feta and green olives on Saturday. Or, come to think of it, roasted fish with ginger, scallions and soy, so good.
And some hearty breakfasts, too: lemon ricotta pancakes, say, or morning glory muffins, some eggs Benedict or a smoked salmon tart for a crowd. Chicken salad for one lunch and jambon beurre for another. It’s going to be a glorious weekend.
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Now, here’s some evidence that there’s life in the cookbook racket yet: Check out Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli’s terrific 2021 cookbook, “Italian American,” a home cook’s sojourn into the high-wire food the couple offers at their Don Angie restaurant in Manhattan. Start with their Italian American wedge salad, topped with creamy herb dressing, Gorgonzola and pepperoni bread crumbs. It alone is worth the price of admission.
It’s nothing to do with grapes or pork shoulder, but I returned to John Irving’s 1981 novel “The Hotel New Hampshire” this weekend. It’s quite a ride, with some dark turns. As John Leonard put it about Irving in his Times review, “none of this spinach would have gotten off the ground if he couldn’t, with black cunning and a swift squeeze and a thumb in the eye, grip us with his story.”
I resisted it for a long time because it seemed like a busman’s holiday for a person who works in the food game, but the unscripted drama “The Lost Kitchen,” with Erin French at her restaurant in Freedom, Maine, is a nice balm on a winter’s evening. You should check it out.
Finally, my colleague Jon Pareles wrote about the Nashville-born songwriter Sunny War last week and introduced me to her single “No Reason.” Thanks, J.P.! Play that loud while you’re cooking. And I’ll see you on Sunday.
