Pie for breakfast, pie for dinner
Soft polenta, pesto
Pie is not fussy to me. I think part of the reason is that my father made pies with the same rigor he applied to smoothing a hospital corner or starching and ironing his dress shirts. Apple, flecked with cinnamon in a butter and Crisco crust1, appeared with smug regularity on our kitchen counter throughout each fall. There were no experiments or deviations. This pie asserted competency. And like someone walking into the room with a paper bag full of hot bagels, replicating both experiences for myself in adulthood was elemental, reassuring. But I change my pie with my whims.
The basic work of slicing and arranging is fortifying, focusing. Pie crust can be made simply in the food processor2 and chilled. Apples (lately, a mix of Macoun, Granny Smith, and Cosmic Crisp) are to be peeled, curls of skin coming off in long strips, the flesh sliced thinly, piled high, and tossed with brown and raw sugar, cinnamon and other spices3, then left to macerate for an hour before being heaped juicily into the crust, covered, and dusted with cinnamon sugar. Leaving my steaming, bubbling pies to cool near the fire escape makes my apartment feel lived in, of use, quaint. If in the morning you have nothing, by noon you have pie.
Saturday I ate this for dinner, and Sunday and Monday for breakfast with coffee.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve eaten warm, soft bowls of things: sausage ragu over polenta, oatmeal with stewed apples. To clear out some herbs in my refrigerator, I made a pistachio pesto of easy proportions - 1/3 cup raw pistachios, 2/3 cup basil, 2/3 mint, 2/3 parsley, 4 garlic cloves, 1/2 cup olive oil.
I’ve smeared it on roast chicken and charred sweet potatoes, but kept a reserve for sauce for linguine, sprinkled with a smattering of roasted pistachios, chile flake, and shaved parm.
Recent eating notes: Plum and rosemary marmalade on rye toast / this chicken with kale and Castelvetranos / (too many bags of) spicy Bjorn Corn / spanakopita babka from Agi’s / soft scrambled eggs / braised beef tacos and mezcal at Nancy’s / rosé, French onion soup, and tarte tatin at Orsay /
Now, I pass on the shortening.
I use Smitten Kitchen’s recipe, but in the food processor (laziness). I eat dairy sparingly, and typically use Miyoko’s nondairy butter for baking. I think the result here is really delicious, though I always advocate for butter. Without the egg wash on top of the pie, it would be completely vegan.