Cooking with Julia

By Dana McMahan FoodConnect Louisville foodconnect.com@gmail.com Cooking with Julia I feel the need to say I liked Julia Child before the movie that’s causing so much buzz came out. Not that that matters to anyone but me, but still. I grew to love this lady one flu-ridden day at home on the couch when I read cover to cover, entranced, her book, My Life in France. I felt I knew her by the end, having adventured vicariously alongside her as she discovered first the joys of food, and then of cooking in the most magical city in the world – Paris. I knew full well I wasn't up to cooking from one of her massive textbook tomes, but I did add From Julia Child’s Kitchen to my Amazon wishlist after reading the book, and queued up The French Chef in my Blockbuster by mail account. I went through a manic reading and watching Julia phase, though I never actually cooked any of her recipes. I just loved lying in bed reading them, hearing her odd voice in my head as I read her words (frequently laughing out loud ay her liberal use of cream). I like From Julia Child’s Kitchen because it’s not a textbook – it’s Julia, talking to you direct from her home kitchen, in her breathless and excited way. Flipping through the book this weekend, I stopped at Spaghetti Marco Polo, a (relatively rare) meat-free dish. Spaghetti is tossed with olive oil, walnuts, black olives, parsley and basil, then liberally showered with parmesan. Julia is excited to share with this recipe that people in China indeed eat spaghetti with chopsticks, and exhorts the reader to do the same. Well, far be it from me to disregard her advice! So we whipped up a batch this week with only one substitution – sun-dried tomatoes in place of pimentos. All in all it was tasty, fun, and not at all an advanced dish. I will make one change next time, that is to save some of the pasta cooking water to stir into the finished spaghetti which I found a little dry. Here then is my adapted version of Julia Child’s Spaghetti Marco Polo: 1/2 lb. spaghetti 2/3 cup toasted walnuts 1/2 cup chopped black olives 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes 1/3 cup chopped parsley 10 large fresh basil leaves sea salt/fresh ground black pepper to taste 3 minced fresh garlic cloves 4 T good quality olive oil fresh grated parmesan cheese for serving (Julia calls for two cups, but we used far less) Cook the spaghetti while mixing the walnuts, olives, tomatoes and herbs in a bowl. Season to taste. Drain the spaghetti (keeping some cooking water) then, quickly, toss your garlic in the same pot with the olive oil and sauté briefly. Return the pasta to the pot and toss with the olive oil and garlic. Stir in the bowl of goodies, and water as needed. Pass parmesan at the table to sprinkle on the spaghetti. Serves 4.