Novel Food: Spring 2009 Edition

This is my entry—and the roundup of other entries—for the spring edition of Novel Food, the literary-culinary event that Simona, of the food blog Briciole, and I started a couple of years ago. In Novel Food, bloggers find inspiration in books, plays, and other works of literature, and then they share the books and the meals they were inspired to make from them with the rest of us. Here's to reading and eating!

I was at our local used/rare book shop recently, and I found myself in the mysteries section. There was an old hardback book containing two novels by Patricia Cornwell; she writes the Kay Scarpetta mysteries. I'd heard that food is featured in the Scarpetta books, so, even though I wasn't at all sure I wanted to read about the exploits of a medical examiner (Dr. Scarpetta's line of work), I picked up the book.

Am I glad I did. I love these stories! When I started the first one, after a gruesome description of a murdered woman, I thought, do I really need this? But as I continued, the well-drawn and interesting characters, the flashes of humor, and the excellent writing drew me in.

In her first novel, Postmortem, Cornwell introduces us to Dr. Kay Scarpetta, one of the only chief medical examiners in the country. The setting is Richmond, Virginia—a city known for its high crime rate. Dr. Scarpetta is investigating a series of murders all apparently committed by the same person. Of course, there's a lot of trouble on the case, and Scarpetta herself comes under fire during the course of the investigation. She feels particularly vulnerable as a woman in a traditionally male position of authority.

After a really bad day, she contemplates how to proceed for the evening:

When all else fails, I cook.

Some people go out after a god-awful day and slam a tennis ball around or jog their joints to pieces on a fitness course. I had a friend in Coral Gables who would escape to the beach with her folding chair and burn off her stress with sun and a slightly pornographic romance she wouldn't have been caught dead reading in her professional world—she was a district court judge. Many of the cops I know wash away their miseries with beer at the FOP lounge.

I've never been particularly athletic, and there wasn't a decent beach within reasonable driving distance. Getting drunk never solved anything. Cooking was an indulgence I didn't have time for most days, and though Italian cuisine isn't my only love, it has always been what I do best.

And so, she makes pizza. Dough from scratch, sauce from tomatoes she put up herself the summer before, Luganega sausage, vegetables, fresh mozzarella and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses. It was a nice scene in the book that had me wishing I was smelling the garlicky aroma in my own kitchen.

I don't ever remember making pizza dough from scratch in the past, but clearly I had to do it for this edition of Novel Food. Instead of the Luganega sausage, I used ham we'd gotten from Triple S Farm. Having neglected to put up tomatoes last year, I made my sauce with the Muir Glen fire-roasted variety. I did include the vegetables and cheeses Dr. Scarpetta put on her pizza.Not a resounding success. The crust, which I'd been hoping would be chewy and tender, was too crisp on the bottom for our taste. Must fathom the secrets of the pizza stone, which we were using for the very first time. I wanted the Neopolitan-style crust, pliable enough after baking that you can fold your slices of pizza. This crust almost, but not quite did that. Furthermore, I topped the pizza with too much sauce and too many veggies and too much ham. It was a pretty tasty pizza, but my technique certainly needs some improvement. In any case, making it was a fun experiment.

Now take a look at what the other food bloggers who cooked from books did:

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Mia, of Kahliya-logue, a self-proclaimed "sweet tooth junky," took some lines from the Bible as her inspiration and made an all-natural-sugars, whole-wheat pastry dried-fruit strudel.

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Maryann, of Finding La Dolce Vita, was reminded of that classic children's tale Goodnight Moon by . . . a rutabaga! Check out Maryann's wonderful Constellation with Rutabaga (and the carrot-rutabaga mash with maple syrup is nothing to sneeze at, either!). I love real maple syrup and I must try this soon.

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Ruhama, of the blog Rumahama, shares the story of Princess Cimorene, who would rather live with dragons than at her castle. The book, Dealing with Dragons, sounds wonderfully imaginative and fun. The princess makes a mean cherries jublilee, which is how she works her way into one dragon's good graces (you see, he needs someone to make desserts for his dinner parties).

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Carolyn, who explores French cooking in 18th C Cuisine, used Homer's epic poem The Odyssey as the basis for her post. Since Circe served Odysseus barley bread and goat cheese with honey, Carolyn served the same to her Homer, with very positive results.

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The novel Pomegranate Soup, by Marsha Mehran, served as the basis for this entry. Chris, of the blog Mele Cotte, read the story of Iranian immigrants who open a Persian café in Dublin, and she was inspired to make butternut squash, sweet potato, and pomegranate soup in its honor.

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Charles Dickens' Great Expectations was the novel that Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook took as her inspiration. Susan made a "bride-cake" such as you have never seen: Austrian chocolate truffle cake (from a recipe on the Saveur Web site).

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Ashley, of Fresh Knot Fancy, took as her source The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. In honor of that novel Ashley whipped up a butternut squash risotto with a rich pine-nut sauce. According to the novel, time travel "causes one to be quite famished." Indeed.

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Sara, of Heaven on Earth, based her entry on Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. Sara served up a ploughman's lunch of cheese, pickles, and bread, and she has an assistant help her uncover the mysteries of the perfect bowl of oatmeal.

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Simona, my partner in this event, made tartine, or cocktail sandwiches (a.k.a. canapes). Simona was inspired by the play Blythe Spirit, by Noel Coward, which she recently had the good fortune to see on stage.

Simona has the other half of the roundup of deliciously literary dishes on her blog, Briciole. Be sure to check out those entries as well.

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Thanks so much to everyone who joined us for this edition of Novel Food! Here's to continued good reading and good eating.