Writer’s Block: Riffing on a Recipe

Food is an inspiration to me in the most free-floating, free-association way possible. I don’t write recipes, I just follow them pretty well and I have an urge to document and share the ones that tasted especially good.

That said, I’ve noticed that recipes have a few things in common with poetry: line breaks, sensory details, precise, concise language, to name a few. So I’m taking some of my favorite recipes, adding some whimsy,  turning them into “food poems,” and calling them “Recipe Riffs” (whoa, alliteration.) That’s my spin — “chopping” my way through food writer’s block with some wordplay (whoa, the puns!) And there’s a recipe involved. The muse for this one is Ina Garten’s “summer garden pasta” recipe, which I’ve enjoyed all summer long 🙂

LBD

Depending on your sensibilities
(fashionista versus foodie)
this is a term for
Little Black Dress
or Light & Basic Dinner

Have it either way.
In the case of a young Sophia Loren
or muddled tomatoes

both are Italian-inspired,
Heirloom-worthy
Or effortlessy elegant

as dolce vita
as Dolce and Gabbana.

The light-and-basic-dinner
creates Madonna’s nirvana

with a bowl of steaming noodles
(a pound of angel hair, to be precise)
1 1/2 to 2 cups of shredded mozzarella
and the following, caprese-style marinade:

cherry tomatoes (4 pints, halved)
six cloves garlic (minced)
olive oil (1/2 cup)
basil (a fistful, julienned)

with a sprinkling of

red pepper flakes
salt (1 tsp.)
and pepper (1/2 tsp.)

a meal of unstudied elegance
best consumed in stylish black
worthy of Ava

or Ina, or for that matter,
any barefoot contessa.

[Photos in order: http://www.modcloth.com/shop/dresses/where-to-tonight-dress?SSAID=687298&utm_medium=ad&utm_source=affiliateprogram_sas&utm_campaign=sas_feed&utm_content=687298, my camera,  Lexinatrix flickr photostream, shutterbean flickr photo stream]