| What’s Slow Food? The fast answer can be found at www.slowfood.com, the web site that explains the origins and work of the Slow Food movement. Although it started in Italy in 1986 to protest against McDonald’s for bringing its golden arches into historic Rome, Slow Food has developed a positive attitude. In our fast-paced society, any organization whose official symbol is the snail must have its heart in the right place!
Slow Food has some eco-political goals--supporting family farms, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and other laudable things. But its main message is this: FOOD SHOULD TASTE GOOD. That means fresh ingredients, careful preparation, and respect for recipes and traditions that have lasted for generations. Slow Food often is simple food. It tastes best eaten at a table with friends and family.
We may not call it Slow Food, but all of us have family recipes and traditions that we treasure. Please tell us about yours! Write to Treasures@digitalhearth.com.
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. . . they may be calling for help! Japanese researchers have discovered that lima bean plants communicate with each other, signaling when pests like spider mites attack. The lima under attack releases volatile chemicals that activate defense genes in unaffected plants.
We also thought we heard some lima beans screaming, "Please, don’t eat me!" but we can’t be sure.
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| A food pyramid, for the uninitiated, is a visual representation of the relative quantities of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats we should be eating for good health. As you may suspect, most major culinary indulgences, like vanilla-caramel-fudge ice cream or hollandaise sauce, live way up in the skinny part of the pyramid (the part that advises "monthly" consumption, which is to say, "almost never").
The Food and Nutrition Information Center (www.nal.usda.gov/fnic) has links to many food pyramids--Asian, Catalan, Latin America, Puerto Rican, Vegetarian, and so on—and the State of Kentucky has even more (www.kde.state.ky.us/odss/nutrition). But for real information on what it all means, we like the scientific-yet-understandable explanations at Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust (www.oldwayspt.org).
We cruised among the various food pyramids there and printed out "The Traditional Healthy Mediterranean Diet Pyramid" to put on our refrigerator and inspire our cooking. Oldways makes a persuasive case for adopting this guide as a more healthful alternative to the recent USDA model.
With the last of our ripe tomatoes, we made this simple salad, and served it with pasta tossed with olive oil and parmesan cheese, thereby hitting most of the big categories in the Mediterranean pyramid.
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2 dead-ripe tomatoes
6 ounces mozzarella (preferably fresh)
2 branches of fresh basil (about 15 leaves)
2 tablespoons pine nuts
extra-virgin olive oil
Slice tomatoes and place on serving plate in a single layer. Cut mozzarella into thin slices and layer over tomatoes. Tear basil into small pieces and sprinkle it and pine nuts on top. Drizzle with olive oil. Add salt if desired. Serve at room temperature. Makes 3 to 4 servings.
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