Happy Monday, cooks! Here’s a cheering thought: David Tanis has found a new way to to feed us melted cheese. So many dishes we love are based on the stuff: pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, queso fundido, fondue and more. We crave the taste, texture and apparently the look of the stuff. Now that new food videos flood the internet daily, creative teams spend hours perfecting the live “cheese pull,” that weirdly seductive image of stretchy, gooey strands. Here’s an article about why cheese pull porn is so seductive.
But David’s more concerned with flavor.
His recipe for provoleta, the version popular in Argentina, starts with a thick slice of aged Provolone, great for melting when you want the cheese to heat up but also to hold its shape. Add dried chile flakes, parsley, oregano, black pepper and a hot grill. Toast slabs of bread. Dip, eat, repeat. In a steakhouse in Buenos Aires, you would have to eat a pound or so of grilled meat afterward, but at home that decision is on you.
Melissa Clark is sticking with the season this week, making a fresh-corn version of shrimp and grits, with green chiles for heat and feta for tang and salt. There’s no cook around who’s more creative with corn, and here’s the proof: her creamed corn with Gorgonzola and pine nuts; chilled corn soup, and one of our most popular summer pastas, cream-free creamy corn pasta with basil. Any of them would be a nice dish for the week, especially if you’re finally getting tired of eating straight-up corn on the cob. That said, if you’re a rolling-in-butter corn eater, try rubbing the cobs with lime wedges. It could be life-changing.
Cooking readers, thanks for letting me invade your inboxes this week. Sam will be back on Wednesday. But I can’t quit you — at least not without linking to this video, which is sort of about food (cucumbers) but mainly about cats (who are terrified of cucumbers). I have watched it a dozen times but remain mystified about the why and how. (My cats are unmoved by cucumbers.)
