Justine Cooks: A Cookbook

Introduction

It was an Italian-style salsa verde that changed me.

I realize that it’s a kind of choice to start my book by talking about a condiment, but in this case, it’s fitting. That’s because, as I was trying to pinpoint the exact moment when I fell in love with food, I kept going back to a single recipe—parsley, capers, shallot, garlic, lemon, and olive oil. Taste, season, adjust, and repeat.

For context, I’m a person who didn’t grow up in a food family. We enjoyed food, but it wasn’t a part of us. I never had a fresh herb until my twenties, because before then? Well, it sure seemed like a frivolous way to run up a grocery bill. So, when I started to learn more about food—its history, the cultures that surround it, and the many different methods of preparing it—it opened up a whole new (and delicious) world.

And the salsa verde? Well, that zesty little Italian sauce came into my life after combing through one too many cookbooks (which okay, yes, there’s no such thing) and seeing that my favorite authors all included a salsa verde in their pages. At first, I couldn’t understand the hype. Salsa/gremolata/relish: They all felt the same to me. But then . . . then, one day I made it.

That one small sauce was the tipping point. Before that, I had been looking at food like a science. I was forcing recipes into rules, strict and precise. But as simple as this recipe was, it was the first flavor combination that showed me how expansive food could be: how an ingredient that felt boring becomes completely transformed when partnered with a few others; how different recipes and methods build beautiful flavors over time; and also, when it’s made in my kitchen, how non-formulaic everything becomes. Every ingredient has a story, a pairing, and a way to manipulate and master it. Food became electric, food became comforting, and it was food that took a girl (ahem, me) who didn’t have a cooking background and gave her a way to feel at home.

I started cooking online using the jokey name of atJustine_Snacks, sharing what I knew, what I was learning, and why food and eating were so important to me. I talked about how food made me feel as if I were building my own sense of belonging. Along the way, I heard from many people who felt the same way. Cooking bonded us. And while I loved my online name, deep down I knew it was always more than just “snacks.”

This book goes past where I started online, past my small apartment, where I tore through cookbooks like novels and textbooks rolled into one. I wrote this book to both connect with other home cooks and to share recipes that, frankly, I’m obsessed with—innovative ideas that you can master and transform. The recipes are technique-driven but accessible. They are repeatable, for easy go-tos, but also transformable, so you can make them your own.

I wrote these recipes for people who are deeply in love with food, but I also wrote them to satiate readers who, just like I once was, are learning and growing in their kitchen and looking for a way to make cooking feel uniquely theirs. These are the recipes I wish I had had when I started cooking: innovative and fun, each equipped with new techniques, methods, and small pockets of things to learn. Cooking is like a muscle, and I want this book to help you flex it. But if it does for only one person what that salsa verde did for me, I’ll consider it a success.