Deciding that adding toasted quinoa to my vegetable soup with pasta was not sufficiently gilding the lily, I made a little picada, which, as far as I understand it, is a mixture of ingredients, usually including garlic and nuts, pounded in a mortar-and-pestle and stirred into a dish as a finishing touch. Here I just pounded up a few garlic cloves with a handful of blanched almonds and salt and pepper to taste until it became a crumbly mixture. N.B. Adding picada to a dish means adding a substantial amount of raw garlic to it. It’s not for the faint of heart.
[…] picada consisting of 1/2 clove of garlic and 1/4 c of pecans […]
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[…] basil and Parmigiano-Reggiano, a sauce fit for royalty. On the other hand, there is a simple picada of almonds and garlic, peasant food of the most basic and rustic kind. In between, there are an […]
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