4 recipes for welcoming early fall produce to your table
Pistachio nuts are a fall superstar just coming into season. Once considered a rare delicacy, these little green nutrition bombs are now a mainstream must-have.
Though we call them nuts, botanically they are seeds — each “nut” is the single, large seed of a fruit that looks like a teeny-weeny mango (pistachios and mangos are actually in the same botanical family). Although pistachio nuts are available on grocery shelves year-round, only the female trees bear the fruits (and only every other year) — part of what makes them a little pricey. Pistachios are harvested and available fresh for only a few weeks a year, between September and November.
Get them while they’re fresh now to make lots of great dishes where their richness is the highlight. Knafeh Nabulseyeh, a heralded dessert in the Middle East, is dusted with finely chopped pistachios. The nuts are used whole for pistachio brittle, a riff on the classic peanut brittle. The green of the nuts glows through the semi-translucent caramel. In pistachio pesto ramen, chopped pistachios add a flavor twist to standard pesto — which here is cheese-less, too — and they lend texture to the final dish as well. Chopped pistachios are a wise choice for pistachio-crusted quail, as pistachios stand up to heat better than most nuts and also retain their lovely green color for a nice presentation.
Fresh pistachios are available at select Middle Eastern markets and specialty stores as well as online.
Pistachio Pesto Ramen
This pesto tastes lighter than most because it doesn’t include cheese. A generous portion of roasted and salted pistachios gives the pesto big flavors.
Time 20 minutes
Yields Serves 2 to 4
Knafeh Nabulseyeh
Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley's cheese-filled shredded filo pastry is baked until deeply golden, drizzled with orange-blossom simple syrup and sprinkled with finely-chopped pistachios.
Yields Makes 15 pieces. Serves 6 to 8.
Pistachio-crusted quail
Dredged quail is coated with finely-chopped pistachios, which work better than other nuts as a crust. The quail is pan-seared, finished in the oven, and served with a green-pepper sauce.
Time 25 minutes
Yields Serves 8 as an appetizer, 4 as a main course
Pistachio Nut brittle
This take on the familiar nut brittle recipe uses pistachios. The translucent amber of the caramelized sugar is studded with vibrant green nuts, which show reddish skin.
Time 45 minutes
Yields Serves 10 to 12 (About 1 pound)
