Ewen Callaway at Nature thinks this tasty pesto might be the first recipe ever published by Nature, and who am I to disagree?
Callaway is not an innocent bystander to this culinary moment; he's responsible for it. The recipe appeared in his story on the identification of two genetic variants that apparently have something to do with why some people think cilantro (also known as coriander) tastes soapy.
I'm glad I don't have the variant, because there would be no place left for me to go out to eat in New York. Cilantro has spread through Manhattan kitchens like kudzu, at least at the lowbrow joints where I take my lunch.
The pesto recipe included by Callaway was inspired by the idea that crushing cilantro speeds the breakdown of aldehydes that might be responsible for the soapy taste.
I'm eagerly awaiting Nature's recipe for those of us with the genetic variant that makes uni taste like, you know–uni.
-Paul Raeburn
Leave a Reply