Piment dEspelette has landed on the radar of foodies, with recipes calling on the spice popping up often in food magazines. Made exclusively from red peppers grown in the French Basque region of Espelette, it used to be one of those ingredients foodies had to hunt down on the Internet. These days, you can find it at both Gateway Market and Allspice in Des Moines.

The mighty little powder doesnt come cheap (expect to pay about $14 for a jar), but it packs a lot of bright-rich spiciness  without the blazing obviousness of heat. While its a classic spice for Basque recipes such as Basque chicken and pipérade (a pepper and tomato sauce), it also works wonders on deviled eggs or in marinades, pasta tosses and vinaigrettes.

Kathy and Herb Eckhouse, co-founders of La Quercia Prosciutto Americano in Norwalk, are renown across the U.S. for turning pig legs into wonderful prosciutto; earlier this year, they ventured to another part of the pig, the belly. Now available online ($17.95/pound at www.laquercia.us), their Tamworth Country Cured Bacon is made from antibiotic free, vegetarian fed, family-farm raised Tamworth hogs; the only ingredients used are pork, sea salt, bay leaf, rosemary and pepper.

The Eckhouses describe the bacons flavor as sweet, smoky, genuine and straightforward. Kathy recommends barely cooking the bacon (rather than crisping it).

Although chefs have raved about this bacon, you dont need a chefs expertise (or complicated recipes) to enjoy it.

I love our bacon with really good tomatoes, some baby lettuces and good toast for a fabulous BLT,Kathy said. It’s also great wrapped around a little bundle of green onions and roasted or grilled. Or straight up with scrambled eggs and toast is a perennial winner!

Now that basil is finally taking off in the garden, pesto season has officially begun. But before you get out that food processor, consider making it the way generations of Italian cooks made it long before electricity: by hand. Grinding the herbs in a mortar and pestle (such as Le Creusets 20-ounce mortar and pestle, $38 at Kitchen Collage) keeps the sauce from becoming one homogenous mash. Instead, bits of the herbs, nuts and cheese separate here and there from the oil, letting each flavor stand out distinctly from the other. The utensil also comes in handy for anything from mashing mint leaves for mojitos to grinding spices and making guacamole.

Fox Networks MasterChef reality show is currently airing a second season. On Aug. 16, judges Joe Bastianich, Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliot crown this years MasterChef from among the 18 amateur cooks competing on the show.

Currently on newsstands, MasterChef magazine ($9.99) wont give you an advance peek at who won, but it does offer 147 pages of recipes, interviews and tips from judges and contestants. One story highlights lessons the finalists learned during the intense culinary experience. Some examples:

Be daring and confident its better to deliver an original plate that you believe in than something thats safe.  Esther Kang

Keep flavored salts on hand hickory smoked, green chile, black olive, etc.  to add flavor and texture to a dish.  Alvin Schultz

Herbes de Provence (a dried herb blend) is awesome and diverse use it in scrambled eggs, roast chicken, grilled lamb chops, ragus and breadings.

 

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