I'm Samin Nasrat.

And I'm Rishi K. Sherway. Together we make a podcast called Home Cooking. You might remember home cooking from back in March 2020 when we launched it to help folks who were stuck in lockdown with their quarantine cooking questions. And now that things are super scary again, we thought maybe it's time to bring the podcast back. We're back with a brand new season of eight episodes. And just like before, we're going to

try and answer all kinds of questions. Whatever you need, where are your friends in the kitchen?

So look for home cooking on your favorite podcast app and subscribe today.

This is Mel Street Radio from PRX, and I'm your host, Christopher Kimball.

Samin Nasrat is back. Today we talk about life, death, and how cooking helps her touch

infinity upon occasion. Last week, I made basil pesto. And there was just something about the way that it came together that day. I actually broke a lot of my own rules. I was in such a hurry. I was so hungry that I, like, toasted the pine nuts. And then I didn't wait for them to cool before I put them in the food processor. So they sort of turned into like a nut butter a little bit. But I actually think that was part of what made the pesto so good.

And we kept eating and we're like, whoa, this is so good.

There was just something about that moment that felt so sublime.

Cooking the sublime with Samin Nosrat, that's coming up later in the show.

But first, I'm joined by my co-host, Sarah Malton, to answer your cooking questions. Sarah is, of course, the star of Sarah's weeknight

meals on public television and also author of Home Cooking 101.

Okay, Chris, before we take any questions, I have one for you.

Have you made anything in recent history that really was fascinating to you?

Canterlobe cream pie.

Now, I found this in baking in the American South by Ann Burns.

She's a real pro, and it's a fabulous book.

It fascinated me.

I thought this is so interesting.

And the story was that cooks, chefs in the

South, would get cantaloupes and a lot of them would go bad because they ripen very quickly in the heat.

So one chef said, well, we got to do something about this. So he made a cantalope juice. And he used two cups of that juice with a basic cornstarch base and turned it into a custard pie.

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