Linda Bassett - Marblehead Current

19 Aug

FOOD 101: Summer discoveries to tuck away for fall

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Linda Bassett, Opinion

It seems that no matter where I roam, I discover new flavors, or new ways of combining old ones. New techniques or a revival of a centuries-old method. Often unexpected, often surprising. This summer, a salad dressing in Cooperstown, New York; a surprising Milwaukee pizza; a twist on a beverage at a Southern bar; Irish sausage, cheese and butter; and a classic cold potato soup in Manhattan. So, as summer shifts toward autumn, I am cataloguing them here as I riff on their flavors in…

09 Jul

FOOD 101: Crumbs of comfort: Why cornbread still reigns

Linda BassettFood, Linda Bassett, Local News

Cornbread is baked into our American DNA. At the nation’s beginnings, colonists had no access to wheat flour, so replaced it with what was available — ground, dried corn (cornmeal). They baked their humble loaves in an alcove of the fireplace. (Some of these fireplaces can still be found in Marblehead.) Farmers and soldiers, in their disparate fields, baked cornmeal “hoecakes” using farm implements to hold them over open wood fires. Over centuries, Americans developed an affinity for cornbread. Each region developed its own tweaks…

06 May

FOOD 101: Grilled cheese: The comfort food we all need right now

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Linda Bassett, Opinion

Was there ever a childhood comfort food to compare to a grilled cheese sandwich? Mom made it in a skillet or a grill press. At the diner or luncheonette, a cook slapped it on a well-greased grill top. Mom’s homemade sandwich was simple: two slices of American cheese — preferably orange — tucked between two slices of spongy grocery store bread. Gobs of butter heated and swirled in the skillet served to warm and melt the cheese and brown the bread. When cut, warm gooey…

01 Jan

Turning the page to 2026: Resolutions from across Marblehead

Leigh BlanderAbbot Public Library, Art, Culture, Education, Entertainment, Environment, Food, Linda Bassett, Marblehead Public Schools, Public safety, Top Stories

The holiday celebrations may be over, but the spirit of renewal is just beginning in Marblehead. As 2026 unfolds, the Current spoke with town leaders, educators, artists and community members about the resolutions guiding their work, families and passions in the year ahead. Here’s a sampling of responses we received. Cynda Rohmer, Marblehead Arts Festival presidentDo you have any resolutions related to the Arts Festival? Stay organized! Advertise and talk up the new events in 2026. How about for yourself? Get back to the gym…

05 Nov

FOOD 101: Who reads cookbooks?

Saoirse StallingsColumns, Food, Linda Bassett

Who reads cookbooks? Who buys them? Who are they written for? The first acknowledged cookbook, De Re Coquinaria, was authored by Apicius during the Roman Empire. Discovered among musty manuscripts during the Renaissance, it is more a memoir of elite parties in Imperial Rome, more suggestion than instruction. Who reads cookbooks? CURRENT PHOTO / LINDA BASSETT In the following centuries, cookbooks guided heads of large kitchens who oversaw a staff of cooks in a castle or a manor. (Home cooks learned by rote from mothers…

22 Oct

Salmon fillets: Many days, many ways

Saoirse StallingsColumns, Food, Linda Bassett

Salmon fillets are one of my go-to meals when I’m fresh out of ideas, in a rush, or too exhausted to put together a big meal on a weeknight. I buy frozen (not farmed) wild salmon — several fillets to the package to keep for these culinary brain-freeze nights. Then all I have to do is pull as many pieces as I want out of the freezer, and look in the pantry for away to enhance them. I can play with mustard, mayo, hot sauce,…

05 Sep

Food 101: Summer’s not over! Check out these secret ingredients for hot days

khthomsonFood, Linda Bassett

When it’s warm outside, all ingredients are called on to enhance food flavor. Familiar foodstuffs used in surprising ways. Or unsuspected ones added in rare abundance. Here are my new favorites: pink peppercorns, lemon zest, flaky sea salt and microgreens. PINK PEPPERCORNS: My favorite steak place put a tantalizing twist on steak au poivre on the menu. It’s crusted with black and pink peppercorns. Obsessed, I started experimenting with the rose-colored nuggets. I tried them on my own steak recipe with cognac sauce, on roasted…

10 Jul

FOOD 101: A summer touch of Nice

Will DowdLinda Bassett

I've been making salade Nicoise for a long time. The vegetable medley from the south of France is one of my go-to dinners in the heat of summer. Very little time spent in the room where the hot stove lives. The Current’s food columnist, Linda Bassett, writes that her Nicoise-style salad blends the vibrant flavors of the south of France, with fresh vegetables, tuna and eggs. CURRENT PHOTO / LINDA BASSETT I recently told friends that I planned to try it on their 8-year-olds. The…

26 Jun

FOOD 101: Putting a twist on classic peach dishes

Will DowdColumns, Food, Linda Bassett

A blueberry cobbler recipe, famously created by Alice Waters, has long been considered the gold standard of that dessert. The West Coast chef reduced the amount of sugar in a traditional cobbler highlighting the fruit's natural sweetness. On the opposite coast, John Martin Taylor, king of the peach cobbler, does not shy away from sugar. He includes a full cup to his dough — and he's sticking to it. Surely their surroundings and culinary heritages influenced their choices: Waters is a Mediterranean-influenced Californian and Taylor…

12 Jun

Exploring pesto: Classic recipes and creative twists

Will Dowd0 CommentsFood, Linda Bassett

Normally a food column ends with a recipe. This one is reversed, with the recipe at the top, followed by hints and alterations. This is an exploration of classic pesto, a sauce originating on the Italian Riviera, where basil grows in lush abundance. In gardens, on windowsills, in courtyard pots and wild by roadsides wherever the wind carries its seeds. Blended with Parmigiano cheese, green olive oil and garlic, pesto is the definitive flavor of a strip of shoreline called Liguria. Our columnist, Linda Bassett,…