By Cooler this week — 80s, breeze, the kind of summer week New Englanders pretend is the only kind we get. Lies. We get the heat too. But we forget on purpose.
I took the kids to Wollaston Beach Saturday morning. Low tide, mud flats, hermit crabs in the puddles. Nora collected sixteen rocks. Liam collected one excellent stick. I collected sand in places I do not want to discuss.
Clinic — Wednesday I had a long visit with a 19-year-old whose anxiety has stopped him from going to community college. We talked. I made a referral. I gave him my card. He came back Friday to say he had called. I considered that a win for the entire week.
Group Tuesday. We were six. Bernadette announced she's going on vacation in August — two weeks at her sister's in Vermont. We will have a substitute. Her name is Anna. We will be polite to her, said Bernadette, with a glint that meant we had better.
Meghan called at 11 Thursday. She said her associate quit, the bad one, and she said good. She also said her firm is hiring and I should think about a career change. I said I'm a nurse, Meg. She said I know, Katie, I just like to imagine us in the same building.
Sunday dinner at Ma's. Lasagna — a real one, the kind that takes four hours. Maureen made it Saturday and reheated it Sunday. Dad cut the squares with a ruler-precision he reserves for lasagna and floor tile.
Saturday pancakes. Burned the first one. The blue plate has a new tiny chip from the move that I just noticed. The pancake sat on it the way it always sits.
Food of the week: Ma's lasagna. The recipe she will not write down. She says it's in her hands.
Ma’s lasagna doesn’t exist on paper — it exists in the way she moves around that kitchen, and I have accepted that I will never fully replicate it. But after Sunday dinner, watching Dad cut those perfect squares, I wanted to bring something of that spirit home with me: something Italian, something unfussy, something that feels like it was always known rather than learned. This fregolotta — a crumbly, golden Italian almond cookie from the Veneto tradition — is exactly that. You break it apart at the table rather than slice it, which feels right for a week that was mostly about things held loosely and gratefully.
Fregolotta (Italian Almond Crumb Cookie)
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup almond flour (or finely ground blanched almonds)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds, for topping
- Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9-inch round cake pan or tart pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, granulated sugar, and salt until evenly combined.
- Work in the butter. Add the cold butter cubes to the flour mixture. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse, pebbly crumbs — do not overwork it. Some larger crumbs are good; that texture is the whole point.
- Add egg yolk and vanilla. Drizzle in the egg yolk and vanilla extract. Toss and press gently with a fork until the mixture just begins to clump together in irregular pieces. It should look shaggy, not smooth.
- Fill the pan. Crumble the mixture loosely and evenly into the prepared pan. Do not press it flat — let it stay rough and uneven. Scatter the sliced almonds over the top.
- Bake. Bake for 28–32 minutes, until the top is deep golden and the edges are just beginning to pull away from the pan. The center may look slightly underdone — it will firm as it cools.
- Cool and serve. Let the fregolotta cool completely in the pan, at least 20 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar if you like. To serve, bring it to the table whole and let people break off pieces by hand. It is not a cake you slice.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 320 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 85mg