Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1125082
NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 128 JULY 2019 PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG LEVY WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LOCAL INGREDIENT? That's a very hard question, as there is so many. One of these are "juvenile" carrots from Mike Raymond and crew at First Light Farm in Hamilton. They're picked at a stage in growth where the sweetness is perfectly balanced. When they arrive in the summer, they're still a little warm and dirty, a sign that they were harvested that very morning for us. We'll take the carrots and roast them wrapped in their greens over embers in the wood oven. Later we'll glaze them in their own carrot juice and a touch of nice olive oil. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DISH TO PREPARE? At the moment I'm rolling all of our pasta at Short & Main by hand with a mattarello (a long wooden rolling pin). A fellow cook and friend just returned from Italy and, through a wild exploration of Bologna, brought me back a mattarello made by a gentleman who is last of the craftsmen there making them by hand. We change our menu frequently but recently prepared a pasta of local Jonah crab with house- made lardo, preserved chilies, and some gorgeous flowering mint from Cedar Rock Gardens. After rolling the pasta so thin you can see the wooden surface beneath it, we made corzetti, which involves cutting and stamping each and every piece of pasta by hand. Rolling pasta this way is painstaking, time-consuming, and demands all your attention. Exactly what keeps me in the kitchen! WHEN IT IS YOUR NIGHT OFF, WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO COOK? My wife and I just welcomed our second child six weeks ago, so I love to pull out the bamboo steamer I found at Second Glance to steam vegetables and serve with baked haddock or scallops from Turner's Seafood Market. Quick, easy, and delicious. We'll also load up the kids and head to Cafe Sushi in Cambridge for an early dinner, as sushi is the only food that will keep my son in his seat at a restaurant! WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT SUMMER IN GLOUCESTER? Gloucester itself. It comes alive in so many ways. We moved here to be by the ocean, and my favorite thing is and will always be heading to the beach with the family and spending the day in the water. Pro tip: Bring an extra cooler with some oysters and a sparkling rosé. JULY 2019 C O M M U N I T Y Q & A GETTING TO KNOW THE NORTH SHORE JOSHUA SMITH Short & Main's Chef and Co-Owner