Doughnuts and Musica

Eastside Road, August 16, 2012—

DINNER BACK AT HOME tonight, but on the road home from the Sierra we stopped at a friend's new shop in Oakland to see what she'd been frying.

Doughnut Dolly is brand new, in fact: Hannah opened the shop yesterday. When we stopped in, about one o'clock in the afternoon, she still had doughnuts ready to go, but customers kept showing up while we were there. She'd baked 750 that morning, she said — raised-dough yeast doughnuts, sugared and ready to fill, each in its own elegant little paper jacket.

She had three fillings on hand: chocolate, pluot jam, and "Naughty Cream," a vanilla pastry cream with a special little twist of her own; you'll have to ask her about that. I had the cream, of course, and the doughnut was so light, warm, and delicious that I had another, this time with a marvelous pluot jam filling. Good coffee, too.

• Doughnut Dolly, 482 B 49th St., Oakland, California; 510.338.6738

---

One does not live by doughnuts alone, though, so we had dinner at home, first time since Monday. We started with Nancy Skall's delicious Musica broad beans, a Spanish version of Romano pole beans. I don't know what it is about Nancy's garden, other than its microclimate and its wonderful soil; in any case all her vegetables and fruits are special, and these Musicas among my favorites of all of them. Lindsey tips and tails them and slices them into sections, as you see, and cooks them with a little butter.

Afterward, fusilli — yes, fusill this time — with pesto; a little left over from the small batch I'd made with mortar and pestle; and then the first we've had of a large batch I made on Monday, using the blender instead of mortar and pestle. I must say I much prefer the mortar-and-pestle version; the texture is worth the small amount of work involved.

Cheap Pinot grigio