Angelo Pellegrini was born in Tuscany in 1904 and came with his
family to live in McCleary, Washington in 1913. He eventually became a 
professor of English Literature at the University of Washington. (There, my own
mother-in-law, Patty Latourette Lucas served as his secretary and worked on the 
manuscript for his first book The Unprejudiced Palate, 1948. Since she was 
secretary to the entire English department, she also typed the poems of Theodore
 Roethke.) The Unprejudiced Palate was re-published in 2005 with an 
introduction by Mario Batali as part of the Modern Library Food Series, edited 
by Ruth Reichl. 

Pellegrini grew his own vegetables and herbs, built a wood-burning
oven in the backyard and pioneered many of the notions that helped 
shape the New American food movement including the idea that we 
should eat local food in its own season.

Pellegrini is credited with the first recipe for pesto in the
United States which was published in Sunset magazine in 1946. The 
magazine's website reports: " ...we tip our hats to Angelo Pellegrini, the 
Tuscan-born English professor and Renaissance man whose writings on 
food, gardening, and living well (including his best-known book, The 
Unprejudiced Palate, first published in 1948 and still in print) made him
one of the West's most beloved food authorities. Sunset had a long 
relationship with Pellegrini, who lived in Seattle until his death in 1991, 
and it's his pesto recipe that first graced our pages. "

Today, Angelo Pellegrini's name is attached to the Pellegrini
Award which is presented annually by the Pellegrini family in 
association with The Seattle Weekly to honor individuals whose life and 
work celebrates the good life and empowers others to do the same. I was
the third recipient of the award in 2009 after Armandino Batali and Jon 
Rowley. This year the award was given to Chris Curtis who directs the 
Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets.  

In honor of the twentieth century man who was so prescient about the 
"New American Food" trend we enjoy in the twenty-first century, here 
are couple of recipes inspired by him.

Bright Green Basil Pesto
Farinata After Pellegrini