This week is Dr. Jessica B Harris’ birthday. We are enormous fans of her work! Fabienne brought her book “My Soul Looks Back” to Buy the Book which we previously posted. She is a renowned food historian and author of twelve critically acclaimed books documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora. She was inducted into the James Beard Who’s Who in Food and Beverage in America and recently helped the National Museum of African American History and Culture to conceptualize its cafeteria.

This year she released her memoir,  “My Soul Looks Back” where she recounts her time in New York City in the ’70s with James Baldwin, Maya Angelou and other members of the  black intelligentsia. “Her story offers a unique perspective on some of the greatest African-American intellectuals and artists of the modern era” – kirkus

Her book is peppered with recipes and also has a brilliant musical playlist. In honor of her birthday we decided to make the pistou soup which she recounts so vividly. Go out and buy her book!

Any meal with James Baldwin was bound to be unforgettable but my first meal in St. Paul-de-Vence, outside under the tall cypress trees at Jimmy’s house, is one that lives in my head, heart, and taste buds more than 40 years later…The meal was a Mediterranean classic: soupe au pistou.

Pistou Soup is a delicious hearty vegetarian soup which neither of us had made before.

Pistou Soup by Jessica B. Harris

In the provencal dialect pistou means pounded. Pistou is similar to a pesto, in that it has fresh garlic, basil and olive oil. The key difference is that pistou doesn’t have nuts.

Photo credit of Jessica B. Harris by J. Pinderhughes