Cherry Pie
Two separate notes this morning came to the same conclusion about clafoutis: if you're making it at home, don't pit the cherries. (Restaurants need to worry about incautious diners, but you'll be careful, won't you?)
Gareth Renowden, a New Zealand truffle farmer, was the first to write. His latest post describes truffle pizza. Hmmmm.
S. Irene Virbila, who is restaurant critic for the L. A. Times, also advises us to leave the cherries whole.
"You don't have to pit the cherries: in fact, it will taste better if you don't. Part of the pleasure in this rustic dessert is rolling the stones around in your mouth and sucking off every bit of cherry juice.
"I once was staying with a friend in the Dordogne: her elderly mother lived in a small detached building. When I went over to visit, this blind woman in it must have been her late eighties had a clafoutis in the oven. She'd baked them every cherry season for so many years, she could tell when it was done by the smell (which is true, by the way)."