What's cooking: Fresh strawberry pie

The most important thing about this pie is what you don't do. Fresh seasonal strawberries are too good to bake; they're best uncooked, with just a glaze. And not that day-glo goop you buy in a squeeze bottle. Real glaze is easy to make and just takes a few minutes.

FRESH STRAWBERRY PIE

6 cups strawberries
3 tablespoons corn starch
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

dough for single pie crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll out the pie crust dough (remember: make a disc, roll from the center out so you don't get a shape like Florida) and place it in a pie pan. Crimp edge and chill until firm. Line dough with foil and add pie weights, dry beans, or rice. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and weights and bake until lightly browned, about 10 more minutes. Cool.

Rinse and slice berries, separating off one cup of the less than lovely ones.

Puree the one cup of berries in a food processor, blender, or food mill. Pour puree into bowl and add corn starch. Stir and then press out corn starch lumps with a rubber spatula. Add sugar and lemon juice. Pour into small sauce pan and heat to boil, cooking until spoon draws a clear path through mixture (see photo above). Cool.

Mix cooled puree with berries. Fill crust and chill or serve at room temperature.

Whipped cream, with a little sugar and vanilla added, or vanilla ice cream is good on top.

So don't say you can't make pie, OK? Ya'll can make pie.