Southern Spiced Pecans

When I’m planning to cook with pecans, I usually purchase large bags of shelled nuts.  They’re a great snack to have on hand, and I never worry that they’ll go to waste.  I often eat them raw and straight from the bag, one sneaky handful at a time.  After I made Pecan Sandies, though, I had so many pecans left over that decided to try coating the nuts with a mix of bolder flavors.

Frank Stitt’s recipe for Spiced Pecans is literally something you can throw together in minutes.  While the raw pecans browned in the oven, I stirred together melted butter, olive oil, rosemary, cayenne, salt, pepper, and dark brown sugar in a large bowl.  The only thing that required chopping was the fresh rosemary, which is easy to strip from its woody stems.

After about 10 minutes, I tossed the warm pecans into the spiced coating.  The mix smelled so strongly of rosemary that I was a little worried; I like the herb, but its scent overpowered everything else in the kitchen!

I needn’t, it turns out, have worried.  As long as you chop the rosemary finely enough, no one pecan has enough of the herb to overwhelm its flavor.  Set out with deviled eggs and dill pickles from the farmers’ market, these pecans made an appealing and addictive Southern appetizer!