Roasted Tomato Sauce

 Adapted from a Food52 recipe by Kate Sinnott and Lauren DeMattia

I stumbled upon this roasted variation on Marcella Hazan’s tomato-and-butter sauce on Food52. Instead of simmering the tomatoes, this version roasts fresh tomatoes in a hot oven with onion, butter, and anchovies, producing a deeply flavored sauce with both richness and acidity.

I made it with seven plum tomatoes given to me by a neighbor who had just plucked them from her garden, and it produced a delicious dish—one worth repeating. I used nodi marini; the original recipe used rigatoni, but the sauce would work with almost any pasta shape.

7–8 plum tomatoes or medium round tomatoes
1 medium onion, cut into large dice
2 tinned anchovies (Cento or Roland are usually easy to find)
7 tablespoons butter
2 pinches salt, plus more to taste
2 pinches black pepper, plus more for serving
A little extra-virgin olive oil
⅔ pound pasta, such as nodi marini, rigatoni, fusilli, penne, or spaghetti
⅓ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
A few fresh basil leaves, torn, if you have them

Heat the oven to 425°F.

Halve the tomatoes and arrange them cut side up in a roasting pan.

Scatter the diced onion among the tomatoes.

Chop the anchovies and distribute them over the tomatoes and onion, along with a little of their oil.

Cut the butter into cubes and distribute it evenly among the tomatoes. Drizzle with a little olive oil, sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and toss gently.

Roast for about 50 minutes. The tomatoes are done when their edges have developed dark—even a little black—color. Crush them slightly with a wooden spoon.

While the tomatoes are roasting, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta so that it is ready when the tomatoes come out of the oven.

Before draining the pasta, reserve ½ cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot.

Add the roasted tomatoes, onions, anchovies, butter, and all the accumulated juices to the pasta. If necessary, loosen the sauce with a little of the reserved pasta water.

Simmer the pasta and sauce together for about 3 minutes.

Stir in the Parmigiano-Reggiano, grind a little black pepper over the top, and serve with a few torn basil leaves scattered over the pasta, if you have them.

Cold Poached Salmon

Adapted from Simply Recipes by Elise Bauer

Serves 2 to 4, depending on how much fish you have

½ cup dry white wine or vermouth
½ cup water
1 sprig fresh parsley
1 shallot, thinly sliced, or a few thin slices of onion
Wild salmon fillets
Salt
Tartar sauce or lemon slices, optional

Add the wine or vermouth and water to a sauté pan with a cover. Add the parsley and shallot or onion and bring to a simmer.

Sprinkle the flesh side of the salmon with a little salt and place it skin-side down in the pan. Cover.

Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the salmon. Do not overcook.

Remove the salmon from the pan and cool to room temperature. Chill. This is nice with tartar sauce or lemon slices.

Note: The USDA safe internal temperature for fish is 145°F. For moist cold poached wild salmon, I prefer to remove the salmon from the pan when the thickest part registers 120°F to 125°F on an instant-read thermometer, then let it finish gently as it cools. Use your own judgment, especially if serving anyone very young, elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised.

Penne with Tomatoes and Balsamic Vinegar

Adapted from Marcella’s Italian Kitchen by Marcella Hazan (Alfred A. Knopf, 1986).

Serves 2

This is not Marcella Hazan’s most famous book, but it is my favorite. She says that “rosemary and balsamic vinegar account for the unusual, effusive fragrance of this sauce.” It is delicious.

For 8 ounces of penne

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 or 3 cloves garlic, sliced very thin
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, about 4 to 6 inches long, chopped
1 400g can Italian peeled plum tomatoes, put through a food mill
Black pepper
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

Read the recipe all the way through so you understand the timing. You want to finish the pasta in the sauce.

Put the olive oil and garlic into a sauté pan or saucier large enough to hold the sauce and the cooked penne. Add the fresh rosemary.

Cook over medium heat until the garlic just starts to sizzle, being careful it does not burn. Add the tomatoes and continue to cook until the oil separates from the tomatoes. Expect this to take 10 to 15 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Cook the penne in lots of boiling salted water until it is al dente—very firm to the bite. Drain the penne, and transfer it to the pan containing the sauce.

Turn the heat back on to very low, and toss the pasta with the sauce. Cook for about 1 minute.

Turn off the heat again, and make a well in the middle of the pasta. Pour the balsamic vinegar into the well. Pull the pasta over it, and mix for a few seconds until it is well coated. Add some black pepper, and mix again.

Serve at once.

Orange Ricotta Loaf Cake

Adapted from Alexandra Stafford, who adapted it from Giada De Laurentiis.

Walter’s favorite cakes are my Chocolate Torte and Flourless Almond Cake. Mine are the Via Carota Chocolate Cake and this plain orange-scented loaf, which is made in one bowl. Alexandra Stafford adapted it from Giada De Laurentiis, making it with oil instead of butter. She uses olive oil but suggests grapeseed oil as another option, and that is what I use. It does not add any flavor to the cake, letting a hint of orange shine through.

I bake it in a 1½-pound Chicago Metallic loaf pan.

Butter, for coating the pan
3 large eggs, at room temperature
364g whole-milk ricotta
164g grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur (I use Mathilde)
300g sugar
6g Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Zest of 1 orange
11g baking powder
192g flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously butter your loaf pan. You can line it with parchment paper cut to extend over the two long sides, but I don’t do that; I find that once the cake has completely cooled, it slides right out of the pan.

In a large bowl, use a large flat whisk to thoroughly mix the eggs and ricotta. Whisk in the oil and liqueur until blended. Whisk in the sugar, salt, and orange zest. Next whisk in the baking powder. Finally, add the flour and use a spatula to mix it in just until it is no longer visible.

It is important to note that this cake takes a little longer to bake than you would think. Just inserting a cake tester isn’t enough; you have to check it with an instant-read thermometer. It is done when the thermometer reaches about 200°F. This will take around 60 minutes. Start checking at 55 minutes.

Cool completely before removing from the pan.

No-Knead Bread in the Emile Henry Long Baker

Adapted from My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method by Jim Lahey (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009).

Makes one long loaf

Formerly Known as the Italian Baker

The first thing I did when I got the Long Baker was write to Emile Henry to find out if I could preheat the empty Baker in the oven before putting room-temperature bread dough in it. The pot is made of Burgundian clay, not part of the Emile Henry Flame Collection, so I wasn’t sure. I still can’t represent to you that it is okay to do that in every circumstance. I can, however, share the response I received from Karla Stears, the corporate chef for Emile Henry, on January 17, 2018, and based on this email, I have been doing just that when making this loaf of bread. So have two of my friends.

You are correct, the Italian Baker is not part of the flame collection but luckily you ARE able to preheat the Baker in the oven and then add your room temperature dough.

Special Equipment I Use

The Pullman/Long Loaf Bread Baker by Emile Henry
A rectangular banneton
Mercer Culinary Millennia 10-inch wide bread knife
Kuhn Rikon 2704 kitchen shears
My Bread by Jim Lahey

The first rise of the bread takes from 12 to 18 hours. I have found that a little more than 18 doesn’t do the dough any harm, especially if the temperature is cold. However, the second rise is 2 hours, and I find that it is better to stick as closely as possible to that timing rather than letting it sit in the banneton much longer than 2 hours.

The amount of time I bake it works well for me in my oven, which is a 36-inch Wolf Dual Fuel. The internal temperature of the finished loaf should be at least 209°F.

600g King Arthur bread flour
13 to 14g kosher salt
½ teaspoon yeast (I use SAF instant)
450g cool water
Wheat bran (optional, but nice)

Put the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl, and stir with a fork to combine. Add the cool water, and using the handle of a wooden spoon, mix it all together. I like using the handle of a wooden spoon more than a Danish whisk for this task. This will take a few minutes, but it will come together. Cover the bowl tightly with a piece of plastic wrap. Let sit in a warmish spot for at least 12 and up to 18 hours. I like to do it the night before I plan to bake and leave it overnight on the turned-off stovetop with the hood lights on.

After it has risen from 12 to 18 hours, it is time for the second 2-hour rise.

Put a linen tea towel in the long banneton and sprinkle the bottom with a little flour and a little wheat bran, if you have it.

Put a little flour on a wooden board and, using a plastic dough scraper, turn the very sticky dough in the bowl out onto it. Fold the dough into a rectangle, as if you were folding a piece of paper to put into an envelope. Then turn the dough in the other direction, and fold it the same way again. You can add a very little amount of flour to your hands as you do this because the dough can be sticky, but don’t add too much. You don’t want to add more flour to the dough.

Make sure you have patted it into a rectangle, a little oval-ish, not a square, and place it seam side down in the banneton. Sprinkle a little flour over it and a little wheat bran, if you have it, so the tea towel doesn’t stick. Fold the linen cloth over it, and let it sit for 2 hours. It will expand to fit the banneton.

The timing matters here. Preheat the oven to 475°F after the first hour of the second rise because, at the end of the 2-hour second rise, you want to bake the dough in a preheated 475°F oven in a preheated pot. I count on it taking 45 minutes for my oven to reach that high a temperature, and I always put the Long Baker into the oven 10 minutes after I turn the heat on. To be clear, 1 hour after the dough has been turned into the banneton, I turn on my oven, and 10 minutes later, I put the empty Long Baker in the oven.

When you are ready to bake the bread, very carefully—because it is so hot—take the Long Baker out of the oven, closing the door so it doesn’t lose too much heat. Remove the lid, and holding the tea towel sticking out of the banneton tight, turn the banneton upside down over the Long Baker so the dough plops in. If some sticks to the sides of the Baker, just nudge it with a silicone spatula, and it will pull right off.

How to Score the Loaf

Now it’s time to score the bread. I find it easiest to do this with kitchen shears instead of a lame, and the ones I like best are by Kuhn Rikon. If you look at the picture directly above, you will see how I score it. I snip it right down the middle and then snip side to side.

Put the lid on the Baker, and bake for 30 minutes.

At the end of 30 minutes, remove the lid, and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove the Baker from the oven.

Remove the loaf from the Baker as soon as the Baker comes out of the oven. One or two silicone spatulas will help with this. Cool on a rack before slicing.

If this all sounds like a pain, it really isn’t. Like driving a stick shift, it will become second nature. I bake the bread, then slice it, put it in a plastic bread bag, and slip it into the freezer. King Arthur has plastic bags sized for loaves of bread, and I use those. I toast the slices lightly for sandwiches and darker for toast. Pieces of this bread toasted and cut in half are lovely to serve with cheese.

If I want to make two loaves of bread, I mix a second batch of dough an hour later than the first one and bake it as soon as the first one comes out of the oven because the pot is still hot. For this reason, I have two bannetons, but I do not have two pots.

Sandwich Bread

Adapted from Bread Toast Crumbs by Alexandra Stafford (Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed, 2017).

Makes one 1½-pound loaf

This book changed my kitchen life because I do not buy sandwich bread anymore. I bake the full recipe of Alexandra Stafford’s Peasant Bread in a 1½-pound loaf pan, two or three loaves at a time, and am never without it. It makes the most delicious toast and sandwiches, and from her blog, Alexandra's Kitchen, I have branched out to her Brioche Buns for my hamburgers.

I will explain the method I use to put it all together. After you have done it once, it will make sense. But I recommend you get the book Bread Toast Crumbs and go to Alexandra's Kitchen to get the information directly from the source and to see all the excellent recipes there.

512g all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur Organic)
10g salt (I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt)
8g sugar
8g yeast (I use SAF instant)
454g warm water (340g cold water mixed with 114g boiling water)
Room-temperature butter to coat the pan

Mix the dry ingredients together with a flat whisk in a large bowl. The bowl has to be large enough for the dough to rise. I use a Mason Cash Number 24 Cane Bowl.

Next, get the water ready. Bring water to a boil in a kettle and add some to a Pyrex measuring cup. Add cold tap water to another Pyrex measuring cup. In a third Pyrex measuring cup, mix 114g hot water and 340g cold water together.

Add the mixed water to the dry ingredients and stir it in with a Swedish whisk. After it is incorporated, take a regular dinner knife and stir it around with the blade until the whole mass feels elastic.

Once the dough is mixed together well, cover it with StretchTite and let it sit on the counter. It takes about an hour to rise to the top of the bowl.

Preheat the oven to 400°F, not convection.

While the dough is rising, butter a 1½-pound loaf pan. I use a Chicago Metallic pan, Number 49110, with inside top dimensions of 10 x 5 x 3 inches. Alexandra Stafford likes USA Pans, and they make a comparable size.

As soon as the dough has risen to the top of the bowl, remove the wrap before the dough touches it so it does not stick when you pull it off.

With a dough scraper, scrape the dough into the loaf pan and let it rise again. This will take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how warm the kitchen is. When the dough rises a little over the top of the pan, cut a line straight down the middle the long way using sharp kitchen shears.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven. I place it on a rack and then tip the loaf out. Then I put the naked loaf upside down back in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

Remove the loaf from the oven, put it on a rack, and let it sit overnight on the counter. In the morning, slice it with a bread knife — I use either a Victorinox or a Mercer — and put it in a plastic loaf bag. I get mine from King Arthur Flour.

The first day, I use it untoasted to make sandwiches — tuna salad in the winter, and tomato and mayonnaise in the summer. After that, I freeze it and toast the slices straight from the freezer.

Just Risen, Not Scored

Scored Down the Middle

Ready to Slice

Crème Anglaise

Adapted from Above and Beyond Parsley: Food for the Senses by The Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri (Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri, 1992).

I make a chocolate torte for Walter’s birthday. Now I serve it with plain whipped cream to cut the richness of the cake. However, in the old days of big parties in the City, I used to pull out all the stops and serve it with this crème anglaise and raspberry sauce. Crème anglaise is lovely with chocolate cake, berries, or anything that could use a little old-fashioned dessert-party glamour.

3 egg yolks, at room temperature
¼ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 vanilla bean
2 tablespoons Amaretto, preferably Luxardo, or Frangelico
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt by hand until light and thickened.

Pour the cream into a heavy saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape the seeds into the cream, and add the pod. Heat the cream until it is hot but not boiling.

Remove the vanilla bean pod. Very slowly whisk a little of the hot cream into the egg-yolk mixture to temper it. Continue adding the cream gradually, whisking constantly, until it is all incorporated.

Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Do not let it boil.

Strain the custard into a bowl. Stir in the Amaretto or Frangelico and the vanilla extract.

Cover and chill until cold.

Piedmontese Peppers

Adapted from “Piedmontese Peppers” by Elizabeth David in At Elizabeth David’s Table, compiled by Jill Norman (Michael Joseph, 2010).

Serves as many as you like; assume ½ to 1 pepper per person

Jill Norman was David’s editor, publisher, friend, and literary executor. This recipe comes from At Elizabeth David’s Table, a collection of Norman’s favorite Elizabeth David recipes, which makes the book especially worth paying attention to.

David says the peppers should not be completely cooked; they should remain al dente, with the filling “deliciously oily and garlicky.”

Please read the whole recipe through before starting to cook.

Bell peppers—red, yellow, or green
Garlic cloves, cut into slices
Raw tomato, cut into small pieces (Cherry tomatoes work well)
Anchovy fillets
Olive oil
Butter
Salt
A little parsley, optional

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Wash your peppers, and cut them in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and membranes. If the peppers are large enough, cut them in half again.

Into each piece of pepper, put 2 or 3 slices of garlic, 2 small pieces of raw tomato, half an anchovy fillet cut into pieces, a little olive oil, a small knob of butter, and a small pinch of salt.

Arrange on a baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. They are meant to be al dente, not cooked until soft.

Serve cold, or at room temperature, with a little parsley if you like.

Crustless Zucchini Quiche

 Adapted from Food Processor Cookery by Irena Chalmers (Potpourri Press, 1976).

¼ cup parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound small zucchini, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
¾ cup fresh breadcrumbs (not dried; I blitz whatever bread I am using in a food processor
¾ cup grated Gruyère or Emmental cheese (I grate this on a box grater.)
¾ cup half-and-half or cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese (I grate this with a Microplane.)

Heat the olive oil, and cook the zucchini over moderately high heat until lightly browned. Add the garlic and parsley, and cook until the garlic just begins to color. Do not let the garlic brown. Turn off the heat, and season the zucchini with salt.

Remove the zucchini from the pan with a slotted spoon, and place it in a baking dish with the breadcrumbs and Gruyère or Emmental.

Combine the half-and-half or cream with the eggs, and pour into the baking dish. Sprinkle the surface with Parmesan cheese, and bake in a preheated 400°F oven for 25 minutes.

Butter Chicken

Adapted from the Kitchn

This is one of the few recipes where I prefer chicken breasts to thighs. They become silky in the sauce, much as they do in Thai Chicken Curry.

Serves 4

1 medium yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1 one-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon garam masala, divided
½ teaspoon plus ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric, divided
¾ teaspoon plus ½ teaspoon ground cumin, divided
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1½-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons butter, divided
1 three-inch cinnamon stick
1 400g can Italian tomatoes, run through a food mill
1 cup water
¼ to ½ cup heavy cream

Read the recipe all the way through to decide what pan you want to use. I use an All-Clad 3-quart Copper Core sauté pan. It is large enough to sauté the chicken and hold all the sauce.

Chop the onion, grate the garlic cloves on a Microplane zester, grate the ginger on the same zester, and put it all in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, combine 1 teaspoon garam masala, ¼ teaspoon turmeric, and ½ teaspoon cumin. Add the chicken to the bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss with the spices until evenly coated.

In a small dish, combine 1 tablespoon garam masala, ½ teaspoon turmeric, and ¾ teaspoon cumin. Set aside.

Melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat in a pan large enough to eventually hold all the chicken and the sauce. Add the chicken, and cook, stirring frequently, until it turns golden brown all over. This will take 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken, which will not be cooked all the way through, to a plate using a slotted spoon.

Add the onion-garlic-ginger mixture to the pan, and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes. Add the spices you have set aside in the small dish, along with the cinnamon stick, and cook for 1 minute more.

Add the tomatoes, the water, and the chicken with its accumulated juices. Scrape any remaining spice mixture from the plate holding the chicken into the pan. Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, and cook until the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes.

Add ¼ cup heavy cream and the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. If you want it creamier, add the other ¼ cup cream. Stir, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes more, or until it thickens to your liking and the chicken is cooked through. Taste the sauce for salt; it may need a little more. Discard the cinnamon stick—or at least don’t serve it on anyone’s plate.

We eat this with basmati rice, buttered peas, fried pappadams, and Sweet and Hot Mango Chutneys from Kalustyan’s.

Country Ribs with Fennel and Chiles

Some wonderful cookbooks somehow fly under the radar. Cooking in the Moment is one of them. It is a compact book filled with recipes that are both appealing and approachable. Reusing’s recipe is for 2 racks of pork spareribs, but I adapted her fennel-and-chile seasoning for meaty country-style ribs, using James Beard’s salt-and-pepper rib method as my guide for temperature and timing.

4 country-style pork ribs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I use grapeseed)
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Optional — sauerkraut

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Using a spice grinder (I use a small coffee grinder dedicated to spices), grind the fennel seeds with the red pepper flakes until fairly fine.

Line a quarter sheet pan with aluminum foil and set a wire rack inside it.

Put a large sheet of aluminum foil in your sink and place the ribs on top. Drizzle with the vegetable oil and rub it all over the ribs with your hands. Sprinkle the fennel mixture over the ribs and rub it in well. Then season generously with salt and pepper, rubbing that in too.

Arrange the ribs on the prepared rack and roast for 1½ hours, turning every 30 minutes.

If using sauerkraut, drain it well and toss it lightly with vegetable oil. After the ribs have cooked for 30 minutes, add the sauerkraut to the pan underneath the rack and continue roasting.

Note: To use 2 racks of pork spareribs instead of country-style ribs, use the same amount of seasoning. Preheat the oven to 450°F, roast the ribs on a rack for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375°F and roast for 1 to 1¼ hours longer, rotating the pan halfway through cooking, until the meat is tender, deeply browned, and pulls away easily from the bones.

An Untraditional Moussaka

Adapted from The Way to Cook by Julia Child (Knopf, 1989)

Serves 6

This recipe is very loosely adapted from “An Untraditional Moussaka” in The Way to Cook. Julia says her recipe can be served warm, tepid, or even cold, but cold doesn’t sound appealing to me at all — certainly not on a frigid winter’s night, which is when this is truly delicious.

The Eggplant

2 firm shiny purple-skinned eggplants, 1 to 1½ pounds each, cut. into 1-inch cubes
Salt
Olive oil

Wash and dry the eggplants; don’t peel them.

How to cut the eggplant into 1-inch cubes:

1. Cut off both ends of the eggplant.

2. Slice the eggplant crosswise (the short way) into 1-inch-thick rounds.

3. Stack the rounds in piles, about 6 slices high.

4. Cut each stack into strips, then rotate the stack and cut across the strips perpendicularly to make 1-inch cubes.

Sauté the cubes in a large frying pan or saucier until they release their liquid and start to brown, adding more olive oil as necessary as you go along. Using a slotted spoon, remove the cubes of eggplant to a long piece of aluminum foil, making three equal piles of eggplant cubes.

The Meat

¾ cup washed and dried parsley sprigs, chopped (measured before chopping)
1½ cups minced onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, pureed through a Microplane zester
1½ pounds ground lamb or beef
1 400 g can Italian tomatoes, run through a food mill
¾ cup red wine or dry white French vermouth, such as Noilly Prat
⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
1 large egg, beaten
Salt and pepper

Over medium heat, sauté the minced onion in a frying pan or saucier with the olive oil. When the onions are tender, after about 6 minutes, add the garlic, and cook for about 1 minute more. You don’t want the garlic to burn and get bitter.

Raise the heat to medium-high, and add the meat, letting it brown lightly. Add the tomatoes, wine, parsley, allspice, and salt to taste. Lower the heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring often, until the mixture holds its shape softly in a spoon.

Taste, and add more salt if necessary along with a little black pepper. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the beaten egg, and set aside.

Divide the meat mixture into two equal portions for layering.

Assemble the Dish

In a baking casserole (I use a Pyrex dish with round sides and a flat bottom), put down a layer of eggplant cubes followed by half of the meat mixture. Add another layer of eggplant, the rest of the meat, and a third layer of eggplant. Set aside while you make the sauce for the topping.

The Sauce

3 tablespoons butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 cup grated Alpine-style cheese, such as Gruyère or Emmental
A pinch of nutmeg
½ cup grated Alpine-style cheese for the top

To make a white sauce, melt the butter in a 2- to 2½-quart saucepan or fait tout (also known as a Windsor pan — a saucepan with sloping sides). Add the flour, and with a wooden spoon blend it into the butter. Cook the butter and flour together for 2 minutes to make a roux without letting it color.

Remove the pan from the heat, and when the roux stops bubbling, add 1½ cups of the hot milk all at once, whisking constantly. When the sauce is smooth, add the remaining ½ cup milk, and stir until smooth again. Season lightly with salt and white pepper, and simmer for 3 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat, and blend in the cheese until the sauce is smooth. Taste for seasoning, add the pinch of nutmeg, and stir it into the sauce.

Spoon the hot sauce over the top of the eggplant and meat layered in the casserole. Shake the casserole gently to let some of the sauce sink down through the layers.

Scatter the ½ cup grated cheese over the top as evenly as possible, and bake in a 350-degree oven for about 45 minutes, until bubbling and lightly browned.

Let the casserole cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Warm, Soft Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Jean-Georges Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman (Broadway Books, 1998)

These are the famous individual molten cakes created by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. I make them in 6-ounce Anchor Hocking custard cups that were my mother’s.

113g butter (1 stick), plus extra for buttering the cups
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate*
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
50g sugar
2 teaspoons flour, plus more for dusting

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Butter and flour four 4-ounce custard cups. Turn them over to remove the excess flour, then butter and flour them again.

Melt the chocolate and butter together using the Alice Medrich method below. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the eggs, yolks, and sugar with an electric mixer until light and thick.

While the chocolate mixture is still warm, pour in the egg mixture and whisk in the flour just until combined.

Divide the batter among the prepared cups and place them on a quarter sheet pan. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven and turn each custard cup upside down onto its own plate. Let sit for 10 seconds, then lift one corner of the cup and the cake will fall out. Serve immediately.

NOTES

To melt chocolate in a water bath using the Alice Medrich method:

Use a stainless steel bowl and a skillet a few inches wider than the bowl.

Roughly chop the chocolate and combine it with the butter in the bowl.

Bring a shallow layer of water in the skillet to a simmer.

Set the bowl in the skillet and stir frequently until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Do not let the water rise above a simmer.

Remove the bowl from the heat and proceed with the recipe.

*Jean-Georges recommends Valrhona; I use Guittard.

Make-Ahead Zabaglione with Berries

Adapted from Make It Ahead by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, 2014) 

My friend Sharon, who is a pastry chef, and I would often meet at Girasole on the Upper East Side for dinner. After our main course, we would always order what we really came for— the Zabaglione. Only once was it cold rather than hot, and that night it was the best we ever had. When the bill came, the waiter said “Dessert is on the house. Everyone else in the place ordered it after they heard you two swooning over it.” And rightly so. This is just as scrumptious.

7 large egg yolks, room temperature

½ cup caster (superfine) sugar
¾ cup dry Italian Marsala wine (dry Florio is easily available)
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
¾ cup cold heavy cream
Berries of your choice

If you don’t have a copper zabaglione pan, make a double boiler using a heat-proof bowl—glass or stainless steel—placed over a pan of simmering, not boiling, water. Into the bowl place the egg yolks, sugar, and dry Marsala wine and whisk constantly so the eggs won’t scramble. 

The mixture will thicken and expand in volume, and the froth will disappear. As soon as this happens, and the whisk leaves a trail in the mixture, remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the vanilla and almond extracts. 

Remove the pan from the heat, remove the bowl from the pan and stabilize it by putting it in another pan (not over water), setting that aside for 30 minutes so it can cool to room temperature, whisking once or twice while it cools.

Now it’s time to whip the cream. I use a hand-held beater and a stainless steel bowl I keep in the freezer with an extra pair of beaters in it specifically for whipping cream. If you are going to use a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment. 

Beat the cream just until firm peaks form. You do not want it to get grainy.

Use a rubber spatula to very gently fold the cream into the cooled Marsala/egg mixture. 

Very gently and carefully put this mixture in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for a few hours or overnight. 

To serve, add berries of your choice to the bottom of individual small bowls or glasses and top with the cold Zabaglione. Serve right away.