Make Ahead

The upside to these beans is that they are totally delicious. The downside is that they take a seriously long time to soak and cook (plan on starting these the night before you intend to serve them). But please don’t take any shortcuts, or you may end up with undercooked beans, which are not so delicious. For the perfect combination, try Classic Beef Meatballs (page 4) with Classic Tomato Sauce (page 56) over a heap of these beans. They are also a great addition to a salad, and can turn simple greens into a protein-rich meal.

Sure, you want this as a quick and simple sauce for the Reuben Balls (page 29), but it is also great as a dipping sauce for shrimp, tortilla chips, or veggies. Don’t skip the caraway seeds. Their distinctive aroma elevates this above and beyond store-bought dressing. This dressing will keep for up to a week in the fridge.

There’s almost no turn in Tuscany that doesn’t provide some sensory joy. Driving its curvy roads through low hills gently swelling up from narrow, verdant valleys, you discover olive groves that produce some of the world’s finest olive oil and vineyards that yield some of the world’s most renowned wines. Exploring the region’s old towns and cities on foot, you wind your way through dozens of museums full of famous artworks and wander into back-alley churches and quaint shops stacked with Tuscan treasures. And everywhere, there is fabulous food. The Tuscans have long produced delicious salumi, that special form of pork cookery, called charcuterie in France, that comprises prosciutto, mortadella, soppressata, salamis and other cured meats, along with fresh sausages particular to the region. In this recipe, sundried tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella flavor fresh pork sausage to deliver the taste of Tuscany.

The fennel-spiked sausage that turns up in such favorite Italian American preparations as pizza, meatball sandwiches (page 38), custardy casseroles, and savory pies has so captured the heart of American cooking that it can be found in supermarkets and deli cases from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Northwest and everywhere in between. Not only is it one of the tastiest and most popular sausages, but it is also one of the easiest to make at home because it doesn’t require a casing. In fact, most recipes call for taking it out of its casing. If you want to serve the sausage as links, stuff it into hog casing. The recipe yields a larger amount than the other recipes in the book because this sausage is so versatile that I like to have some on hand in the freezer.

I opened Pig-by-the-Tail because I wanted to bring to the American marketplace the charcuterie I had fallen in love with on sojourns to France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Austria. Two years after its debut, I decided it was time to put some “bones” onto that passion. I traveled to France to learn from M. Roger Gleize, the charcutier in the small town of Revel in the Haute-Garonne just outside of Toulouse. It was an eye-opening experience to watch him use a hand grinder to grind pounds and pounds of perfectly succulent pork, not too lean, not too fat, for the region’s specialty Toulouse sausage. He seasoned the meat with salt, peppers, and a dash each of nutmeg and sugar, and then added a soupçon of water to moisten the mixture for easier stuffing. He fitted the same manual machine with a sausage-stuffing funnel and proceeded to turn out a seemingly endless supply of fresh Toulouse sausages. Everything he made was quickly purchased by local households to use for their daily meals and by local restaurants to include in the renowned cassoulet of the region. From that sojourn, I carried home a deep admiration for simply, yet perfectly done ways with food, and Toulouse sausage became one of my go-to household sausages. For this book, I have modified the recipe to call for bulk sausage, rather than links. But, if you would like to follow tradition, use hog casing.

Contrary to what you might think, making a fine vegetable broth is not a matter of tossing any vegetable matter into a pot and boiling it up. The vegetables you start with need not be picture perfect, but starchy vegetables, such as potatoes, should not be part of the mix or the broth will turn out murky, and brassicas, like cabbage and broccoli, are also not good to use or the broth will not be clear tasting. Then, don’t stint on the amount of vegetables for the amount of broth you would like to wind up with. One tomato and one chard leaf do not a tasty broth make. There should be enough water so that the vegetables barely float, but not any more. Cook the broth until the vegetables are very soft but not disintegrating; this helps make a clear broth. Following is a mix and method I use to make a good-size batch of vegetable broth that is rich enough to serve on its own as a bouillon or use as a base for any soup.

Season: winter. It may seem somewhat unnecessary to preserve dried fruit, but I love having a few jars of this compote on the shelf. The once-shriveled fruits become plump and luscious and are quite delicious served alone for breakfast or with yogurt or crème fraîche as a dessert. I like to make this in early November, when newly dried prunes, figs, and apricots are available. Keep on the lookout for small, dried wild figs, which will plump up perfectly to their original shapely selves. The glistening black prunes from the Agen area in southern France are also key players–I prefer to use these un pitted because they infuse the compote with an almondlike essence. A simplified version of the oven method is used–everything is cooked and hot to start with, so the jars don’t need to be heated for an extended time in the oven.

Season: June to July. A shrub is an old-fashioned kind of drink–essentially a delightfully fruity alcoholic cordial. Based on sweetened rum or brandy, it is traditionally flavored with acidic fruit such as Seville oranges, lemons, or red currants. Keep back some of the juice after straining red currants to make jelly (see recipe, p. 54), and you will find this lovely tipple very simple to make. Serve as an aperitif, either on its own or mixed half and half with a dry martini and finished with a splash of fresh orange juice, which is my favorite way.

Season: Late August to September. Dark-skinned with a bluish bloom, small oval damson plums are very tart and well flavored, which makes them wonderful for preserving. This is a straightforward recipe that keeps the fruit whole and tender. I love warming cinnamon and allspice in the mix, but you can use any spices you fancy, or even a good tablespoonful of ready-made pickling spice (see p. 89). These sweet spiced damsons are a lovely addition to any buffet table and splendid with cold poultry.

Season: July to September. This is a wonderful way to use up an abundance of cucumbers, be they long and uniform green, or the short, knobbly-skinned type. It’s also very quick and easy to make if you use a food processor. This is not a true preserve, as the cucumbers are not brined and the pickle is very light, but it will keep well in the fridge for a couple of weeks in a sealed container. I love this sweet condiment with all manner of salads and in sandwiches, but it’s especially delectable with hot-smoked trout or salmon.

Season: May to August. After a dismal result with my strawberry jam at the 2007 Uplyme and Lyme Regis Horticultural Show, I decided to get my act together and work out a recipe that i could rely on to get me that much-coveted first prize next time. My kitchen soon took on the appearance of a strawberry jam factory, with coded batches piled just about everywhere. I thought I’d nearly made the grade on batch three, but the tweaking for batch four caused mayhem in the jam pan. However, batch five seemed to come alive from the moment the lemon juice was added, and I knew it was going to be just right – bright in color, with some soft whole fruit and, of course, that wonderful, intense strawberry taste. Strawberries are low in pectin. Using sugar with added pectin helps to attain a lovely set and a flavor that isn’t too sickly sweet. Use freshly picked, dry fruit – not too big, or they’ll blow to bits when the jam is bubbling away. However, if you’re using very small fruit, make sure they’re not too hard and seedy.

Fresh fruit and tangy soft cheeses make perfect partners for these salty-sweet wheatmeal cookies. Or, try using them in place of risen biscuits for strawberry shortcake: Top a biscuit with a dollop of sweetened ricotta cheese and some macerated berries.

This confectioners’ sugar-dusted butter cookie gets its crunchy, crumbly texture from finely ground toasted almonds—and its name from its characteristic curve. Take care not to overprocess the almonds.

This recipe combines a buttery Scottish tradition with the flavors of the Hawaiian Islands. If you don’t have a fluted square cutter, use whatever other shape you have on hand. To toast macadamias, place them in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet in a 350°F oven until lightly golden, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Here a free-form dough wheel is scored, baked, and cut into generous wedges. We love the combination of hazelnut and orange, but you can use this dough as a building block for other flavorful add-ins—such as ground almonds and lemon zest.

Malt powder enriches these cookies with a creamy caramel and vanilla flavor that calls to mind a malted milk shake at an old-time soda fountain.

The subtle but distinct taste of ginger pairs well with raspberry jam. Apricot makes an equally delicious filling. Or, try sandwiching the cookies with rich chocolate ganache (recipe on page 44).

The name for these pressed cookies comes from the German word spritzen (“to squirt”); they can be quickly formed with a cookie press. Although they have a very fine crumb, the wreaths are sturdy enough for packaging (see page 342 for a gift idea).

Hermits, which originated in colonial New England, supposedly gained their name because the flavor of the cookie improves after being stowed away—like a hermit—for a few days. These bars, topped with brown sugar icing and candied ginger, are best eaten a day or two after they’re baked so the flavors have a chance to deepen.