Yukon Gold Potato

The drying of meats and fish is the oldest method of preservation. Salt cod (cod that has been both salted and dried) has been around for 500 to 1,000 years, since European fishing fleets discovered the rich cod supplies of the north Atlantic. The result was widespread use of salted cod, as in baccalà (Italian), bacalhau (Portuguese), klippfisk (Scandinavian), morue (French), and saltfiskur (Icelandic). Why go through the lengthy process of desalting a fish that you could buy fresh? Flavor, for starters; if cod were fresh ham, salt cod would be its prosciutto. And texture; salt cod is supple and chewier than fresh cod. A rare treat to eat, salt cod also happens to hold up well in a sandwich. We’ve opted for the traditional pairing of salt cod with roasted red peppers, whose sweetness is a natural fit with the cod.

When I was a personal chef, a family for whom I worked often requested latkes, and though I hadn’t made them before, I totally fell in love with them. When I added Parmesan and basil to the mixture, they were even better. The Parmesan melts into a brittle web, like a frico, making these extra crisp and delicious.

Rich and buttery Yukon Golds are my potato of choice when making these substantial fries, but you can definitely use Russets if you’d rather. Should you decide to season the oven fries with one of the seasoning mixes, do so before roasting. The flavor of the spices will deepen with baking and give the fries a really great texture.

A plain old grilled chicken breast can be a bit uninspired, so we like to jazz up our breasts (who said that?) in this version of grilled chicken salad that has plenty of moxie. The marinade of fresh lemon juice and zest, olive oil, and fresh herbs infuses the chicken with a bright, sunny flavor (so yummy that you’ll want to use the marinade again and again for grilled meats). Here we team the grilled chicken with potatoes, celery, green olives, pistachios, and a creamy mayonnaise dressing for an over-the-top texture-and-flavor combination. This recipe doubles or triples beautifully, so it’s great for special lunches (think birthday parties, anniversaries, or bridal showers). It’s also great with a glass of chilled white wine and a crackly baguette.

Pat: This creamy corn chowder, packed with vegetables and spices, has more sass than your average chowder (and the sweet potato and spices give it a distinct orange hue). The ingredients smoky bacon, fresh herbs, and a little Neely kick (cayenne pepper) combine for an over-the-top, out-of-this-world chowder flavor. When corn is at its peak, during the summer, we use fresh kernels straight from the cob. But since we crave this soup all year long, we use frozen corn as well and get great results. If you use frozen corn, look for the white kernels—they are particularly sweet.

This is the side dish to make when you find yourself with leftover mashed potatoes. (If you are using leftover mashed potatoes, use your judgment about the ingredients you want to add, since the mashed potatoes may be flavored already.) It also makes a wonderful dish for entertaining—everyone loves them, and you can keep them warm in an oven up to 30 minutes after you make them.

Try this salad as it was made traditionally, without vinegar. If you feel the capers don’t supply the necessary zing, sprinkle a little wine vinegar over the salad and toss it again. Warm salads like this take the chill out of a cold-cut lunch and go very well alongside grilled fish, chicken, or sausages.

In Italy, this dish would be prepared with rombo (turbot), but flounder is certainly an excellent substitute. Flounder is a flakier fish and will cook quicker, so either cut the potatoes into slightly thinner wedges, or boil them a minute or two longer. The flounder you choose for this dish should be a thick one. The dark skin is removed while the white is left on the bottom so the fish does not fall apart when it is being served.

Stock will make a much more flavorful soup, but if you do not have any handy, use canned broth or even water—the soup will still be quite good. When using canned stock for this soup, I always dilute it by half with water. In most cases, the flavor of canned broth is too pronounced when taken straight and masks the fresh vegetal flavor of the other ingredients.

Salt cod is expensive. This salad is a good way to use trimmings from a whole boneless or bone-in side of baccalà you bought to make the Marechiara on page 298. If you trim the baccalà before you soak it and save the unsoaked trimmings in the refrigerator, you can take your time making the salad. If you trim the baccalà after soaking it, you’ll have to make the salad within a day or two. I picture this dish as part of a beautiful buffet, but it would make a nice first course at dinner, or a lunch dish all by itself. The directions below will give you a warm salad—the way I like it. If you’d rather have a room-temperature salad, just let the potatoes and beans cool all the way. But please don’t make this with chilled potatoes. Cooked potatoes should never see the inside of the refrigerator. They become waxy and tasteless.

With my first bite of potatoes sarladaises, I fell in love with the dish. Originating in the town of Sarlat, it is served everywhere in the Dordogne. Cooks sometimes include lardons (a kind of bacon) or giblets, and sometimes, depending on the season, truffles or porcini mushrooms. I was delighted when Anne-Juliette Belicha (see page 47) offered to give me a potatoes-sarladaises lesson at her home in Montignac. I guarantee that this dish will be a crowd pleaser.