Baked Oysters with Bacon

Name: Baked Oysters with Bacon
Yield: Makes 8 first-course servings
Ingredients: 1/4 cup kosher salt; 2 (10-ounce) bags fresh spinach, coarse stems discarded; 2 leeks (white and pale green parts only), quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 3 ounces slab or thick-sliced bacon, cut into 1/4-inch dice; 1 shallot, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise; 1 garlic clove, minced; 1 day-old baguette, crust discarded and bread coarsely ground in a food processor (2 cups); 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chervil; 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives; 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon; Finely grated zest and juice of 1 medium lemon; 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste; Rounded 1/4 teaspoon white pepper, or to taste; Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, or to taste; 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted; About 10 cups rock or kosher salt for baking and serving (3 pounds); 40 oysters on the half shell; Accompaniment: lemon wedges

By Frank Stitt

August 20, 2004

Stitt likes to use rock salt — the kind used for old-fashioned ice cream churners — as a bed for these oysters because it keeps the shells from tipping and sliding around in the pan and on the plates. Rock salt is sold at many supermarkets, but kosher salt is a good substitute.

At the restaurant, Stitt makes this recipe with local Apalachicola oysters, though he also likes the flavor of East Coast varieties such as Blue Point, Pemaquid, and Malpeque, so feel free to use your favorite.

Recipe notes

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This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.