Cauliflower Salad with Olives and Bread Crumbs MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 45 minutes, including cooking the cauliflower Bread crumbs give this crunchy dish, which is common in southern Italy, enough body to stand on its own; I like to serve it family style, passing more...
Carrot Salad with Cumin MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 15 minutes Here’s a simple salad in a typically North African style that features the sweetness of fresh oranges offset nicely by the tang of ground cumin. You can also combine carrot and celeriac, jГcama, or...
Chile Bisque MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 11/2 hours, largely unattended This is one of those pure and simple soups flavored by a single ingredient. Well, almost. The only other things between you and the complex taste of mild dried chile are a touch of garlic and a...
Chickpea Soup with Saffron and Almonds MAKES: 4 servings TIME: At least 2 hours (much less with cooked or canned chickpeas) The combination of chickpeas, almonds, and saffron is found throughout the Mediterranean, but especially in Spain. Both intense flavor and a...
Carrot or Celery Salad MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 20 minutes This is so easy it barely qualifies as a salad, yet celery and carrots are so readily overlooked, and this is so good. Consider using this ultra-basic lemon juice–olive oil dressing—just as you would a...
Broiled Tomato and Blue Cheese Salad MAKES: 4 servings TIME: About 30 minutes Though fresh plum tomatoes are acceptable even in the off-season, they’re decidedly improved by being broiled for a couple minutes. Add blue cheese (or virtually any other kind of grated...
Cauliflower Soup, Italian Style MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 40 minutes This is how many people cook vegetables in Italy, a technique that can then turn the vegetable into a soup or pasta sauce in a sec. Garlic, pepper, and oil are the distinguishing characteristics, and...
Bread Soup Zuppa di Pane MAKES: 4 servings TIME: At least 1 hour Not literally bread soup but bean and vegetable soup with bread. When I first ate this in Tuscany, it was served with 2 condiments extra virgin olive oil and chopped onion and I've made it that way ever...
Bitter Greens and Herbs Strong-flavored greens make great salads, and there’s a long tradition of using bitter greens, herbs, and flowers as accompaniments to blander foods. The recipes here build on that concept by combining these pungent power-houses with other...
Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula MAKES: 4 to 6 servings TIME: 15 minutes In the original How to Cook Everything, I featured these strawberries as a peppery, slightly sweet compote in the fruit chapter. In Italy, where balsamic vinegar originated, strawberries with...
Black Bean Soup MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 30 minutes with cooked beans This works best when you pure some of the sturdy black beans and stir them back in, for a smooth-chunky effect. But in many Latin American versions the beans are left whole, with chunks of sweet...
Barley Soup with Seasonal Vegetables MAKES: 4 servings TIME: 45 minutes It is tempting to think of barley soup as quintessential winter fare. But when you let the season dictate your choice of vegetables, the heartiness changes dramatically. Start with the basic...