Garlic

This is our go-to side dish for any and every recipe that gives you good gravy. Yukon Gold potatoes make a nice sweet, creamy mash. Try it with Bobby’s Turkey Vegetable Goulash (page 132) or Baked Chicken with Zucchini and Herbs (page 37).

I’m sure every cook who loves Italian food has a special recipe for osso buco. But I’m not so sure that anyone has a recipe to serve one, because it’s not the sort of thing you make for just one person. But it’s simple to reduce. The crucial factor is the pot; you need that heavy 4-cup pot with its own lid, so that your shank piece just fits into it and the liquid level stays almost to the top of the meat while it is simmering. That way, you don’t require too much cooking liquid, and the flavor develops intensity. I sometimes make this on a Saturday afternoon, when an Italian opera is playing on the radio, and just hearing the singing and smelling the osso buco as it perks away on the stove heightens my anticipation of a lovely meal to come.

I prefer using French lentils here, but any kind will do. You can use leftover cooked lentils, but if they are refrigerator-cold, heat them and let them absorb the flavors. I like to eat this salad slightly warm, or at least at room temperature.

There’s nothing like knowing you have stashed away in your freezer good tomato sauce made from sweet San Marzano canned tomatoes. It comes in handy in so many ways. I usually make 3 cups of thick sauce, to freeze in 1-cup containers. You can easily double or triple that amount if you’re feeling ambitious and have enough freezer space.

I have lots of mint in my herb garden in the summer, and I love to make this sauce, which is good on so many things. Ed recommends it for vegetables, poultry, meats (particularly lamb), and fish.

This is a sauce to have on hand at all times. It keeps well in the refrigerator for at least a week if you film the top of it with olive oil (and refilm after you have dipped into it and taken some from the jar), and it keeps its bloom for a couple of months frozen. It’s a good idea to freeze it in an ice tray, and then store the cubes in plastic storage bags. That way, you easily can get at just the amount you need.

Once, when I was in Cambridge working all day nonstop with Julia Child, as we often did, it was almost 11 p.m. when she finally swept away the manuscript and announced we’d make dinner. She then turned to me and said: “Judith, you make a nice little potato dish while I fix the meat.” Slightly unnerved, I managed to rise to the occasion and put together what I would call a fast stovetop version of the classic potatoes Anna. As I mashed some garlic and salt together and smeared this between the layers of sliced potatoes, Julia was looking on a bit skeptically, and although I used lots of butter, of which she always approved, it wasn’t clarified butter. But when we sat down and she took her first bite, she pronounced the potatoes delicious, and her husband, Paul, toasted me. I was in cook’s heaven. I probably made my potato dish that night in a standard round 5- or 6-inch skillet for the three of us, but in recent years I’ve made it regularly for myself in a 4 1/2-inch-square cast-iron frying pan, which once belonged to my father. After he retired, he liked cooking for himself, and I remember his acquiring this little pan with pride so that he could make himself one perfect fried egg. It’s unlikely that you’ll have such a pan, particularly one imbued with fond memories, but any very small skillet will do.

The large portobello mushroom makes a natural saucerlike container for tasty fillings. For modest appetites, one amply stuffed big mushroom will make a satisfying lunch or supper dish, but if you’re really hungry, make two.

Make this simple shrimp dish often, but only recently did I discover how good it is served on a bed of farro (see page 190), which Lidia Bastianich introduced me to. It’s also delicious with rice, grits, or polenta. You’ll get a good two meals out of this amount.

I love lamb chops, and I can’t resist when I find a pair of loin chops at least 1 inch thick sitting side by side in a shrink-wrapped package at the meat counter. Expensive? Yes, and I don’t really need two of them. But I give in and set aside the uneaten portion of the second one to tuck into a small casserole of French lentils. It makes an appealing second dinner.

This is my favorite steak. I like the chewiness of the cut and the faint marbling of fat, just enough to keep it well lubricated. And I find it a good size for the single cook. A skirt steak of approximately 14 ounces gives me three fine meals. First I have a piece of rare steak quickly sautéed and garnished with a little pan sauce of wine and shallots; then I have a few slices of it cold for lunch with a piquant sauce; and finally, later in the week, I’ll use what remains in a delicious baked dish with mushrooms and breadcrumbs, an inspiration of the late Mireille Johnston, whose books taught us so much of what regional French home cooking is all about—thriftiness, inventiveness, and good taste.

This zesty salsa gets its flavor and green hue from tomatillos. Tomatillos have a tart, citrus-like flavor that works as a zingy accompaniment to fish (see Halibut Enchiladas with Salsa Verde, page 86). When choosing tomatillos, smaller is better. The smaller ones have a sweeter taste. Tomatillos should be green and about the size of a large cherry tomato. The inside is white and meatier than a tomato. They are covered by a papery husk that may range from the pale green to a light brown. The husks are inedible and should be removed before use.

Fuggedaboutit! Marinara sauce is a great thing to have on hand at all times to make a fast and flavorful meal. Double or triple this recipe and freeze the sauce in pint-sized containers. Just pull out of your freezer and make a quick and delicious dinner by tossing it with cooked pasta. Or for a quick snack, spoon on some toasted Italian bread and sprinkle with your favorite cheese (Parmesan and mozzarella work nicely).

Salsa is Sandy’s condiment of choice. (Well, that and pickled jalapeños!) This recipe is one of her absolute favorites and provides her with a little taste of home. She typically adds this salsa to her morning eggs (she’s spicy that way) or serves it as a flavorful dip to sit alongside a big pile of tortilla chips. If you like a really hot salsa, leave in some of the jalapeño seeds.

Some things are like clockwork. For Crystal, her weekly routine during her high school years consisted of getting up and making herself grits and toast for breakfast. Oh, how she loved her grits! Some mornings she had them with sugar and butter; other days she simply salt-and-peppered them. It didn’t really matter how they were prepared. You can imagine, then, how sad she was when she couldn’t find grits while at college in Boston (that and her sweet tea). Determined to get her college friends on track, Crystal had her mother ship her care packages loaded with containers of grits. She served them at every opportunity and explored different ways of preparing them in order to impress her guests. One of the most popular recipes was this delicious take, which adds the right amount of garlic and cheese. Forget cold cereal—mornings should be all about grits.

I love me a mashed potato. Add a few cloves of garlic into the mix and you have lovely garlic mashers! Or for something really special, I substitute celery root for some of the potatoes. Celery root is my mother’s favorite vegetable, but in our little town in upstate New York it’s not always easy to find. One year for Christmas I got a huge bag of celery root and put it under the tree for her. She says it was the best Christmas present she ever got! If you haven’t tried celery root before, you’re missing out—it’s a big, craggy, knobby thing, it smells like celery, is slightly sweet, and has a wonderfully starchy texture kind of like a potato.

Roasted potatoes can be snore city. But when you do them well, they’re simple, totally rustic, and super-delicious. Fingerlings are perfect for roasting because they’re small and creamy, but a mix of red bliss and white new potatoes cut into bite-size pieces works well too. Don’t be afraid to use lots of olive oil, salt, and herbs here—and roast these lovelies until they’re brown, brown, brown. Remember, brown food tastes GOOD!

Baby arties are much easier to prepare than big ones and you don’t end up with nearly as much waste. They’re a perfect side when they’re in season—they go beautifully with meat or fish and just scream springtime. Whenever I tell people I’m making artichokes they go, “Ohhh! Artichokes!!!” They just sound exciting.

Making a whole fish is so cinchy that it’s almost not fair. It looks like you’ve put so much time and effort into it, and it’s so elegant and beautiful on a serving platter, but really, all you have to do is jam a fish full of herbs and lemon and toss it in the oven until its eyeball pops out! I think this is the coolest part—Mother Nature’s own pop-up timer—I bet that’s how they invented the pop-up turkey timer!