European

This composed salad is based on a recipe from Provence. It makes a delightful lunch or light dinner. The summer vegetables are set off by the piquant anchovies and rich hard-cooked egg.

Bagna cauda means “warm bath” in an Italian dialect. Don’t let the anchovies steer you away. The strong flavors of garlic and anchovy are suspended in perfect balance in warm butter and olive oil. It is a delightful dipping sauce for raw vegetables, and it makes a tasty sauce for grilled vegetables and grilled or baked fish.

Béarnaise is a luxurious sauce flavored with shallots and tarragon, which give it a tart edge. It elevates a grilled steak or roast beef from delicious to divine.

Pesto is my favorite sauce to make. I love the sensory experience of pounding it and smelling it and tasting it as I go. Pesto is more than a pasta sauce: it’s delicious on sliced tomatoes, as a dipping sauce for vegetables, on a pizza, or as a sauce for grilled chicken and vegetables.

This sauce is time-consuming to make, so consider doubling the recipe. It’s especially good with hand-cut fresh egg noodles (see page 89) or in lasagna (see page 270).

Crisps and cobblers are humble desserts, not too sweet, and full of flavor. A deep layer of fruit is baked under a crunchy topping or cream biscuits, much like a deep-dish pie with a top crust. Every season has fruit to offer: apples and pears in fall and winter, rhubarb and strawberries in the spring, and all the stone fruits and berries of summer. A crisp topping is a coarse mixture of flour, brown sugar, nuts, and spices, with butter worked into the flour mixture just until it’s crumbly. Crisp topping is as easy to make in large batches as it is in small batches, and it freezes very well for up to 2 months. It is a convenient staple to have in the freezer for a quick dessert for an unexpected occasion. Topped with biscuits, cobblers are less sweet than crisps and best made with juicy fruits. I make simple cream biscuits out of flour and butter worked together, leavened with a little baking powder, and moistened with heavy cream. The dough is rolled out on the thick side and cut into shapes. Once cut, the biscuits can be held in the refrigerator for an hour or two before baking. Crisps and cobblers work best when the fruit is piled high. For both desserts the fruit is cut into bite-size pieces (1/3-inch-thick slices or 1-inch cubes) and, like fruit pie fillings, tossed with a little flour and a little sugar. Use less sugar for crisp fillings because the crisp topping is so sweet. Tart rhubarb needs quite a bit of sugar, apples need less, and sweet fruits such as peaches need almost none at all. Taste the fruit while you are cutting it and again after it is sugared; you can always add more. The flour thickens the juices that would otherwise be too soupy. It doesn’t take much, a tablespoon or two at the most. A crisp or cobbler is served straight from the dish it has been baked in, so choose an attractive one. Ceramic dishes are best, as metal pans will react with the acid of the fruit. The dish needs to be about 3 inches deep to accommodate a generous layer of fruit. Place the dish on a baking sheet to catch any overflowing juices. Cook until the crisp is dark golden brown and the fruit is bubbling up on the sides; a cobbler’s biscuits should be cooked through and golden. If the crisp topping is browning before the fruit is done, place a piece of foil over the top to protect it. Lift off the foil for the last few minutes to recrisp the topping. Serve right away or put back in the oven to warm for a few minutes before serving. Cobblers and crisps are delicious on their own but are even better served with a little cold heavy cream or whipped cream.

Sweet tart dough, or pâte sucrée, is very different from the dough of the previous tarts in this chapter. It is sweet, soft, and almost crumbly instead of crisp and flaky. I use this dough for dessert tarts baked in tart pans with removable bottoms. The pastry is often prebaked so that it will stay crisp when baked with liquid fillings. Some of my favorite tarts of this kind are lemon curd, almond, and chocolate. Though made from flour and butter, sweet tart dough has the additions of egg and sugar. The ingredients are combined in a process closer to making cookie dough than to that of pastry. In fact, this dough makes delicious thumbprint cookies, little rounds with depressions made by the baker’s thumb and filled with lemon curd or jam. Sweet tart dough is soft and tender for a number of reasons. First, the butter and sugar are creamed (mixed until soft and fluffy) so that they combine thoroughly with the flour, inhibiting the gluten and tenderizing the dough. Finally, the dough is moistened with an egg yolk instead of water, making it even more difficult for the gluten to activate. Nevertheless, the dough can be overworked, so the egg is mixed into the butter to distribute it evenly before the flour is added. Soften the butter for 15 minutes at room temperature before creaming. It needs to be soft enough to stir in the egg yolk, but not so soft that it will melt into the flour and make the pastry oily. Beat the butter until it is soft and fluffy with a wooden spoon (or use a mixer) and then beat in the sugar. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix until completely combined. The yolk will be much easier to mix in if it is at room temperature. A cold egg will harden the butter around it. (If your egg is cold, put it in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes before separating it.) Mix in the flour, folding and stirring it into the butter-egg mixture. Don’t leave any floury patches in the dough or the pastry will be crackled in these places. The dough will be soft and sticky (sugar makes dough sticky) and needs to be refrigerated for at least 4 hours to firm up before rolling. Gather the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Flatten into a disk and chill. The dough can be made and kept in the refrigerator for 2 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Let it thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using. When ready to roll out the dough, take it out of the refrigerator. If it is quite hard, let it sit about 20 minutes to soften. Because the dough is soft and sticky by nature, it is much easier to roll out between 2 sheets of parchment or waxed paper. Cut two 14-inch-square pieces. Flour the bottom piece and center the unwrapped dough on it. Dust the top of the dough with flour and place the other sheet of paper on top. Roll the dough, from the center out, into a 12-inch circle. If the dough sticks to the paper, peel back the paper and dust the dough with a bit more flour. Replace the paper, turn the whole package over, and repeat the dusting on the other side. If the dough gets too soft while rolling, put it on a baking sheet, paper and all, and chill it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up. Continue rolling, flouring when needed, until the dough is about 1/8 inch thick. Let the rolled pastry rest for a few minutes in the refrigerator before using. A 12-inch circle of dough will line a 9-inch tart pan. (A tart pan with a removable bottom will make unmolding the tart much easier once it is baked.) Peel the paper off the circle of dough and, if it is to be baked blind (or empty), lightly prick it all over with a fork. This process is called docking, and it allows the escape of air that otherwise might cause the pastry to bubble up while baking. Invert the dough over the tart pan and remove the other piece of paper. Press the dough gently into the edges. Cut off the excess dough by rubbing your thumb across the top edge of the pan in an outward direction. Press the sides in and up after tri...

A frittata is a flat round omelet with its filling stirred into the eggs before cooking. I like my frittatas dense in vegetables, almost like pies without crusts. Many things can be stirred into frittatas: sautéed onions, wilted greens, roasted peppers, sliced potatoes, mushrooms, even pasta. Frittatas can be served warm or at room temperature, plain or with a sauce, as a first course or as dinner. And they are great for sandwiches and as picnic food. Any filling should be cooked before being added to the eggs. For more flavor, vegetables can be browned or seasoned with herbs and spices. Although some recipes say to pour beaten eggs into the pan over vegetables after they have been cooked, I have better luck turning the frittata later when I beat the eggs with a little oil and salt, stir in the vegetables and any other ingredients such as herbs or cheese, and cook the frittata in a clean preheated pan. Cook frittatas over medium to medium-high heat. Any higher and the eggs will burn on the bottom. As the edges set, lift them away from the side of the pan and tilt the pan to let uncooked egg flow underneath. When the frittata is mostly set, place an inverted plate the same size or a little larger over the pan, hold them firmly together, and turn the pan upside down on top of the plate. (Protect the hand holding the plate with a towel or potholder.) Add a bit more oil to the pan and slide the frittata back in. Cook for another 2 or 3 minutes and then slide onto a plate. The frittata should be cooked through but still moist inside. Another way to cook a frittata is in the oven, as long as the pan you use is ovenproof. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Start the frittata on top of the stove, as above. After a couple of minutes, put the pan in the oven and cook until the frittata is set on top, about 7 to 10 minutes.

An omelet makes a light, quick, nutritious, and economical breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is a comforting dish, thanks to its tenderness and the simplicity of its flavors: fresh eggs, a touch of butter, and a little cheese or other filling to add flavor and nuance. For the omelet I make most often, I stir fresh herbs (parsley, chive, sorrel, tarragon, or chervil) into the eggs before they are cooked and fill the omelet with a bit of Gruyère or soft ricotta. There are countless other possible fillings for omelets: the leftover spoonful of last night’s sautéed greens or roasted peppers, for example, or a morsel of braised lamb or sautéed ham. It should go without saying that very fresh eggs from hens fed organic feed and allowed to forage freely outdoors make the tastiest omelets. Farmers’ markets often sell such eggs. At grocery stores, look for eggs that are local, free-range, and, if possible, certified organic. Count 2 to 3 eggs per person. I prefer omelets that are not too thick, are delicately puffed and folded, and are still moist on the inside. To achieve this, I use this rule of thumb for the size of pan: 2 eggs in a 6-inch pan, 3 eggs in an 8-inch pan, 6 in a 10-inch pan, and no more than 12 in a 12-inch pan. The beaten eggs should be no more than 1/4 inch deep. The pan itself should be heavy and smooth-surfaced or nonstick. Preheat the pan over medium-low heat for 3 to 5 minutes before adding the eggs. This is the most important step for quick, consistent, and nonstick cooking. Crack your eggs into a bowl and, right before they are to be cooked, add a pinch of salt per egg (they turn watery when salted ahead), and beat them lightly with a fork or a whisk. The omelet will be more fluffy and tender if the eggs are well combined, but not beaten into a completely homogenous mixture. Put a knob of butter in the hot pan; it will melt and foam up. Swirl it around and, as the foam subsides and the butter starts to give off its distinctive nut-like aroma, but before it starts to brown, pour in the eggs. If you are making a large omelet, turn the heat up at this time to medium (this is not necessary with a small omelet). There should be a satisfying sizzle as the eggs enter the pan. The edges of the omelet will begin to set almost immediately (if they don’t, turn up the heat). Pull the edges towards the center with a fork or spatula, allowing uncooked egg to flow over the exposed bottom of the hot pan. Do this until the bottom of the omelet is set, lifting the edges and tilting the pan to let liquid egg flow underneath. When the eggs are mostly set, sprinkle on the cheese or other fillings. Cook a moment longer, fold the omelet in half over itself, and slide it onto a plate. To make a rolled omelet, tilt the pan down and away from you, shaking the pan to scoot the omelet towards the far edge of the pan and folding the near edge of the omelet over onto itself. Continue to tilt the pan, rolling the omelet towards the downward side. Then fold the far edge over the top and roll the omelet out of the pan onto a warm plate, seam side down. The whole process will have taken less than a minute. Drag a piece of butter over the top to make the omelet shine.

No less than meat and fish, vegetables are enhanced by the smoky perfume and radiant heat of the grill, whether served plain with a simple salsa verde or vinaigrette, stirred into a risotto, or combined into a grilled version of a vegetable stew such as ratatouille or peperonata. Grilled potatoes can be made into an intriguing potato salad that is even tastier when it includes a few grilled scallions. Different vegetables require different grilling approaches, and some vegetables can be grilled in more than one way. In general, grill vegetables over a medium to medium-hot bed of coals; a hotter fire will scorch the vegetables before they cook through. Conveniently, the fire is often at the perfect temperature for vegetables after the meat or fish has been grilled. You can also distribute the coals to create areas with different temperatures, so that one area burns hot while the other is medium-hot, allowing you to grill vegetables at the same time as a steak, for example. Use the hand test. If the fire is medium-hot, you should be able to hold your hand over the grill for about 4 seconds. Clean the grill well and oil it after it has heated up, before putting the vegetables on. Summer squash, eggplant, potatoes, and onions should be sliced 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick, as uniform as possible. Cut peppers in half or in quarters and clean out the ribs and seeds. Onion slices can be skewered flat, which makes them easier to turn. (Soak skewers in water for a few minutes to keep them from igniting.) Salt the vegetables. This can be done ahead of time, but note that salting accelerates moisture loss, so don’t be alarmed by liquid around them when you’re ready to grill. Brush olive oil generously over the vegetables before grilling. They can also be tossed with chopped herbs. After the vegetable slices have been on the grill for a few minutes, rotate them a little over 90 degrees to make a nice crosshatch of grill marks. After a couple more minutes turn the vegetables and finish cooking, rotating them once more to make grill marks, and turning them again, if necessary. Take the slices off the grill as soon as they are tender. Check for doneness at the stem end, which always takes the longest to cook. (Again, tongs are my favorite grilling tool; they make turning the vegetables a breeze.) Leafy vegetables such as scallions, small leeks, and wedges of radicchio benefit from an initial moistening before they go on the grill. Oil them, and then sprinkle them with water or mist them with a spray bottle. Turn them often as they grill to prevent scorching, and keep sprinkling or misting them to keep them moist. To accelerate their cooking, invert a metal bowl over them, to steam them while they grill. Some vegetables are better when cooked until tender in boiling water before being finished on the grill: asparagus, for example, and leeks that are larger than scallions, and small artichokes and potatoes, whole or halved. For easy turning on the grill, skewer potatoes and artichokes, taking care that all the cut faces are on the same plane when skewered to ensure equal contact with the grill. Tomatoes can be grilled, but they need a hot fire. Cut them in half and slide them onto the grill, cut side down. Let them grill for 3 minutes to seal the flesh before trying to rotate them. Be sure to clean the grill before you grill anything else, as tomatoes are a bit messy. Vegetables such as eggplants, summer squashes, and peppers can be cooked whole, but because they will take longer to cook through, the fire should be medium rather than medium-hot. Make a couple of deep incisions in their sides to speed up the cooking and to keep them from bursting from a buildup of steam. Corn can be grilled with great success after a little preparation. Peel back the husks, leaving them connected at the base of the ear, and remove all the silk. Season the corn with salt and pepper and a little chile or herbs, if you want; brush with some butter or o...

Risotto is Italian comfort food, a luscious dish of tender rice in its own creamy sauce. Considered by many to be labor-intensive restaurant fare, risotto is actually a basic one-pot dinner that pleases everyone. Risotto is made from starchy short-grain rice, which, when moistened with successive additions of stock, gains concentrated flavor and a distinctive saucy texture. Of the special short-grain varieties that have been developed in northern Italy specifically for risotto the best known is Arborio; others are Vialone Nano (an extra-short-grain rice), Baldo, and my favorite, Carnaroli. All these varieties have short, plump grains that can absorb a lot of liquid while retaining some textural integrity (the grains are said to have a good bite), with abundant superficial starch to make the risotto creamy. Because the rice for a risotto is cooked in fat before any broth is added, use a heavy pot, preferably stainless steel or enameled cast iron, or the rice will scorch too easily. Pick a pot with relatively high sides (but not so high that stirring is difficult and evaporation is inhibited) and a diameter that is wide enough so that when the raw rice is added it’s between one-quarter and one-half inch deep in the pot. The first step is to make a flavorful base of sautéed diced onions. The onion is cooked until soft in a generous amount of fat (usually butter, but olive oil, beef marrow, and even bacon fat are sometimes used). Once the onions are soft the rice is added and sautéed for a few minutes. In Italian this is called the tostatura, or “roasting.” The idea is to coat and seal each grain of rice. The rice will begin to sizzle and turn translucent, but it should not color or brown. At this point, some wine is added, for fruit and acidity. For 1 1/2 cups of rice, I use about 1/2 cup of wine, but I never bother to measure it exactly; I simply pour in enough wine to reach the top of the rice, without covering it. This works for any quantity of rice and is much easier than trying to make a calculation. Adding the wine before the broth gives it time to reduce and lose its raw alcohol flavor. Red wine or even beer can be substituted. When you are caught without a bottle of wine, a teaspoon or so of tasty wine vinegar added to the first addition of broth will approximate the acidity of wine. After the wine is absorbed, broth is added. I use light chicken broth most often, but vegetable, mushroom, and shellfish broths also make lovely risottos. Keep in mind that your risotto will only be as good as the broth you use to make it. Unseasoned or lightly seasoned broths are best. Many recipes say to keep the broth simmering (in its separate pan) the whole time the risotto is cooking. This isn’t necessary; in fact, I prefer not to. The longer the broth simmers, the more it reduces, and its flavor can become too strongly concentrated. I bring the broth to a boil while the onions are cooking and then turn it off. The broth stays plenty warm. The first addition of broth should just cover the rice. Adjust the heat to maintain a constant, fairly vigorous simmer. It is not necessary to stir constantly, but the risotto needs to be tended to frequently, and it certainly cannot be left on its own. When the level of liquid has dropped low enough that the rice is exposed, add more broth to cover. The broth should never be allowed to evaporate completely; the starch will coagulate and burn. Keep adding the broth in small increments; the rice should neither be flooded nor be allowed to dry out. Season the rice with salt early on. My personal rule is to salt the risotto when I make the second addition of broth. This allows the salt to penetrate the grains of rice while they are cooking. The amount of salt needed will depend on the saltiness of the broth you’re using. From the time the rice is added to the onion, a risotto takes 20 to 30 minutes to cook. Taste it often to keep track of the seasoning ...

A pilaf is a savory dish of rice that has first been sautéed in fat and then cooked in a seasoned liquid. (It differs from a risotto in that the liquid is entirely absorbed.) Depending on the recipe, a pilaf may also include nuts, spices, a few vegetables, or even a complex meat stew. I make mostly simple pilafs, such as the red rice pilaf that follows, to go with quesadillas and black beans, or a basmati rice pilaf with saffron and onions to eat with a vegetable ragout. Long-grain rice is usually used in pilafs, although some cuisines use short-grain rice. Sautéing the rice before adding the liquid enriches the flavor of the dish and coats each grain in fat. This, along with thorough washing, keeps the rice from sticking together or clumping. Olive oil and butter are the most commonly used fats. To avoid burning the butter while sautéing the rice, add a little oil to it, or use clarified butter (see page 125). Onion is usually sautéed for a few minutes in the fat before the rice is added. After the rice is sautéed, a flavorful liquid is poured over it and brought to a boil. The pilaf is simmered, covered, until all the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Depending on their cooking times, vegetables and meats are added sometimes with the liquid, sometimes after the rice has been cooking for a while. The tomato in the red rice pilaf here is added at the beginning to color the rice evenly. When done, pilafs should be allowed to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Polenta is a very simple dish of ground corn cooked in water. It is exceptionally tasty and, like pasta, remarkably versatile. When first cooked, polenta is soft; as it cools, it becomes firm and can then be fried, grilled, or baked. Soft or firm, polenta is great next to roasted or braised meats, or sauced with a spoonful of tomato, meat, or mushroom sauce. For variety, fresh corn or fava beans can be stirred into soft polenta. Polenta can be turned into a luscious torta by layering it with cooked vegetables, cheese, and sauce. Whether ground from yellow or white corn, polenta is ground coarser than cornmeal but finer than grits. When fresh it smells sweet and looks bright yellow. Like all grains, it should be stored in a cool, dark place and replaced when old. Cook polenta in boiling water. The approximate ratio of water to grain is four to one. This will vary depending on the variety of corn, how coarse it is ground, and how fresh it is; each batch you buy may be slightly different. Choose a heavy-bottomed pot when cooking polenta to avoid sticking and burning; use a flame tamer if a heavy pot is not available. Bring the water to a rolling boil and add the polenta in a slow, steady stream while stirring constantly with a whisk. Turn the heat down and continue whisking for 2 or 3 minutes, until the polenta is suspended in the water and no longer settles to the bottom of the pot. (This helps keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.) Season with salt and cook the polenta at a bare simmer, stirring occasionally, for about an hour. The polenta will be fully cooked and softened after 20 to 30 minutes, but the longer cooking time allows its full flavor to develop. Be warned that the thick polenta is very hot, so be careful when stirring and tasting. I spoon a bit onto a small plate to cool before tasting. Polenta should have a pourable, creamy consistency. If the polenta becomes thick or stiff while cooking, add water as needed to maintain the proper consistency. If too much water is added by accident, and the polenta becomes thin and soupy, just keep cooking it to evaporate the water. Polenta will set up quickly if not kept warm, so turn off the heat and cover the pot to keep it soft and hot for 20 minutes or so, or hold it for a longer time in a double boiler or by setting the pot in a larger pot of hot water. Polenta can be finished with butter or olive oil and cheese to enrich it and add flavor. Parmesan is the classic cheese to stir in, but try others; fontina, cheddar, or pecorino for example. Mascarpone or blue cheese is a luxurious garnish to top a bowl of soft polenta. To make firm polenta, spread hot soft polenta evenly onto a rimmed baking sheet (it is not necessary to oil the pan). A depth of about one inch works well for most purposses. Let the polenta sit at room temperature or refrigerate until set. Don’t cover until it has cooled. The firm polenta can be cut into shapes to bake, grill, or fry. To bake, brush with oil and bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until crisp. To grill polenta, brush it with oil and place on a grill over hot coals; to prevent it from sticking, make sure the grill is hot. To fry, use shallow or deep fat. Polenta will always set up when cooled, but both very thin polenta and polenta that has been finished with a lot of butter or oil can fall apart when grilled or fried. A polenta torta is made of alternate layers of polenta—either freshly made soft polenta or polenta that has already cooled and set—and sauce, such as tomato sauce, meat sauce, or pesto; cooked greens or other vegetables; and cheese. A polenta torta is a great make-ahead dish, ready to heat up any time.

Fresh pasta, at least the version I make most often, is nothing more than flour and eggs. The prospect of making pasta may seem intimidating, but I assure you, it is surprisingly easy. The most time-consuming part is rolling it out, but a hand-cranked machine makes this job quick and easy. (Thrift stores and yard sales are great places to look for pasta machines.) The main ingredient of pasta is flour. The flour I use most often is unbleached, organic, and all-purpose. (Bleached flour, besides having added chemicals, has very little flavor and makes a sticky dough.) For different flavors and textures, whole-grain flours such as whole wheat, buckwheat, farro, and others can be substituted for up to half the amount of flour; more than that and the dough becomes friable or crumbly and can’t be rolled as thin as needed for some recipes. Durum flour makes great pasta with a good bite but unfortunately it is hard to find; if you do come across it, substitute it for up to half of the total flour. Semolina is ground from durum wheat, but it is very coarse and hard to turn into egg pasta. Experiment to see what your favorite flours and ratios are. To make the dough by hand, measure the flour into a bowl, one that easily holds the flour with plenty of extra room for stirring. Break the eggs into another bowl or cup and beat them slightly to mix the yolks and whites. Make a well in the flour (use a spoon or your hand to make a depression) and pour in the beaten eggs. Use a fork to stir as though scrambling the eggs, scraping in flour from the sides bit by bit. When the egg and flour mixture gets too stiff to stir with a fork, continue mixing with your hands. When the flour is mostly absorbed, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until the dough comes together. It won’t be perfectly smooth. Wrap it in a plastic bag or plastic wrap and let sit for an hour at room temperature (or longer, refrigerated). The dough needs to rest to allow the gluten that has been activated by the stirring and kneading to relax, making the dough easier to roll out. To make the dough with a stand mixer, put the flour in the bowl, attach the paddle, and slowly pour in the eggs while mixing at low speed. Mix until the dough begins to come together in small, moist clumps. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead together. Cover and let rest as above. Through trial and error I have discovered that a wetter dough is much easier to work with, especially when rolling out by hand (it does not spring back as quickly as a dry dough). The ideal texture for pasta is a dough that comes together easily but is not sticky. If, after mixing, the dough is crumbly and dry, moisten with a sprinkling of water. Add more as needed, a little at a time, but avoid making it too wet. If the dough is too wet and sticky, you can knead in more flour, but let it rest at least an hour to come together. Flour will vary from batch to batch, so what seemed like the perfect amount of liquid one time may be too much or too little another. Pasta can be rolled by hand or with a machine. The rollers of the machine create perfectly smooth noodles, while hand-rolling results in interesting surface irregularities for the sauce to cling to, adding nuance and flavor. It’s worth rolling the dough by hand once to taste and feel the difference. When rolling pasta with a machine, first flatten the ball of dough with your hands, then open the machine up to its fullest setting, and, while cranking slowly but steadily, pass the dough through the rollers of the machine. (If you are making a large amount of dough, divide it into smaller balls to avoid overloading the machine.) Fold the rolled dough over itself into thirds, as though folding a letter, and put it through the machine again. This process kneads the dough. If the dough is sticking, sprinkle it lightly with flour. Smooth out the flour with your hand before rolling again. Fold and roll two more t...

Minestrone means “big soup” in Italian: a big soup of many vegetables. In order for them all to be cooked through at the same time, they’re added in stages. First a tasty soffritto (a base of aromatic vegetables) is made, long-cooking vegetables are added and moistened with water or broth, and the soup is brought to a boil, at which point the more tender vegetables are added. Dried beans and pasta are cooked separately and added at the end. The recipe below is for a classic summertime minestrone, followed by seasonal variations. The soffritto can be made of onions only but often includes carrots and celery. Fennel can be substituted for the celery when a more delicate flavor is wanted. Garlic is always added at the end of the cooking to ensure that it does not burn. Be sure to use a heavy-bottomed pot and lots of olive oil. For a more hearty soup, let the soffritto cook to a golden hue; for a less robust version, don’t let the vegetables color at all. Either way, the vegetables should be cooked through to give the soup the full benefit of their flavors; this will take 10 minutes or more. They’re done when they look and taste good enough to eat on their own. The vegetables added after the soffritto—such as squash and green beans—are cut into pieces small enough to ensure that each spoonful of soup will contain a mixture. They’re added sequentially, according to the length of time they take to cook through without getting mushy. Greens need to be cut into bite-size pieces, too; if they’re cut in strips they can hang down and dribble hot soup on your chin or your clothes. Winter greens such as kale or chard take longer to cook and should go in with the first group of vegetables. Tender greens such as spinach will cook in just a few minutes and should be added towards the end of cooking. Salt the soup as it cooks; this will intensify and improve the flavor as a last-minute salting cannot. Dried beans—and pasta, if you’re using it—should be cooked separately before being added to the soup. Save the bean cooking liquid; it adds flavor and body to the soup. The cooked beans should be added during the last 10 minutes so they have a chance to absorb flavor, but not overcook. The pasta should be added at the very end so it doesn’t overcook and get bloated and flabby. To preserve its fresh flavor, the garnish of olive oil and cheese should be added to the bowls of soup, not to the pot. I always pass a bowl of grated cheese and a bottle of olive oil at the table.