• lizwinn on October 12, 2010

  One of my favorite books.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Avocado-sardine toasts

  • stormygirl on April 13, 2025

    Excellent for dinner party appetizer or a solo lunch

  • stormygirl on April 13, 2025

    This is delicious! Use smaller size bread pieces so it’s easier to pick up. Bread needs to be well toasted to hold up!

  • aberne on January 03, 2026

    I've been making these for years and years (from an article Paula did many many years ago). They are great for dinner or cocktail parties, but also a light meal with soup.

• Cypriot fresh fava bean and purslane salad

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    Purslane is difficult to find here, so I substitute watercress.

• Lemon tabouli with tender romaine

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    Refrigerate for several hours.

  • stormygirl on March 21, 2025

    Lovely!

  • stormygirl on March 21, 2025

    Soaking the bulgar and lemon juice was both super easy and added excellent flavor. I also loved the little hint of cinnamon.

• Chickpea, celery, and porcini soup with pecorino cheese

  • Rella on February 11, 2013

    The recipe in my book, page 70, does not call for celeriac as one of the ingredients, but it lists "thinly sliced tender celery ribs" which I used. All ingredients were used, but my spouse and I found it too bland to really be an enjoyable soup. As a last resort, I did add to my bowl of soup, "piment d'Esplette' which was a waste of this wonderful spice and added nothing to our enjoyment.

  • stormygirl on January 18, 2023

    This soup is very bland and tasteless, not worth making again

• White bean and escarole soup

  • br22 on October 30, 2014

    Delicious soup. Pass through a food mill prior to combining with cooking liquid, as necessary, and escarole. Though I bought and soaked the beans overnight the day before making the soup, some of the skins on the beans didn't disintegrate as I'd hoped. The flavors are wonderful as is the cooking method for the beans. I'll stir in another teaspoon of salt when checking the status of the beans after 90 minutes next time.

• Turkish red lentil soup with paprika and mint sizzle

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    This tastes incredible!! The paprika mint sizzle- wow! The only thing I changed was to reduce the Aleppo pepper a bit for my heat sensitive husband.

• Panade of leeks and mixed greens with cantal cheese

  • lizwinn on October 12, 2010

    This is going to be a fall/winter staple. And begs for eperimentation. I served it with Cholula hot sauce.

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    Sometimes panades can be stodgy and boring. Not so with this dish. Full of flavor, chewy and moist.

• Raw rhubarb, cucumber, and mint salad

  • amraub on June 12, 2012

    Tart and refreshing. Something different to do with rhubarb that's quite good. Made with pea shoots instead of arugula.

  • br22 on May 25, 2014

    Conceptually I really liked this dish, and it tasted good too. My several suggestions are to cut back the amount of salt and to seed and grate the cucumber, then after rinsed thoroughly and drained, squeeze excess moisture out by wringing it in a kitchen towel.

  • saveur on May 22, 2016

    A bit of salt is added to temper the rhubarb and within ten minutes, you have a savoury salad ingredient – not at all tart! The rhubarb is mixed with thinly sliced cucumber, baby arugula and spinach, squirted with lemon juice and topped with shredded mint leaves. It is a wonderfully delicious, simply refreshing salad. Simple ingredients go a long way for an easy salad for the summertime.

  • dinnermints on August 20, 2016

    Maybe I would have enjoyed this salad more if it were really hot out. Agree with br22 - next time, I'd cut the salt in half at the very least. Maybe my mandoline has gone a bit dull, but it didn't work well with my freshly harvested rhubarb; I gave up and used a knife.

• Garlic and lemon-marinated chicken kebabs

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    Delicious. Marinated full 4 hours. Cooked on a grill pan.

• Pan-grilled duck breast with chanterelles, dried apricots, and almonds

  • chriscooks on July 30, 2011

    This is superb and well worth the effort for a special occasion. When chanterelles are in season, try this one. Can use skinless breasts. Goes well with asparagus.

• Steamed and crisped duck legs with umbrian lentils

  • stepharama1 on February 10, 2024

    This was excellent! And I have to confess that I used passionfruit jelly rather than saba. I'm sure it would have been more delicious if made exactly as Paula had written.

• Pork coddled in olive oil with Tuscan beans and arugula

  • billcranecos on August 06, 2020

    Outstanding. Takes several days (minimal activity on each day), so plan ahead.

  • twoyolks on January 05, 2026

    This is basically an Italian version of carnitas. It's good but I think I'd rather just have carnitas.

• Tuscan beans

  • twoyolks on January 05, 2026

    I found these beans to be pretty bland. I did pressure cook them instead of long simmering.

• Corsican brined pork chops

  • br22 on June 15, 2014

    The meat is excessively salty. I'm going to try reducing the quantity of salt in the brining liquid. The sauce is delicious.

• Pork stew with prunes and onions

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    Oh yes! No small white onions? Use shallots. Marinate several hours if possible. Bring to room temp before cooking. This is even better if you can make it a day before you want to serve it. And absolutely serve on the oven baked polenta (recipe follows on next page).

• Oven-baked polenta

  • foodgloriousfood on February 02, 2022

    This worked perfectly for me. Couldn’t be easier! I used coarse polenta. I didn’t add anything to it as the dish I was serving it with was very rich, but next time will stir in parmesan and thyme sautéed in butter, at the end.

  • stepharama1 on January 28, 2023

    This is the best and easiest polenta I've ever made! I followed her instructions precisely and it worked perfectly.

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    This is the easiest polenta you'll ever make. Perfect with the pork stew recipe on the preceding pages.

• Pork and orange-flavored beans

  • Lzeleny on October 15, 2022

    This is one of my top favorite recipes. Perfect for doing ahead and servicing to a crowd.

• Beef short ribs simmered in red wine with fennel, black olives, and anchovies in the style of camargue

  • Breadcrumbs on October 21, 2012

    p. 192 Wonderful! This is the very first recipe I’ve made from this book and it was sensational, even if I didn’t quite follow the instructions exactly. I didn't read the recipe through before starting so had no time to let the ribs sit overnight. Also, I prefer to retain the cooked veggies and leave the meat on the bone. Despite my changes, this dish was exceptional. The sauce is finished with some olive and anchovy butter along w a splash of Pernod. I served this w a choice of mashed potatoes or gnocci and folks were evenly split on their selections. As you might expect this dish was even better the following day. The combination of fennel w olives and anchovies made for a wonderful flavour sensation that deepened the rich flavours of the braised beef. Utterly decadent. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/474969#7659530

  • ellabee on June 14, 2014

    p.192. Least successful of the short ribs explorations. Though I love fennel and licorice-anisey flavors, this was just too intense for us; the splash of Pernod was particularly regrettable.

  • Lzeleny on December 30, 2017

    Page 192. This is one of our all time favorite recipes. The pernot, olive and anchovy separate this from so many other braised short ribs.

• Maghrebi veal meatballs with spinach and chickpeas

  • amraub on April 09, 2012

    Used chicken stock instead of chickpea water to give sauce a bit more flavour. Followed CH suggestions to make a one-pot dinner and spinach seemed a tiny bit slimy from sitting. Next time, may try wilting spinach into cooked sauce. Very flavourful dish.

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    This was a lot of ingredients and steps to prepare and assemble. While we liked it OK, doubt that I would go to all this trouble again.

• Seven-hour garlic crowned lamb

  • mirage on January 16, 2010

    Excellent.

• Fall-apart lamb shanks with almond-chocolate picada

  • mirage on January 16, 2010

    Very very good.

• Asparagus baked in parchment with caper mayonnaise

  • caniacwino on October 08, 2020

    This was absolutely incredible. Texture was similar to canned asparagus but the flavor was almost decadent. Made the caper sauce with salted capers, creme fraiche and mayo and added more tarragon. Would certainly make again.

• Casserole of black-eyed peas with fennel and tomatoes

  • IsaSim on January 04, 2014

    Very good. Done with spinach (what we had on hand) and added a bit of hot sauce to individual taste (Tabasco green pepper sauce this time).

• Golden potato gratin

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    Nope. Gloppy.

• Spicy potato tagine with preserved lemon and olives

  • lizwinn on October 12, 2010

    This was phenominal. I used fingerlings and added spicy sausage for my carnivores.

• Butternut squash and potato pie with tomato, mint, and sheep's milk cheese

  • jen kalb on January 05, 2020

    Excellent flavorful dish, flavors come through better if served warm rather than hot.

• Fig, fennel, and lemon tart

  • leilx on August 18, 2021

    This is a very unusual recipe and flavor combination. Not sweet really at all--I ended up sprinkling it with superfine sugar to add a touch more sweetness. All the components go together really well and offer a very interesting taste combination in the mouth. Do not skip the fennel or skimp on it. It is very delicate in this recipe. Can be made in stages but probably best the day it is made.

• Strawberries with orange-flavored wine

  • kbrooks on March 18, 2025

    Nice. Refreshing.

• Harissa #2

  • KatieK1 on January 23, 2022

    Too salty. Recipe should say to wash the salt off the onions.