Notes about Recipes in this book

• Ginger apple torte

  • bellatavia on February 15, 2016

    Easy to prepare with a delicious result. This dessert is elegant because of all the layers of flavor and texture, and it's casual because of the apples and rustic decoration. A winner -- and a great place for non-bakers to start with making a cake.

• Sweet potato and pancetta gratin

  • kateiscoooking on February 18, 2019

    Incredible! We've made red potato gratins with cream and a bit of gruyere but I've never done sweet potatoes. Or added pancetta. Absolutely a five!!!

• Mujaddara with spiced yogurt

  • louie734 on January 21, 2016

    Seems too simple to be good, but it's GOOD. Make the spiced yogurt a bit ahead if you remember.

• Pastitsio

  • Melanie on March 29, 2014

    This was really delicious and very easy to make (although there are a few pots on the go . some watching required). The fetta gets mixed in with the lamb & pasta mix, not the cheese sauce as the ingredients list indicates. I used the sumac (optional) and swapped the dried mint (optional) for fresh mint. I was cooking this in freezable alfoil containers however it was difficult to stretch the bechamel sauce - I'd make in a deeper dish next time.

• Not-too-virtuous salad with caramelized apple vinaigrette

  • Totallywired on October 13, 2018

    Nice balanced salad with slightly sweet dressing. Reduce celery root slightly to improve balance, reduce brown sugar in dressing or amp up vinegar if serving with rich side. Makes a boatload of dressing.

• Linguine with sardines, fennel, and tomato

  • Rinshin on January 07, 2023

    Very satisfying use of canned sardines to produce tasty and quick pasta sauce. Caramelizing paper thin fennel slices in olive oil with sardines go well nicely in light tomato based sauce.

• Gong bao chicken (Gong bao ji ding)

  • Frogcake on September 17, 2024

    A great recipe! Tongue numbing in a good way, with many complex tastes. I used cashews in place of peanuts. Will repeat this one again as it was truly delicious!

• Roasted broccoli with smoked paprika vinaigrette and Marcona almonds

  • macfadden on September 18, 2016

    I make this all the time; it's fantastic. My only change is to use toasted sliced almonds rather than whole Marcona almonds.

  • michalow on January 06, 2022

    This is good! Not my very favorite way to eat roasted broccoli, but a nice change of pace.

  • Jviney on January 25, 2024

    I really enjoyed this dish, although I did not use all of the paprika oil and it was very flavorful. My non-adventurous eaters made no comment but did eat it! A nice twist for a change, and do-able with cupboard ingredients.

• Louisa's cake

  • Astrid5555 on February 10, 2013

    Delicious! Not too sweet, and the grated apple adds additional moistness. New go-to recipe to use up any left-over ricotta.

  • Kfaber on September 15, 2013

    Super-moist and not too sweet, so perfect for breakfast as well as dessert

  • Breadcrumbs on June 21, 2015

    p. 177 – A quick, simple and delicious cake that’s perfect for a dessert but as the prior reviewer says, it's equally appropriate for breakfast. The ricotta and apple keep the cake moist and dense so a little slice goes a long way. There’s a nice hint of lemon from the zest but nothing so overpowering that you wouldn’t want to pair this cake with some fresh fruit or a compote. Made this for DD’s 8th b’day this year and he “woofed” his piece down!! Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/1015217?commentId=9613019#9613019

  • Melanie on November 22, 2015

    Tasty - this is one of those cakes that is delicious by itself or could easily pair with other things. I needed two apples.

  • Cookie24 on April 02, 2018

    Delicious cake and simple to make. I let the ricotta sit in a cheese cloth lined sieve for an hour letting it drain a little before making the cake. I think the ricotta and apple will keep the cake moist for a few days, can't say for sure because cake was devoured the following morning with coffee. Doesn't really need the powered sugar on top, plenty sweet on its own.

  • Yildiz100 on April 15, 2020

    Very nice. Finely chop the apples, don't grate them. She shows chopped apples in the video, not sure why it says grated in the recipe. I tried grating myself and after doing just a bit I realized they were going to release too much liquid. I reduced the baking powder from 1 Tbsp to about 2 tsp and that worked fine. Quite sweet, definitely doesn't need the powdered sugar, except for appearances. Note: this will be very brown when done, don't panic, but do be prepared to turn down the heat in the oven after this is about 2/3 baked.

  • cadfael on October 07, 2025

    One of my husband‘s favourite cakes simple, and needs no extra adornment

• Afghan dumplings with lamb kofta and yogurt sauce

  • bellatavia on October 16, 2016

    Wow -- this recipe was so easy to make and extremely delicious! We actually made this recipe in reverse order from what Food52 recommends. First we made the yogurt sauce, so the flavors had time to mingle. We also found that a cup of yogurt made far too much sauce -- I would recommend halving the recipe. Then we made the dumplings, and had them ready to drop into the boiling water once the lamb was mostly sauteed through.

  • sharone7 on May 25, 2021

    Could swap lentils for the lamb--I'll probably play with that next time. Also, I could do with about half the yogurt/garlic mix. The dried mint is not to be missed.

• Sausage and kale dinner tart

  • Kfaber on September 27, 2013

    Used turkey Italian sausage instead of pork sausage. Totally delicious!

• Shrimp burgers with roasted garlic-orange aioli

  • bellatavia on July 25, 2015

    Make the aioli first! Before anything roast the garlic. Recipe for aioli comes after the shrimp burger recipe.

• Braised pork belly tacos with watermelon, jicama, and jalapeño salsa

  • Melanie on March 29, 2014

    We only made the braised pork section of this and made a number of modifications (hence deviating from what would make this recipe a bigger success). I'd like to try this again though as I think it has lots of potential. Substituted pork shoulder as we needed a lot of meat and didn't get a chance to brine it sufficiently. Also didn't have enough stock and juice to fully cover the meat while cooking in its pot. The sections that were submerged and close to the edges tasted amazing. Next time I would use smaller cuts of pork and look to fully submerge.

• Baked ricotta and goat cheese with candied tomatoes

  • Jviney on August 06, 2023

    Divine. I subbed oregano for the marjoram. The tomatoes are the star - absolutely delicious. I found the directions to bake the cheese in a 2 cup dish to be confusing, and next time I'd find a much wider dish that allows for the thickness of the cheese in the picture. My dish was 3.5 cups and baked way longer than 40 minutes.

• Boston Globe by T. Susan Chang

  ... It’s the kind that food lovers will alternately treasure and argue over. Like life, this book is sometimes inspired, sometimes messy, a bit imperfect, but full of heart.

  Full review