Notes about Recipes in this book

• Black olive paste

  • kateiscoooking on March 04, 2017

    This is our go-to black olive tapenade recipe.

  • kateiscoooking on December 16, 2017

    Incredible and amazing. Puts the jarred olive tapenade you buy in the store to shame. Be sure to try it in the tart.

• Olives crab cakes

  • Lee on July 05, 2015

    I think this would be a good recipe, but 1 tsp of salt was too much for me. Worth tinkering with.

• Olives tart

  • kateiscoooking on March 04, 2017

    Just plain amazing. The book pretty much falls open to this page... Wish everyone loved the ingredients as much as we do so we could serve this more often for company.

• Lentil hummus

  • amoule on May 20, 2016

    I've made this several times; it is interesting, unusual, and delicious. It's better with French green lentils de Puy. I used ordinary brown lentils once and it wasn't quite as good, though it was still very nice. It does taste different from the usual chickpea hummus -- it's more special.

• Fresh creamed corn pudding

  • MarciK on September 15, 2025

    Instead of bread, I used a homemade cornbread mix using polenta instead of cornmeal, equivalent size to the jiffy mix. I also added pepper jack cheese. The changes were successful, and it was delicious.

• My favorite baked potato salad

  • anya_sf on September 20, 2024

    I used a 7 oz bag arugula instead of watercress; there was enough dressing. The salad was delicious and serving it over a baked potato was a novel, fun idea. Depending on the size of your potato, this is a full meal on its own, but also great with sliced steak (which we had) or crumbled bacon.

• Mashed sweet potatoes with maple syrup

  • MarciK on November 07, 2022

    I tested this out to see if it's Thanksgiving worthy. It is, but instead of chopping the ginger, I will great it so it blends more smoothly with the sweet potatoes. I liked the leftovers better the next day, as the flavors blended more.

• Saffron risotto

  • Senkimekia on December 25, 2011

    This was great! Only deviation to recipe was that I had no chorizo available so I used merguez sausage instead. Still was delicious.

• Asparagus risotto with ragù of crazy mushrooms, porcini cream, and white truffles

  • kateiscoooking on December 06, 2020

    This was a lot of work for something that wasn't better than my normal asparagus risotto...

  • bktravels on February 26, 2023

    3/2002 I gave this recipe 4 stars instead of 5 because it took us an hour and a half to make it. Usually we make a much simpler asparagus risotto from one of Judith Barrett's or Biba Gaggiano's books. This was a nice change. We left out the truffles and truffle oil.

• Country shells with sausage, cannellini beans, and spinach

  • Breadcrumbs on April 01, 2012

    p. 214 A delicious and substantial dish thanks to the combination of beans and sausage. We opted to use spelt rigatoni in place of the shells so the pasta itself was also more filling than usual. I loved the rich, deep flavours in the dish and recommend a big meaty red wine in the sauce and on the table. We put Vino Nobile in the sauce and served the Zin recommended by TE. The sauce for this dish is very thick and I ended up adding a couple of ladles of pasta water to loosen somewhat. Our sausage was disappointingly gristly and lacked the fennel we so love. I added fennel seed to boost the flavour but nothing could be done about the sausage. I’ll definitely try this again w better quality sausage. Very tasty nonetheless. Photos here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/841356#7249415

  • bktravels on February 26, 2023

    12/2014 Great recipe! We realized we didn't have white beans, so we left out the cannellini. I'll make it again with the beans. We also added fresh ricotta at the table in place of the optional cream

• Bistro stuffed chicken with spicy Italian sausage and red onions

  • bktravels on February 26, 2023

    3/2002 Delicious!

• Ginger mustard chicken

  • Michelle123 on March 31, 2022

    This was delicious! The chicken stayed really moist. Didn't have beefsteak tomatoes, used some not-so-ripe Romas but it worked out. Also used green garlic instead of crushed. Family loved it! Next time will try toasting/frying the breadcrumbs separately then sprinkling on after chicken bakes, to keep the topping crispy.

• Pork chops au poivre with apple and leek puree

  • Trackypup on January 26, 2012

    Excellent recipe. Just a heads up, this calls for the chops to be brined 2- 4 days...I did 1. But it's not a recipe to make in one night. Excellent rub on the chops and the apple leek purée is very good.

• Grilled scallops with walnut butter paste

  • Trackypup on January 29, 2012

    Good, but a little underwhelmed with the walnut puree. Very interesting flavour combination though. Would made again and try to enhance the puree

  • Compass on March 25, 2019

    Thanks for this note. Very helpful. Perhaps walnut oil? I'll check the recipe. Just about to make this tomorrow. [and I don't like the thought of grilling scallops]

• Barbecued shrimp with chorizo sauce

  • Trackypup on November 13, 2011

    I love this sauce, we use it in quesadilla