Recipes By Amanda Hesser
346 recipes found
Smoked Ricotta
At Quince in San Francisco, Michael Tusk, the chef, smokes fresh ricotta over fruitwood and spices until it's lightly browned and crumbly. If you have a stove-top smoker, this is the time to use it, but you can improvise using a wok, a round baking rack and a vegetable steamer. (Fruitwood chips are available at barbecuewood.com.)
Roquefort-and-Pear Eggnog
This fascinating recipe came to The Times in a 2007 article by Amanda Hesser about eggnog, specifically the Craig Claiborne version of the classic Christmas punch which Ms. Hesser said “sweeps the field.” She asked Eben Freeman, the head bartender at Tailor in SoHo, to come up with his own interpretation of Claiborne's 1958 concoction. “Freeman is a man who isn’t shy about using ingredients like bell peppers in his cocktails, infusing gin with hops and making drinks like ‘the Waylon,’ which involves blending bourbon with smoked Coca-Cola; he took to the eggnog with the enthusiasm of a dog unleashed in the park.” What he landed on was this: a savory-sweet mousse in which he infused the cream with Roquefort and scented the nog with poire William, a pear eau de vie. Serve it as a cheese course with a spoon. There's no sipping this stuff.
Braised Celery Hearts With Tomato And Olives
Corn Salad With Chanterelles, Garlic Chives And Truffle Oil
1958: Eggnog
This recipe appeared in The Times in an article by Craig Claiborne. As Freeman pointed out, ''It's important to get good farm-fresh eggs, with really orange yolks and really thick cream; these are the main constituents of the drink.'' Halve the recipe for a smaller gathering.
Forget-It Meringue Torte
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Prepare your meringue. Place it in your oven, turn it off, and head to bed. (Make sure not to peek!) In the morning, you’ll have a pavlova. Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey brought this clever recipe, Molly Chappellet, an owner of Chappellet Vineyards, to The Times in 1978, and Amanda Hesser rehashed it in 2006. It’s a perfect casual dessert for a dinner party, especially if the day before looks busy. Serve it with the raspberry sauce, as suggested, to cut through any sweetness.
Moroccan Rice Pudding
For me, a dinner party is a chance to try all those recipes that serve as bedside reading. For dessert, I dug around my cookbook collection and decided on a Moroccan rice pudding (or roz bil hleeb) from Paula Wolfert, made with almond milk and orange flower water.
Nonna's Pasta With Eggs, Pecorino And Sage
Spaghetti With Fried Eggs And Roasted Peppers
Pasta Kerchief With Poached Egg, French Ham And Brown Butter
Gabrielle Hamilton, the chef at Prune in the East Village, layers pasta kerchiefs with a poached egg, blanched bitter greens and a slice of French ham, then pours over a river of browned butter, a dozen or so toasted pine nuts and a few drops of balsamic vinegar. It can be done all in one pot, perhaps two. She poaches the egg and holds it on the side. The pasta is cooked in boiling water, and then a handful of watercress and arugula rolled in a slice of French ham and clamped between tongs is dipped in. Hardly a second and the greens are wilted and warmed. As it's assembled, a small pool of pasta water collects at the bottom of the bowl. So does a little vinegar water from poaching the eggs. And the brown butter slides down through the layers so that as you dig your spoon into it you splash into a salty, nourishing broth.