Sausage variants can be found in every meat-eating culture in the world, simply because it’s a highly effective way to use all of the meat from an animal. Traditionally sausage was made using the scraps of meat left over from bigger cuts and put into a casing.

These days, making sausage at home is much easier. It’s also possible to use a wide range of your favorite ingredients to create your own unique sausage flavor combinations. If you’re ready to start making homemade sausage, here are our top 7 tips to help you get started.

Tip 1: Prepare Your Ingredients

Before you start cutting or grinding anything, take the time to prepare everything you need for the entire sausage making process in advance. Choose your cold meat cuts, flavorings, spices and herbs and have them laid out ready to go.

You should also be sure you have all your tools ready as well. Sharpen the knives you’ll be using, have your chopping board prepared, and be sure your grinder is clean and the blades are sharp.

Tip 2: Decide on Texture

Whether you’re making homemade hot dogs, gourmet flavored sausages, or chorizo, the key to getting your sausage recipe right is to think about the texture you want to achieve. For example, a hot dog will be a smooth texture, while a breakfast sausage might be created with a coarser texture.

Getting your texture right can affect the finished sausage quality, so it’s important to consider the combination of ingredients you use.

Every sausage should contain a portion of meat, some fat, a bit of liquid and some salt. The textures you create will rely on changing the ratios of those four basic ingredients.

For example, if you want a firm sausage texture, you’ll need to add a little more water. Alternatively, a smoother sausage will have a greater ratio of fat in the mixture.

The key to getting your ratio of ingredients right is to work with a base recipe to achieve the texture you want. From there, you can add herbs, spices or aromatics to suit the flavors you want to create.

Tip 3: Prepare Your Meat

No matter what type of meat you’re using to make your sausage, take the time to prepare it properly before you begin. Be sure to cut your meat and fat into small pieces. Ideally, each piece should be smaller than the opening on your grinder so it fits in and feeds into the auger without having to push it down.

When you’ve cut your meat and fat, put them into the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes. You don’t want the meat to freeze, but you do want it to be cold, as this can help preserve the cell structure within the meat and ensure your sausage is juicy.

It’s also a good idea to put the grinder into the refrigerator too. You’ll be putting cold meat into the grinder, so you don’t want icy meat to stick to warm grinder blades on its way through the auger.

Tip 4: Get Grinding

When you’ve prepared your meat and fat, it’s time to get grinding. Take your cold meat out of the freezer and drop the pieces into the grinder. The pieces should fit easily into the opening with no resistance, so it will get caught by the auger.

As soon as one piece catches, drop another in. Continue adding more meat a little at a time, but don’t force lots of meat into the grinder all at once. Otherwise you’ll be forcing meat into the grinder faster than the blades can process it.

Tip 5: Mix the Meat

It can be tempting to put your ground meat into a food processor to mix in any other ingredients you want to add. However, there’s the risk that a food processor or mixer can get too warm, which could begin to melt the fat and change your textures.

Instead, put your ground meat into a bowl and add any herbs, spices, seasonings, or other flavorings you want to include. Then use very clean hands to mix the ingredients gently.

When you first put your ingredients into the bowl, you’ll see that each ingredient is distinctly separate. After you’ve mixed the ingredients for a while, they’ll start to combine, until they become one big sticky mass in the bowl.

You’ll know when your sausage is ready when it starts sticking to the sides of the bowl. Another easy way to test whether it’s ready is to form a small patty in your hand and hold it upside down. If the patty stays stuck to your palm, it’s sticky enough to move to the next tip.

Tip 6: Forming Your Sausage

Once you’ve finished mixing your sausage and you’re happy with the texture, it’s time to form it so it can be cooked. You can go ahead and cook it as it is, or maybe you might prefer to crumble the sausage over a pizza before sticking it in the oven.

Alternatively, you can form the sausage into patties and put them straight onto the grill, or you might want to form little meatballs to put into a pasta sauce. Of course, you might also prefer to stuff your sausage into casings and twist them into links.

If you’re using a sausage stuffer, work carefully to establish a good speed and rhythm. It’s important not to work too quickly, as you risk bursting the casing. Likewise, you also don’t want to work too slowly, as the casings could be too loose, but they also might end up too tight and burst.

The key is to find a happy medium that lets you fill the casing so you’re able to pinch a link with your fingers and twist it to form individual sausage links. Twist each link several times so they won’t unwind.

Tip 7: Cooking Your Sausage

If you’ve gone to all the effort of making good quality sausage, it makes sense that you also want to cook it right to highlight the flavors you’ve created. There are plenty of different ways you can cook your sausage, such as searing, poaching or smoking, but no matter which option you choose make certain you do it low and slow.

Whether you choose to sear your sausages on the grill or in a frying pan, do it over a medium-low heat.  Cooking sausage over a high heat can make the juices inside start to boil, which makes the meat expand. Not only will you risk bursting the casing, but you’ll also lose many of those juices.

If you’re pan frying, keep the heat on medium to low. If you’re using a grill, place your sausages near the back away from direct heat. You’ll still get that great sear you want on the outside. It takes a little longer to achieve, but the results are worth the wait.

When I arranged the meals for Board meetings at the day job, I learned the trick of creating food that tastes great at room temperature. Some things need to be hot to be flavorful, and other things need to be cold to be safe. Spicy Noodles is tasty tepid and completely dairy-free – good on both counts.

Sriracha is that Asian hot sauce that’s on the table at Chinese and Thai restaurants. I can get a huge bottle of it for under $2 at the local Giant Eagle, so it’s neither exotic nor expensive. It has a really peppery punch that trails behind the pasta in this dish. On first bite, you’ll say “This isn’t that spicy.” Then you’ll swallow, and the stars will come out.

This is a great dish to balance a sweltering summer or heat up a winter evening. Best of all, you’ll have the sauce together before the pasta water boils. Feel free to prepare the sauce a day in advance and combine at the last minute. Just keep the nuts and seeds separate – they’ll get mushy otherwise.

Spicy Noodles
12-16 oz long, flat pasta, cooked – I use udon or linguini
4 green onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons chili sauce – use sriracha if you like the spice, or sweet if you are a pansy
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons broth or water
1 tablespoon honey
Big handful cilantro, chopped
Handful roasted peanuts
Palmful sesame seeds

If you are feeling really ambitious, toast the sesame seeds and peanuts in a dry skillet over medium heat until golden brown.

Here is the beauty of this recipe: Whisk together everything but the peanuts and sesame seeds. Add the noodles and stir thoroughly until sauce coats noodles. Top at the last minute with peanuts and sesame seeds… and Presto Pasta Night! You’re done!

So I took my opportunity on the West Coast to make a beeline for some top-notch Asian food. My friend Amy and I asked her roommate for a recommendation near the Japanese Garden, and Rachel said “I think there’s a good Korean restaurant over there that starts with a B.” She was right. It’s called Bewon.

Bewon is a tiny restaurant – 12 tables – that features a seven-course tasting menu with wine pairings for a measly $40 (!). Starting with three-pumpkin soup, stopping off at sweet potato noodles and wrapping up with tea, I could write a dissertation on each course… but instead, here are the greatest hits, and you’ll just have to go try the rest for yourself.

1. Gu-jeol-pan
Tiny mounds of ingredients ring the plate, making it resemble an artist’s palette. Fortunately, we’re not painting, we’re eating. Amy and I piles cucumbers, carrots, egg whites and yolks, spicy ground beef, bean sprouts and two kinds of mushrooms onto miniature crepes, then top them with a soy-ginger sauce. Each flavor has its distinct moment on the tongue – carroty sweetness to earthy black mushroom to soothing cucumber – and getting to assemble the rolls ourselves really had us tickled.

2. Main dish accompaniments
Our main dishes – barbecue ribeye for Amy and spicy pork for me – were served on sizzling platters, accompanied by no fewer than nine side dishes in tiny bowls, plus tofu soup and plenty of rice. I don’t know about you, but when I cook, my guests are lucky to get two sides. Potatoes. Kimchi. Spicy kimchi. Green beans. Sprouts. A frittata-like concoction. Mushrooms. And my favorite – Mom, hang on to your hat – spicy dried squid. I cannot believe that I just typed the words “dried” and “squid” anywhere close to the word “favorite,” but there you have it: LB couldn’t get enough dried squid. Just goes to prove what happens when you shut up and eat it.

3. Su-jeong-gwa
Once we had eaten our fill of the 2,493 side dishes, our (incredibly attractive) waiter brought us the most refreshing palate cleanser that I have sampled in my short life. After pungent kimchi, spicy barbecue and the aforementioned spicy dried squid, the cinnamon-and-ginger-infused cider called su-jeong-gwa made our eyes sparkle with delight. As I sipped, the lingering spicy tingles disappeared from my mouth, replaced with sweet apple spice. Even after the kimchi-pork-and-squid extravaganza that was my main course, I would have wagered this stuff made my breath smelled sweet.

Amy and I couldn’t shut up about Bewon for the next four days. In fact, even 10 days later, here I am, still running my mouth. Unfortunately the camera phone pics didn’t do it justice, so I opted not to include them here, but check BeWon’s website and you’ll be appropriately impressed.

Gail Nesbitt Jones and Marsha Dugan Kolbe met me last month to discuss their tiny masterpiece, Where We Like to Eat n’At. This spiral-bound volume contains profiles on 57 distinctive area restaurants that will spark conversation but won’t break the bank.

Where We Like to Eat n’At features Pittsburgh classics like DeLuca’s, Tessaro’s, Pamela’s and Ritter’s, but it also goes off the beaten path. Take Marsha’s favorite pick, the Monterey Pub in the Mexican War Streets. You won’t find this Irish pub in any guide books, and you’d probably never drive up Monterey Street looking for a restaurant. It’s the kind of place you only learn about on an inside tip, and it’s exactly what the authors were trying to find: neighborhood joints where locals go to enjoy conversation and a friendly atmosphere.

As Gail put it, “The places we included all have decent and affordable food, but more importantly, they are all uniquely Pittsburgh.” That means that you won’t find any chain restaurants in the book, but it also means that you’re in for a whirlwind tour of some of Pittsburgh’s lesser-known neighborhoods and suburbs. For instance, according to Gail, Bob’s Garage in Blawnox pulls off astronomical levels of tackiness that you’ve just got to see. Marsha doesn’t think anyone should miss the pristine Boston Waterfront, hidden on the banks of the Youghiogheny in McKeesport. And I wholeheartedly agree that you must try My Brick Oven, an unassuming woodfire pizza shop on Banksville Road with an astonishing patio and herb-crusted wings that knock my socks off every three days.

So if you’re ready to find new favorite restaurant that you will actually be able to patronize, you can pick up a copy of Where We Like to Eat n’At online or at many local bookstores. Rumor has it that some adventurous types are even getting their copies autographed by staff at each of the 57 eateries profiled. Best of all, it’s only $10, which even I can afford.

And if you’re not convinced, heed to the wise words of Gail and Marsha: There’s no excuse for eating at the same places all the time, and there’s no excuse for not exploring the city you call home.

So I could have done a wrap or a pizza or something that puts the Caesar into bread somehow – again, yummy – but I’m really trying to make myself eat more salad, so instead I tried to find a way to make a beautiful, different sort of Caesar. The payoff came from knocking off two recipes at once: a gorgeous use of endive from a Christmas present cookbook by Dave Lieberman, and a Caesar-inspired vinaigrette from Michael Chiarello. Presented below is the mashed-up recipe I created from them.

Despite this being my entry for HHDD #12: Caesar Salad, I’ve realized since I made it that this isn’t actually a Caesar at all. It doesn’t have anchovies because of SOME PEOPLE and there’s no egg. There isn’t even any bread. But if you like citrus, love cheese and are a sucker for a fun presentation, this is the salad for you.

Endive Lettuce Cups with Citrus Vinaigrette and Frico

Citrus “Caesar” Vinaigrette
2 garlic cloves
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon TJ’s Orange Muscat Champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 dash hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon fresh coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 cup pure olive oil (or to your own vinegar-olive oil ratio taste)
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Chop the garlic and mash with the lemon zest and salt to create a paste. Put the paste in a bowl and whisk together the vinegar, lemon juice, Worchestershire, hot sauce and pepper. Whisking quickly, add the olive oil in a light stream until the the vinaigrette has your preferred consistency. Stir in the parmesan and set aside at room temperature.

Endive Cups
2-3 large heads of endive
1/2 head radicchio
3-4 ounces baby arugula

Wash all the lettuce well. Take the largest, nicest leaves off the outside of the endives. If they are large, plan on 1-2 per person; if they are small, like mine were, plan on 3-4 per person. Arrange the leaves like cups on your serving platter.

Shred the radicchio, arugula and remaining endive and toss. The lettuces need to be cut small in order to stay in the endive cups. Divide the lettuce between the reserved endive leaves.

Frico
Your goal is one long, thin frico cracker per endive cup. The amount of parmesan you need to accomplish this will vary, so just have a good store of shredded, not grated, parmesan by your side. Those shreds should be fairly large. I used the small side of the box grater but not the microplane.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Carefully put 1-2 tablespoons of parmesan into a long, narrow strip in the pan. You can do more than one at a time. Heat for 2-3 minutes until golden brown, then remove the pan from the heat for 1 minute. Slowly and gently, peel the frico from the bottom of the pan and flip it. Return the pan to the heat and cook for one more minute, then carefully remove the frico from the pan to a paper towel to cool. Repeat until you have enough frico for all your endive cups.

Top the endive cups with vinaigrette, then give each cup a salty and deliciously crispy frico cracker. Serve immediately.

Learn from my mistakes:
1. Get the biggest endive heads that you can find. Mine were tiny, and they barely held any lettuce at all. Getting the frico to balance in the endive cups was a challenge, too, given their diminutive size.
2. Don’t try to use a nonstick pan that has a nubbly bottom, like my Calphalon, for the frico. The shreds go into the nubs and it’s just a mess.
3. Frico don’t keep, not even for a 10-minute trip in the car. By the time I took my prepared creation over to Matthew’s for dinner, they had gone a little soft. Have the endive cups ready-to-go before you make the frico, and serve immediately.
4. If you don’t have PEOPLE who don’t like anchovies, you could certainly mash some in with the garlic and salt. They’d be delicious.

This tart brings me back, yet again, to the idea of simplicity in food. It’s about great ingredients and getting out of the way. It’s about restraint and resisting the urge to add just one more thing.

This apple tart has just a few ingredients: butter, flour, sugar, salt, and of course, apples. There’s not any cinnamon, nor indeed spices of any kind at all. You don’t even have to use a pan – we’re talking way simple.

With all that simplicity going on, the apples themselves will be front and center, which is why I only make this tart in the fall. This year, I made it once with Jonagold apples and another time with Romes. In any case, you’re looking for a firm apple that lives somewhere between plain sweetness and one-note tartness.

In the spirit of simplicity, I made the crust entirely by hand – no food processor, no Kitchenaid – and I tell you, it was neither scary nor inordinately time-consuming. In fact, getting all touchy-feely with the pastry gave me a better idea of what I’m looking for when I do get the food processor back out. It was akin to the kneading meditation.

And the flavor? Clean, sweet, quintessential apple. And that’s enough.

If this has you drooling, you might also like:

• More simplicity: Richest chocolate ice cream
• More apples: Caramel apple cupcakes
• More tart: Pear and Blue Cheese Tart (I need to make this again).

Alice Waters’ Apple Tart
Adapted just a bit from Smitten Kitchen, who will someday release a book

Keep your apple halves together as you cut them, and you’ll have an easy time assembling the tart. The original recipe calls for you to save the apple peels and cores and use them to make a syrup to brush over the finished tart. I’ve skipped this step more than once and couldn’t really notice a difference on the finished tart, though you can – if you so choose, and I have – infuse some spices into the syrup if all the simplicity has you itching. I’ve sweetened the crust a bit, and reserved some sugar off of the apples in exchange.

For the pastry:
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces, divided
2-4 tablespoons ice water

For the apples:
3-4 sweet, firm apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly (depends on size)
2 tablespoons regular sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon coarse sugar like demerara (or substitute with more regular sugar)

To make the pastry:
Whisk together the flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons butter to the bowl and rub into the flour with your fingers until all the pieces are a bit smaller than rolled oats. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and continue to rub until no pieces are the size of small peas. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you can form the dough into a ball. Flatten into a disk and refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.

To assemble the tart:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Let the dough warm on the counter for 10 minutes, then roll it between parchment paper or plastic wrap, until you reach a diameter of 14 inches. The pastry will be very thin.

Arrange the sliced apples in the center of the pastry, leaving at least two inches all around. I try to keep the apple halves together, then just fan them out once everything is in place. Brush most of the melted butter over the apples, then sprinkle with the fine sugar. Fold the pastry up over the edge of the tart, crimping as necessary, and brush the remaining butter over the pastry. Sprinkle the pastry with coarse sugar.

Bake until the crust is golden brown, about 45 minutes, rotating after 30 minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving. Warm is fantastic.

Chalk it up to that introversion: from each phase of my life, I’ve been blessed with an amazing friendship or two. These are the people who saw me go from being a teenager to an adult. They are the ones who know that I get bossy when I’m hungry, and they shove food in my face instead of getting offended. They are the ones with whom a 3-hour conversation is possible even if we haven’t spoken for months. They are the ones with whom an awesome visit can be nothing more than sitting around in sweat pants for a weekend with a cup of coffee. They are the ones I don’t feel like I have to impress, and who impress me every day. They are the ones who share all my best memories.

My amazing friends of the past 20 years, “backstage” before the wedding. What you can almost make out in the background is Jesus riding a unicorn over the fires of hell. I love church murals.

At our wedding, I learned something new: my bestie-bestersons from the last 20 years get along really well. My bridesmaids – Apryl, Becca, Kirsten and Lisa – spent the weekend zipping around in Lisa’s lime green Ford Fiesta with the windows rolled down, shouting “Fiesta!” in the 90-degree Indiana heat. They traipsed through flood-plain mud in snazzy heels and jungle temperatures just so I could get the photo I wanted. And now, post-wedding, when they have no reason to keep in touch, they’re on Facebook keeping up with each others’ children and careers, and generally keeping the fiesta rocking.

Oh, and taunting each other with pumpkin recipes and ideas.

This phenomenon makes me darn happy.

And so, my contribution to the Pumpkin Taunting: this pumpkin black bean soup. It’s deep and rich for fall, with the pumpkin sweetening up hearty spiced beans. It’s easy – only two things to chop! – and takes advantage of canned goods you might already have on hand. And for my girls, it has some Mexican FIESTA! flavors.

Garnish this soup with as much as you want! It has enough flavor to stand up to piles of tasty toppings.

If you want this, you might also like…

• Black bean soup, in case you don’t have pumpkin on hand.
• Pumpkin rigatoni, in case you have a lot of pumpkin on hand.
• Pumpkin scones with maple glaze, in case you want a pumpkin dessert instead.

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup
A Burghilicious Original

If you have an actual pumpkin on hand instead of canned, roast it up (as in this squash soup recipe), then scoop the cooked pumpkin into the broth. You can add more heat with Tabasco or jalapenos if you so desire, but I kept it pretty mild this time around. Like most bean soups, it stores beautifully, but the beans might absorb the broth in the fridge. Just add some water if this happens.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1-2 tablespoons ancho chili powder (or whatever chili powder you have, to taste)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 quart chicken stock
3 15-ounce cans black beans
1 14-ounce can pumpkin purée (not pie filling!)
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

Optional garnishes: diced fresh tomato, sour cream, shredded cheddar, chopped cilantro, sliced green onions, tortilla chips, whatever!

Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot. Sauté the onions until soft, 5-6 minutes. Add the cumin, chili powder and cayenne pepper and stir until the onions are coated and the spices are fragrant, about one minute. Add the garlic and stir until you can smell it, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, beans, pumpkin and tomatoes. Bring to a bowl and simmer 15 minutes.

If you like a smoother soup as I do: in a blender, purée about half of the soup (in batches if necessary) and add it back to the un-blended soup. Target tomato and onion chunks as you are ladling soup into the blender.

Chocolate and mint is a combination that you either love or hate. I’ve never met anyone in the middle. If you’re new around here, I’m the president of the love club. Chocolate-mint haters, just leave now and come back next week.

Still here?

I am so glad, because you really want to make these cookies now, while it is still cold out. There is something classically winter about chilly air and a minty confection, don’t you think? Best of all, no need to wait until next Christmas. I’m sure that’s we’ve still got at least a good month of snow here in Pittsburgh.

Don’t let the festive decorations fool you. These cookies are delicious year-round.

These cookies are dainty and ladylike, measuring a scant two inches across, but they carry a heavy flavor payload. Chocolate is definitely the first thing you taste, thanks to the inclusion of both chocolate and cocoa powder in the dough. But unlike many other mint cookies, where the mint flavor is just in the creamy or candy part, these little nuggets have mint in the actual cookie as well, in the form of melted Andes candies. So you get big chocolate first, followed by bigger mint and a great big Aaaaaaaah! of instant refreshment.

I found this recipe in the new cookbook from the Baked guys, called Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented.* I got it a few weeks before Thanksgiving and I’m still reading it cover-to-cover on a weekly basis. My baking-obsessed sister read it twice during her 5-day visit. It’s that compelling. I’d expect to hear about it again if I were you!

Fear not! A bit of ganache smeared down the side is still delicious.

Chocolate Mint Thumbprint Cookies
From Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented*

As always, use high quality chocolate. This is particularly important for the white chocolate; crappy white chocolate will break when melted. I suggest the E. Guittard brand that is available for quite reasonable prices at Mon Aimee Chocolat in the Strip District. Also, a kitchen scale* makes measuring the chocolate simple.

For the cookies
2 ounces dark chocolate
2 ounces mint chocolate or Andes mint chocolate candies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup coarse sugar for rolling (I used Domino’s demerara and it was great.)

For the mint ganache
3 ounces high-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract

Melt the dark chocolate and mint chocolate together in the microwave using 30 second bursts. Whisk until smooth, then set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy. Add the white and brown sugars and beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and continue beating until combined. Add the cooled chocolate and mix gently until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the flour-cocoa mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough is smooth, but only just. Transfer the dough to a sheet of plastic wrap and form it into a disk. Wrap it up and chill it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and let the dough soften on a counter for a few minutes if it got really hard. Pour the coarse sugar into a shallow bowl and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Form tablespoon-size dough balls, taking care that they have no lumps or cracks, and try to make them all the same size. (A cookie scoop is awesome here.) Roll each ball in coarse sugar and place it on the cookie sheet. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to make an indentation in the center of each cookie.

Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the sheets from the oven and re-make the indentations (aren’t you glad you used that wooden spoon and not your actual thumb!) Swap and rotate the cookie sheets when you return them to the oven for an additional 4-5 minutes. Pull the cookies out of the oven at the very first sign of cracking and cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the mint ganache, put the white chocolate in a glass measuring cup with a pour spout. Heat the heavy cream in the microwave until it boils, about 30 seconds. Pour the heavy cream over the white chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds, then whisk until smooth. Whisk in the peppermint extract. Use the measuring cup to fill the thumbprints with the ganache and refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

These cookies freeze beautifully and thaw in minutes. Not that I, um, just had some, or anything like that.

I think it might be time for me to quit my job, whip out the credit card and spend the next six months in Paris. See, my last six-month Paris stint was now more than 10 years ago (Paris. Spring. 1999.), but I still talkabout it like it was just last year. My food memories of Paris are some of my first real food memories, because the food I ate there was just so different from what I was used to.

One of the big winners that spring was ratatouille, the French country stew now immortalized in film by an epicurean rodent. The version that I knew was not the gorgeous layered version developed specifically for the film (and subsequently recreated by bloggers). Mme Biard’s ratatouile used no peppers, included no special sauces, and required no complicated preparation. In fact, it was the only recipe that came back from Paris with me, because it was easy to remember: equal parts by weight of eggplant, zucchini, onion and tomato, diced and cooked until cooked. And that’s exactly how I’d made it, give or take some garlic and herbs, until just now.

See, Cook’s Illustrated magazine is having its way with me. First it was the scones, and then the blondies, and now they’ve gone and improved classic ratatouille. They pointed out that the original is, well, gloppy. And often watery. And potentially overcooked. And it shames me to admit it, but they were right. Even the version I fell in love with in Paris would meet this description.

They adjusted the quantities (more eggplant), actually dealt with the quirks of the ingredients (salting and pressing said eggplant) and concentrated flavors (roasting said eggplant along with the zucchini instead of cooking it to mush on the stove). And while their ratatouille takes a touch longer to make, I will begrudgingly admit that it is indeed better. Each vegetable is distinctive and maintains its integrity and flavor.

And while the process is more complicated, I devised a way to make it into a weeknight dinner by simply roasting the eggplant and zucchini the night before. Making use of summer’s bounty, I also doubled the amount of tomatoes called for by the magazine (closer to the quantity of eggplant) as the original recipe seemed pretty light. It was a good choice, especially with the amazing heirlooms we got in the farm box that week. I also didn’t bother to peel the tomatoes and didn’t notice peels in the final product – so that’s optional as far as I’m concerned.

Ratatouille
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

2 large eggplants (2 – 2 1/2 pounds), cut into 1-inch cubes
2 teaspoons salt
2 large zucchini (1 1/2 pounds), cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
3 large, ripe tomatoes, peeled (optional) and cut into 2 inch chunks
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme

In a large colander, mix together salt and eggplant. Set the colander over a bowl or in the sink and let the eggplant sit for 1-3 hours. Rinse eggplant well under running water to remove salt. Spread in an even layer on triple-thick paper towels. Cover with anoter triple thickness of papers towels and press firmly to collapse cell walls and absorb moisture. When finished, eggplant should feel firm and mostly dry. You may need to re-up on the paper towels midway through.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Adjust racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Line two rimmed baking sheets with foil.

Toss compressed eggplant and zucchini cubes together in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Spread in a single layer on the two prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with salt and roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until well-browned and tender, 30-40 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Set aside; or, if you want to finish the recipe the following day, refrigerate in an airtight container.

When you are ready to continue, heat remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and reduce heat to medium low. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is soft and golden-brown, 15-20 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and cook until they release their juices and begin to break down, about 5 minutes. Add the roasted eggplant and zucchini and stir gently to combine. Cook until heated through, about 5 minutes. Stir in the herbs immediately before serving, and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with an herbed rice pilaf, over pasta, or with crusty bread. A grating of hard cheese is a delicious but not required accompaniment. A topping of roasted pine nuts is also fantastic – but now I’m getting extravagant

Pittsburgh Public Market Official Grand Opening

xcitement has been building for months now about the Strip’s newest and most diverse culinary market: an indoor, booth-style venue with more than 40 different local vendors selling everything from fresh veggies to tea to charcuterie. Located in the Produce Terminal Building on Smallman Street, the new market will be open Friday – Sunday for the time being. I think this might be our answer to Columbus’ North Market! And if you can’t wait until Friday, here’s a special hint: it’s already open now!

Taste of Grow Pittsburgh

Grow Pittsburgh promotes responsible urban food production. What does that mean? Gardens on vacant lots. Supporting urban farmers and gardeners with resources and opportunities. Advocating for farm-friendly city policies. Training the next generation of urban farmers, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Making more local food more affordable and more available throughout our city. If these sound like good ideas to you, consider supporting Grow Pittsburgh at their first annual special event fundraiser, where restaurants from around the city will showcase locally-grown produce at Point Breeze’s beautiful Frick – a most perfect setting.

Cooking for Geeks Talk and Booksigning

My first “real” job was working in adminstration at Carnegie Science Center. That gave me an unending appreciation for uber-geeky things like emulsification and making ice cream and/or adult beverages with liquid nitrogen (depending on the venue). Well, turns out there’s a brand new book on the topic, complete with guru. Meg over at Table and Spoon is hosting said guru – Jeff Potter – as part of his DIY Book Tour, at one of Pittsburgh’s quirkiest eateries, CMU’s art project the Waffle Shop. I believe I shall geek out.