Authors: Victoria Wise
SERVES 4
Salsa
10 ounces tomatillos, husks removed
¼ small white or yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1½ cups water
2 jalapeño chiles, coarsely cut up
2 cups fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons butter or
ghee
1 pound
Mexican Meatball Sausage
, formed into walnut-size balls
16 Kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
About 16 fresh cilantro sprigs
½ teaspoon cider vinegar or fresh lime juice
Pinch of kosher salt
To make the salsa, combine the tomatillos, onion, and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat, cover, and let stand until the tomatillos are soft enough to pierce easily but have not collapsed, 8 to 10 minutes. Uncover, let cool slightly, then transfer the tomatillos, onion, and ½ cup of the cooking water to a food processor. Add the chiles, cilantro, and ½ teaspoon salt and process until almost smooth. Taste and adjust the salt. Use right away, or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Place a heavy sauté pan large enough to hold the meatballs without crowding over medium-high heat and melt the butter. Add the meatballs and sauté until browned all around, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the salsa and olives, decrease the heat to maintain a gentle simmer, cover, and cook until the meatballs are tender and the sauce is thickened, 10 to 12 minutes.
To serve, in a small bowl, toss the cilantro sprigs with the vinegar and salt. Transfer the meatballs and their sauce to a serving dish and strew the dressed sprigs over the top. Serve right away.
I opened Pig-by-the-Tail because I wanted to bring to the American marketplace the charcuterie I had fallen in love with on sojourns to France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Austria. Two years after its debut, I decided it was time to put some “bones” onto that passion. I traveled to France to learn from M. Roger Gleize, the charcutier in the small town of Revel in the Haute-Garonne just outside of Toulouse. It was an eye-opening experience to watch him use a hand grinder to grind pounds and pounds of perfectly succulent pork, not too lean, not too fat, for the region’s specialty Toulouse sausage. He seasoned the meat with salt, peppers, and a dash each of nutmeg and sugar, and then added a soupçon of water to moisten the mixture for easier stuffing. He fitted the same manual machine with a sausage-stuffing funnel and proceeded to turn out a seemingly endless supply of fresh Toulouse sausages. Everything he made was quickly purchased by local households to use for their daily meals and by local restaurants to include in the renowned cassoulet of the region.
From that sojourn, I carried home a deep admiration for simply, yet perfectly done ways with food, and Toulouse sausage became one of my go-to household sausages. For this book, I have modified the recipe to call for bulk sausage, rather than links. But, if you would like to follow tradition, use hog casing.
MAKES 2¼ POUNDS
2 pounds ground pork
¼ pound salt pork, fat only, minced
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1½ teaspoons sugar
1½ teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste, if needed
¼ cup water
Place the pork, salt pork, black pepper, white pepper, nutmeg, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and mix with your hands to distribute the seasonings evenly. Add the water and continue mixing with your hands until the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Cook and taste a small sample, then add more salt if needed. Leave in bulk and shape as directed in individual recipes or stuff into hog casing. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour to firm.
Sauté or grill, or cook as directed in individual recipes. (The uncooked sausage will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 week.)
In the 1970s, when everyone and their sisters and brothers became enchanted with French cooking, with Julia Child leading the way, quiche became
the
savory custard pie. The classic, quiche Lorraine, made with bacon and Gruyère cheese to enrich the custard, enjoyed star status as an elegant staple for brunch or for a first course in a multitiered dinner à la français. Variations in great numbers soon followed, and quiche in one or another guise turned into a favorite on buffet tables and appetizer menus. Here, with Toulouse sausage and a green splotch of spinach, the lovable custard-in-a-crust reinvents itself into an uncomplicated light dinner.
Even though it is easier to purchase a prepared pastry crust, to settle for that is to miss the flaky, unctuous mouth delight of a homemade one. A food processor provides a quick, simple, and almost hands-free way to make an exceptional crust. A removable-bottom tart pan, such as the type the French would use for quiche and sweet dessert tarts, makes it easy to present the pie standing alone rather than in a dish, which is more awkward to serve from.
MAKES ONE 9- TO 10-INCH PIE, SERVES 4 TO 6
Crust
1¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
Pinch of salt
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chilled water
Filling
2 cups packed coarsely chopped fresh spinach leaves
Extra virgin olive oil, for cooking
¼ pound
Toulouse Sausage
, crumbled
2 large eggs
¾ cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne paper
2 cups coarsely grated melting cheese, such as Gruyère, Emmentaler, Fontina, or Monterey jack
To make the crust, place the 1¼ cups of flour and salt in a food processor and pulse once to mix. Cut the butter into ½-inch pieces and scatter over the flour. Pulse until the mixture is somewhat crumbly. Add the water and pulse again until the mixture adheres when squeezed between your fingers. Gather the dough into a loose ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Press into a smooth disk and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before using.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a round about 2 inches larger than a 9- to 10-inch tart pan. Transfer the round to the pan, easing it into the bottom and up the sides. Fold in any excess dough hanging above the top and press it against the pan so it adheres. Prick the crust all across the bottom with a fork.
Bake until barely golden on the bottom and around the edges, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside, leaving the oven on.
To make the filling, rinse the spinach and shake off the excess water, leaving the spinach slightly moist. Place in a microwave-safe bowl or in a sauté pan. Cover and place in the microwave oven, or cover and cook on the stove top over medium heat until wilted but still bright green, 1 to 2 minutes by either method. Let cool, squeeze out the remaining moisture, and set aside.
Add just enough oil to a small sauté pan to film the bottom and place over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, stirring to break up the clumps, until beginning to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, and spread the sausage across the bottom of the partially baked crust.
Combine the eggs, cream, salt, nutmeg, and cayenne in a medium bowl and whisk to blend. Whisk in the cheese and stir in the spinach. Pour the custard mixture into the crust.
Bake until the filling puffs up and is golden on top and a fork inserted in the center comes out clean but still a little moist, about 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
On my brief sojourn in the Toulouse area, I traveled to many local villages and towns acclaimed for their charcuterie. Among them was Castelnaudary, a small village built of stone, close by the fairy-tale-like medieval castle of Carcassonne. The castle was a thrill; even more so was the cassoulet I enjoyed in Castelnaudary, known as the cradle of cassoulet. I mustered the nerve to ask the chef what his secret was. He graciously shared his version of “the cassoulet secret”: The kind of beans you use is crucial. They should be lingot beans, also called white kidney beans or cannellini beans, or coco beans, which resemble slightly elongated navy beans. Both are sweetly buttery and cook up soft and tender enough to soak up juices, but still hold their shape. Then, the beans must be allowed to cool completely in their cooking liquid before assembling the cassoulet. Overnight is best.
Stuffed whole duck legs (drumstick and thigh combination) make a delectable sausage star for a faux cassoulet. To sidestep the lengthy process of curing the duck overnight then braising it in duck fat to make confit, the whole legs are sprinkled with a salt and herb seasoning and refrigerated for a few hours to allow the seasonings to imbue. The sausage is then stuffed under the thigh skin, making a single package of sausage and duck meat.
SERVES 6
1½ teaspoons coarse sea salt
6 fresh thyme sprigs or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
¾ teaspoon juniper berries, crushed
¾ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
6 whole duck legs, 7 to 8 ounces each
2½ cups dried cannellini, coco, or Great Northern beans
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ pound
Toulouse Sausage
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or duck fat
3 cups
chicken broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups
fresh bread crumbs
To prepare the duck, mix together the coarse salt, thyme, juniper, and pepper in a small bowl. Place the duck pieces in a nonreactive container large enough to hold them in a single, tightly packed layer. Spread the salt mixture over the duck and turn the duck to coat on both sides. Loosely cover with plastic wrap, place a weight of some sort on top, and refrigerate for 3 or 4 hours.
To prepare the beans, first presoak them using the quick-soak method: Place in a large pot with water to cover generously and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and let stand for 1 to 2 hours. To cook the beans, drain and rinse them and return them to the pot. Add water to cover generously and bring to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to maintain a brisk simmer and cook, uncovered, until the beans are tender, about 2 hours. (The beans can also be cooked in a pressure cooker without presoaking. Place in the pressure cooker with water to cover by 1½ inches, cook for 35 to 40 minutes after coming to pressure, then let stand for 10 minutes to allow the beans to finish cooking as the pressure subsides.) Stir in the kosher salt, and let cool completely in the liquid, preferably overnight, in the refrigerator.
When ready to cook the cassoulet, preheat the oven to 350°F.
Rinse the duck legs and pat them dry. Using your fingers and a paring knife, lift up the thigh skin on each leg and stuff the sausage between the skin and meat, dividing the sausage evenly among the legs.
In a large sauté pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches if necessary to avoid crowding, add the duck legs, skin side down, and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides, about 6 minutes total. Transfer to a plate.
Drain the cooled beans and transfer them to a baking dish large enough to hold the duck pieces in a single, tightly packed layer. Add the broth and tomato paste to the beans and stir to mix. Set the duck pieces on the beans, cover the dish, and bake until the juices are bubbling and the duck is beginning to turn golden around the edges, 30 to 40 minutes.
Uncover the dish and sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly across the top. Continue baking, uncovered, until the duck is golden on top and the bread crumbs are well toasted, 15 to 20 minutes. If the crumbs start to burn, ladle some of the juice from the dish over them. Serve piping hot.
The fennel-spiked sausage that turns up in such favorite Italian American preparations as pizza,
meatball sandwiches
, custardy casseroles, and savory pies has so captured the heart of American cooking that it can be found in supermarkets and deli cases from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Northwest and everywhere in between. Not only is it one of the tastiest and most popular sausages, but it is also one of the easiest to make at home because it doesn’t require a casing. In fact, most recipes call for taking it out of its casing. If you want to serve the sausage as links, stuff it into hog casing. The recipe yields a larger amount than the other recipes in the book because this sausage is so versatile that I like to have some on hand in the freezer.
MAKES 2 POUNDS
1¾ pounds ground pork
¼ pound salt pork, fat part only, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or scant ½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or scant ½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup white wine
1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste, if needed
Place all the ingredients except the salt in a large bowl, and knead with your hands until thoroughly blended. Cook and taste a small sample, then add the salt if needed. Leave in bulk and shape as directed in individual recipes or stuff into hog casing. Cover and refrigerate for several hours, or preferably overnight, to allow the flavors to blend.
Sauté or grill, or cook as directed in individual recipes. (The uncooked sausage will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 week.)