Stuffed Winter Squash with Italian Sausage, Mushrooms, and Farro

Going to Costco is supposed to be an exercise in happy excess, eating a meal via mega samples and buying too much stuff in quantities too large to store. Shopping at Costco is one of my parents' favorite errands, but last Saturday it turned into a nightmare for my mom. She was in a darkened aisle, didn't see an exposed bolt in the floor, and took a bad tumble after tripping on it. Fortunately, she didn't break any bones, but she is bruised and is suffering the equivalent of whiplash.

I learned about this Saturday afternoon so Sunday morning I went over to make them lunch and dinner. Earlier in the week I had brought her a small kabocha squash after she told me she hadn't had one before. While she was curious, she still hadn't used it. I love winter squashes and have written about them a lot over the years. There are so many unique varieties that are so beautiful and versatile.

Kabocha squash

The dense flesh transforms into perfect creamy soups for chilly days--and you can even make the soup in the squash itself.

Roast them and you get some magnificent sweet flavors that stand on their own, can be part of a stew, or can be turned into filling for ravioli.

The baseball-sized ones are a perfect chalice for stuffing. They're a one-dish meal. And, hey, I love chomping on roasted seeds.

Making stuffed winter squash for them seemed ideal so I stopped by the market to pick up a second kabocha. Since the remaining ones were too large, I got a nice looking acorn squash instead, along with sweet Italian chicken sausage, and an apple. I brought along a package of farro and figured I'd scavenge any other ingredients from her always well-stocked refrigerator. Indeed, I found a box of crimini mushrooms, onions, garlic, and a package of Trader Joe's Quattro Formaggio Shredded Cheese Blend, which is made up of asiago, fontina, parmesan, and mild provolone. Perfect.

Making stuffed squash is pretty easy and, of course, you can riff on any ingredients that sound great to you. I chose farro as my grain but rice, quinoa, barley... any of them will be wonderful. You don't have to include meat, but I thought my folks would enjoy some flavorful sausage and since my mom no longer eats red meat, the sweet Italian chicken sausage was an ideal choice that my dad would also like. To me, sausages, mushrooms, onion, and garlic are a perfect combo. You could also include sautéed spinach, pine nuts, raisins...the list is endless. You can add herbs or spices, but I think the Italian sausage has enough in them already and didn't want to mask those flavors.

The first thing you do is par-bake the squash after cleaning it. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, pull out the seeds and then scrape the hole with a spoon to remove all the remaining fibrous material. Then put the squash halves cut side down on a baking sheet and add water to surround the halves up to about a quarter inch. Cover them with foil and bake in a 375-degree oven for about 45 minutes or until they are easily pierced by a fork.

While the squash is cooking you'll make the filling. Put up your grains to cook. Chop your vegetables and fruit--I like adding apple or persimmon or citrus or pomegranate seeds to a savory filling. Then start sautéing.

I'll give you a marvelous tip on sautéing mushroom slices that I learned from Alice Waters on a show she did with Julia Child. Leave them alone. That's it. Add them to a hot pan with olive oil, spread them single layer, and just let them be until they brown. Then flip them over and leave them alone again. By not constantly stirring them you end up with beautifully caramelized mushrooms that taste phenomenal.

So, sauté the mushrooms and put them in a bowl. Sauté the onions and garlic, then add the diced apple and let them just brown. Add the sausage after removing the casing and poke it into small chunks as the meat cooks. When the sausage is browned, you'll add back the mushrooms so the flavors can meld. Put the mixture back in the bowl, add your cooked grains and the cheese and mix well. The cheese will melt a bit to bind the ingredients. By then the squash should be cooked and out of the oven. Now some people scoop out the flesh, chop it up, and add it to the filling. Go ahead. I chose to keep it intact. Either way, rub a little olive oil on the inner surface of the squash and then fill the squash "bowl" with your very fragrant filling. Top with some more cheese and put them back in the oven (yes, keep the water in the pan) uncovered. You'll cook the squash for another 15 minutes. Then serve or cover and refrigerate, then reheat before serving.

I had just a bit of stuffing left over which my parents demolished while the squash were cooking. So I think it was a success.

And, yes, Mom's feeling better. Thanks for asking!

Stuffed Winter Squash with Italian Sausage, Mushrooms, and Farro
(printable recipe)
Serves 4

Ingredients

2 round(ish) winter squash, about the size of a baseball
3 to 4 cups of cooked grains
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large sweet Italian or spicy Italian sausage (about 8 ounces), casing removed
1 firm apple (I like Granny Smiths for this), peeled and diced
Olive oil for sautéing and to rub the cooked squash
1 cup shredded cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Slice the squashed in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. You can reserve them to clean and toast as a snack. Using a spoon, scrape the remaining fiber off the surface of the squash flesh. Place all four halved cut side down on a baking sheet. Add enough water to rise about a quarter inch along the sides. Cover with foil and bake for about 45 minutes, until a fork easily pierces the skin. Remove the squash from the oven and turn them cut side up. Reserve.

While the squash is baking, make the grains and the stuffing. To make the stuffing, add oil to a pan and turn on the heat to medium. Add just enough mushrooms to cover the bottom of the pan in one layer--you may have to sauté them in a couple of batches. Let the mushrooms cook on one side without disturbing them. As they shrink, they'll brown. Then flip them over and let them cook on the other side until done. Add them to a large mixing bowl. Add more oil to the pan and sauté the onions and garlic until they turn golden. Add the diced apple and let them also cook to a golden color. Then add the sausage.

Crumble it as it cooks and let it cook until the pink of the raw meat turns to brown. Add back the mushrooms and stir together briefly. Put the mixture into the mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Add the grains and two-thirds of a cup of the grated cheese to the stuffing mixture and stir together to thoroughly combine the ingredients. By now the squash should be out of the oven and ready to be stuffed. Rub a little oil on the cooked flesh. Then scoop the mixture into the hollow of each squash half. It's okay if it overflows a little. Top each half with the remaining cheese.

Return the squash to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately--or you can let it cool and refrigerate covered. Before you're ready to serve it let it come to room temperature and then put back in a warm oven to reheat.

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The Heart & Soul of Jacques Pépin

I spent last weekend with an old friend. Hanging out on the couch with me, he reminisced about old friends, bringing back a rush of memories--of wonderful meals and new ways to think about food.

I wasn't actually with anyone. I was curled up with Jacques Pépin: Heart & Soul in the Kitchen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/$35). Like many of you, Pépin has been a part of my life for decades. I have several of his previous books, have watched his many PBS series over the years, and dined at L'Ecole, the restaurant of the International Culinary Center (formerly the French Culinary Institute) in lower Manhattan, where he has long been Dean of Special Programs. In a sense, he has long been the heart and soul of my culinary journey.

So, here we are with this big, beautifully illustrated (by Pépin, who is also an artist) and lushly photographed book that he claims will be his last. As such, it is filled with the joy of 80 years of a life well lived--with his wife Gloria, his daughter Claudine and her husband, and granddaughter Shorey. Chapters bursting with recipes are interspersed with chatty little reminisces of his best friend Jean-Claude Szurdak, a renowned chef in his own right, his second home on the Mexican coast, travels with his mother, and, of course, meeting and working with his dear friends Julia Child, James Beard, Craig Claiborne, and Pierre Franey. He explains how he develops recipes, what he keeps as pantry staples (canned beans, flour tortillas, frozen baby peas and artichoke hearts, assorted olives, and pepperoncini are just some), and, of course, the joys of cooking with young Shorey.

Then there are the recipes. Now, remember, this book accompanies his new PBS series so if you tune in you'll get to watch Pépin in action--and see clips of times past. Last weekend's episode was a tribute to Julia Child so the recipes revolved around what he felt she would enjoy and there were clips of their times together on air that made me a little teary.

The book, though, can stand alone on its own merit. And you'll certainly find yourself dipping into it to create what are essentially very accessible dishes based on quality ingredients that Pépin smartly lets shine without a lot of fuss. The book is divided into the usual chapters: Hors d'Oeuvres; Soups and Salads; Eggs, Cheese, and Bread; Poultry and Meat, etc. He also includes a chapter on organ meats, hoping to win doubters over. And, at the end, he's created menus out of the dishes.

The dishes are often familiar--tabbouleh, omelets, broiled salmon with miso glaze, broiled maple sweet potatoes. Certainly there are a gazillion recipes for each of these that we could google, but what comfort in learning how Pépin creates them. And every once in awhile you'll get a nice surprise that inspires, like Pork Neck and Bean Stew, Stew of Radishes, or Escargot in Baked Potatoes. I'm looking forward to when the weather cools and I can dig into these recipes.

You'll also have no trouble finding ingredients. Pépin has been at this long enough to feel comfortable taking appropriate shortcuts--hence using canned beans, pre-made pizza dough, Asian sauces off the shelf, V8 juice, and Tabasco or Sriracha sauce. But these are offset by local, seasonal produce and the best meats and seafood available. A simple dish can only succeed if the ingredients are sublime.

I've picked a couple of recipes as teasers that would appeal particularly to SoCal readers. This Cannellini Bean Dip is no fuss and reminiscent of hummus--and enjoyable with good tortilla chips. In San Diego we're all about the peppers, so this Eggs in Pepper Boats immediately appealed to me. I even think Pépin would approve of a splash of Tabasco or Sriracha when served.

Cannellini Bean Dip

Serves 4

I like to offer guests a little treat when I’m serving drinks, and this dip is always welcome. My pantry is never without canned beans, from cannellini to black beans to large butter beans. The garnishes make the dish look more attractive—and more like a classic hummus made with chickpeas.

Dip

One 1-pound can cannellini beans, drained (about 1 ¾ cups)

1 large garlic clove, crushed

½ cup diced bread

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon water

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce

Garnishes

1/3 cup reserved beans (from above)

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon poppy seeds

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

3 or 4 tostadas or hard taco shells, broken into wedges, or toasts or rice crackers

For the dip: Reserve 1/3 cup of the beans for garnish. Put the remaining beans in a blender or food processor. Add all the remaining ingredients and process until very smooth, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula a few times if need be to help combine the ingredients.

Transfer the dip (you should have about 2 cups) to a shallow serving dish and create a well in the center.

For the garnishes: Put the reserved beans in the well in the dip and pour in the olive oil. Sprinkle with the paprika, poppy seeds, and parsley. Serve surrounded by the tostadas or tacos, toasts, or crackers.

Eggs in Pepper Boats

Serves 4

One day I decided to cook eggs in sweet peppers with a bit of cheese and cilantro. It made a great lunch dish. I used the long, pale green peppers sometimes called banana peppers. Poblano and cubanelle peppers also work, especially if you want to add a little heat.

2 cubanelle, poblano, or banana peppers (about

4 ounces each)

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 tablespoons water

½ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons grated cheddar cheese

4 extra-large eggs, preferably organic

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

About 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves

Split the peppers lengthwise in half and remove the seeds and the stems if you want. Arrange them cut side down in a large skillet and add the oil, water, and . teaspoon of the salt and cook, covered, over medium heat, turning occasionally, for about 4 minutes, or until the peppers are softened somewhat but still firm.

Remove the skillet from the heat and, if necessary, turn the peppers over so they are hollow side up. Place the cheese in the peppers. Break an egg into each one and sprinkle the eggs with the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and the pepper.

Return the skillet to the stove, cover, and cook over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still runny. Transfer to plates, sprinkle with the cilantro, and serve immediately.

Note: Recipes and photos courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Dollar a Dish: We're Back, Raising $ for Hungry Kids

It's a little disconcerting to return to my office just a little too full from a hearty breakfast with visiting family and sit down to write a piece about kids in my city who don't have nearly enough to eat. But there you have it. Even in San Diego, with all its abundance, we are surrounded by chronically hungry elementary school children. Yes, those enrolled in school free breakfast and lunch programs get meals during the week, but there's no TGIF for them. Once they hit the weekend, there may be nothing for them to eat until they get back to school Monday morning.

Which is why the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank launched the Food 4 Kids Backpack Program. The program discretely provides weekend backpacks filled with nutritious, child-friendly food to these kids to stave off hunger for those two days. And these children often share the kid-friendly food with their siblings and other family members.

The program, of course, needs financial support so they can enroll more children in need. That's where you come in. We've got 43 very generous restaurants, caterers, food trucks, and farmers market vendors participating in our now annual Dollar a Dish fundraiser. Each has selected a featured dish or food and will donate money to the Food 4 Kids Backpack Program every time it is ordered during the month of August. Starting today through August 31, all you have to do is visit them and order the dish. How cool is that!

Last year we raised almost $9,000. That's great, but I think we can do much better this year, if you help. Please spread the word to your family and friends in San Diego, write your own blog post about it, let your tweeps and FB friends know--and get together a group of people and start visiting restaurants and ordering the featured dish. You'll dine very well and you'll help make sure that hungry kids get the food they need to make it through the weekend.

Here's the list of participants and their dishes (Click on the links to see the chefs show off their featured dishes.):

Acqua Al 2 Ristorante: Assaggio di Primi
Alchemy: Pan Roasted Sea Bass
Carnitas Snack Shack: BLT
Caxao Chocolates: SOFIA75 (3.5 oz)
Cowboy Star: 8 oz. Filet
Crepes Bonaparte: Crepe with Peanut Butter, Sliced Bananas & Nutella
Croce's Restaurant & Jazz Bar: Watermelon or Tomato Gazpacho and the   Alaskan Halibut
Cucina Urbana: Any Pizza During Lunch
Farm House Café: Fettuccine with Moroccan Spiced Lamb Bolognese
Finch's Bistro & Wine Bar: Catch of the Day
First Ave Bar & Grill: Roasted Halibut
Flying Elephant Pub: Elephant Burger
Georges at the Cove: Date Salad in California Modern
Indulge Catering: General Proceeds from Sales
Jenny Wenny Cakes: Dozen Hummingbird Cupcakes ($3)
Katsuya: Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna
Michele Coulon Dessertier: Gateau Aileen
Millies Gelato: Vegan Strawberry Sherbet
NINE-TEN: NINE-TEN Burger
Poppa's Fresh Fish Co.: Dozen Oysters
Praline Patisserie: Fleur de Sel Caramel
Puesto Mexican Street Food: Frozen Horchata
Quality Social: Grilled Flatbread, Portabella Sandwich, and the Chili Dog
Rimel's: Grass-Fed Sirloin Burger
Ritual Tavern: Seafood Bouillabaisse
Salt Farm: 5-Pack Sampler
Saltbox: Oxtail Jam
Sessions Public: Sessions Dog
Solace & the Moonlight Lounge: Beef Cheeks
St. Germain's Cafe & Bistro: Pan-Seared Wild Atlantic Salmon
Terra: Housemade Chicken and Mushroom Risotto
The Palette at the Art Institute: Chicken Breast-Prosciutto Paupiette
The Red Door: Garden Vegetable Plate
The Wild Thyme Company: Artisan Cheese Board
Toast Enoteca & Cucina: Lasagna Degli Asparagi
Two for the Road: Cap'n Crunch Crab Cakes
Urban Chicken: Whole Chicken with 3 Sides
Urban Solace: Beef Cheeks
Via Lago: Rigatoni Contadina
Villa Capri: Penne Elena
Viva Pops: Dollar a Dish Pop
The Wellington: Duroc Pork Chop
Zenbu: Hot Rock New York Strip Steak

Garden Plate from The Red Door

And that's not all. We'll have three events that you'll want to attend as well: 

• Fixtures Living is holding a fundraiser at the end of August for the Food 4 Kids Backpack Program. 
• Catalina Offshore Products, with support from Specialty Produce, is dedicating its August Collaboration Kitchen to raising funds for the kids. 
• The Red Door--along with participating in Dollar a Dish--is donating part of the proceeds from its August 15 Chefs Market Dinner celebrating Julia Child's birthday, featuring chef/writer Amy Finley, author of How to Eat a Small Country, and The Red Door's chef Miguel Valdez.

More details on these three events will come soon. We've got a very generous food community doing their part to raise money for hungry kids. We just need you to come in and eat! (And, if you don't live in San Diego or can't make it to one of our restaurants or want to give more, feel free to make a generous donation here!)

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The Return of an Old Friend: Essential Pepin

Those of us who came of culinary age watching Jacques Pépin's many cooking series on public television grew up believing that French cooking was actually something accessible. Over the years, Pépin has turned us on to the beauty of salads and maybe introduced us to the Niçoise. We learned the true way to make a creamy smooth omelet with fines herbes. He hooked us on ratatouille--before the animated rat--and to a beautifully roasted chicken. Pépin wooed us with his charming French accent and ready smile--and recipes that worked. Over the years he continued to charm us as he engaged on camera with the venerable Julia Child, often acceding to her preferences. And, his shows with daughter Claudine won us over again. Who can resist a sweet father-daughter repartee?

To think that 60 years have passed since Pépin first began a career as a cook and professional chef is astounding. But the freshness of what Pépin does in the kitchen continues. Yes, his newest book, Essential Pepin ($60/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), revisits favorite recipes. But, as he explains in the introduction, he doesn't just let the recipes molder in the past; he's updated them for the modern kitchen and sensibility. As a result, he writes, this book represents him more today than at any other time in his life.

Essential Pepin is filled with 700 recipes that span the food category continuum--soups, salads, eggs and cheese, pasta, and meat all the way through frozen desserts. There are also little sidebars with useful tidbits of information. You'll learn how to select and prepare chestnuts, the differences between European and American eels, ideas for using that leftover ratatouille, and how to salvage curdled Hollandaise.

There are pretty little illustrations, also by Pépin. What you won't find here is photographic food porn. Non-decorative visuals are reserved for the accompanying DVD, which showcases the chef as he demonstrates techniques such as how to shell peas and fava beans, how to cut potatoes, how to shuck oysters and clams and scale fish, how to clarify stock, and how to make and pipe meringue. In essence, it once again puts Pépin back in your home to give even the beginning cook the confidence to go forth in the kitchen.

Essential Pepin is perfect for two audiences: longtime fans of the "other" and literally French chef and beginning cooks who aspire to the authentic and sophisticated in the kitchen. I'm eager to try his Black Sea Bass Gravlax, Braised Pork with Chestnuts, Artichokes with Ravigote Sauce, and Homemade Orange Liqueur (orange rind and sugar in brandy). It's a book with recipes you can follow literally or use as a jumping off point for your own creations. In this way, too, Jacques Pépin is an inspiration.


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Clay Pot Cooking: Food of the Soul

The first clay pot Paula Wolfert purchased was an earthy, full-figured tripière, a pot used for cooking tripe. Wolfert was all of 19 and was attracted to the pot because of its looks; she didn’t even know what tripe was. But, it sparked a life-long passion for clay pots and the techniques for cooking in them. Today, Wolfert is the author of eight cookbooks and the recipient of numerous awards, including the James Beard Award, the Julia Child Award, and the M.F.K. Fisher Award. In 2008, the James Beard Foundation inducted her work into the Cookbook Hall of Fame.

If you don’t already know Wolfert, you should get acquainted now. Back in the 1970s, she introduced eastern Mediterranean foods to Americans, including San Diegans. Along with Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, Wolfert taught at The Perfect Pan Cooking School, San Diego’s culinary focal point in the late 70s and 80s.

Her new book, Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking, collects all the tidbits and techniques she’s learned through her travels and years of living in Morocco and brings them to us, home cooks looking to transform the basic ingredients of a meal into something sublime. Wolfert says she was looking for the oldest dishes made in the Mediterranean that are still being cooked. These are the important dishes and they’re truly the ultimate in slow-food cooking.

The original title of the book was supposed to be Confessions of a Clay-Pot Junkie and it’s easy to understand her addiction. I’m the same about teapots. It’s all about the textures, the curves, the colors. And how the properties specific to the elements these beautiful pieces are composed of dictate the results of what we ultimately eat and drink.

“Food cooked in clay tastes different,” she says. “Especially in unglazed and micaceous clay pots. It cuts down on the bitterness of foods. There’s a sweetness to it. And, the way the food cooks in clay holds its shape better and holds in nutrients differently than when food is boiled or fried. A metal pot is inert. An unglazed earthen pot brings out more flavor and even absorbs flavor.”

Wolfert is most fond of stovetop cooking and the book’s recipes reflect that, although it includes many recipes for oven cooking. An inexpensive Chinese sandpot on the stove on low heat can cradle simple small Yukon gold potatoes with sea salt. “Shake them in the pot from time to time,” she instructs. “The moisture from the potatoes stay inside. Or, cube peeled butternut squash and put them in a sandpot and cook it slowly at low heat. The voluptuousness and flavor of the squash comes out. The moisture stays inside.” The latter is  the beginnings of her “Pumpkin Soup with Creamy Roquefort.”

One of my favorite recipes in the book is the “Garlic and Egg Soup as Prepared in the Aragon.” Years ago, I used to eat something similar at a little Spanish restaurant called Iruñas in Cambridge, Mass. It’s a very simple recipe that uses an inexpensive Spanish cazuela. Slowly sauté sliced garlic, add dried bread cubes and fry them. Season with pimentón de la Vera (smoked Spanish paprika). Add hot water to cover the bread and cook until the soup is thickened. Season it with salt and pepper, then break a couple of eggs into the cazuela, place it in a pre-heated 300-degree oven and bake for about five minutes until the whites are set and the yolks still runny. Delicious.

In her book, Wolfert details the variety of pots, the differences between the types of clay, and how best to use each kind of vessel. She explains that unglazed earthenware pots “coddle food, bringing out bright natural flavors and aromas…” Stoneware, which is high fired and usually glazed, is wonderful for oven baking, but should never be used on top of the stove. Many of us already are using clay for cooking but not thinking of it that way. Your Emile Henry casserole dishes are ceramic, for instance. So, is the insert in your crockpot.

But wait. Wolfert doesn’t equate cooking in a crockpot to cooking with clay pots. “The problem with the crockpot is that it makes everything steamy because of the high walls and the metal on the outside,” she explains. “The heat goes out first and then back to the clay. That’s why it takes seven or eight hours to cook something. With a glass cover, there’s no way for the steam to get out or allow some evaporation.”

Using a Moroccan tagine, however, creates a different slow cooking environment. Tagines, with their shallow base and typically high conical or dome-shaped cover, are meant for stovetop cooking. The cover is like a closed chimney. Moisture goes up the dome and falls down onto the food, which is receiving bottom-up heat.

So, if you are curious about clay-pot cooking and want to buy a few pieces to start, which do you select? Wolfert jokes that you can give up prime rib and buy spareribs. With the price difference, you can buy a sandpot. Instead of leg of lamb, buy a shoulder and a cazuela. Substitute another expensive cut of meat with something cheaper and get a tagine. Or move into a Korean clay pot or a bean pot. Many of these pots are interchangeable in terms of function. Among Wolfert’s favorite pots are the Catalon Le Flambadou casserole and the smooth black La Chamba casserole. You can find online sources for all of these in the book.

When I mentioned my intention of buying from local potters, she was quick, however, to warn that potters who work with lead-based glazes and who are baking clay at home kilns may not be able to reach a high enough temperature when they fire their pots. That could result in lead leaching into food. It’s why she also doesn’t recommend people buy Mexican pottery for cooking, even cazuelas. There’s no color in the glaze, but some of the Mexican cazuelas use additional color glazes for decoration, which could cause problems.

Wolfert’s hugely enthusiastic about the new flameware pots coming out. These very practical flameproof ceramic cookware pieces contain mineral elements that prevent the vessels from expanding and contracting with sudden changes in temperature, which allows them to be used over direct heat on a stovetop or even under the broiler. “It doesn’t give you the taste of the earth,” Wolfert says,” but it cooks evenly and beautifully.”

Emile Henry has a new line of Flame-Top Ceramics. Nigella Lawson also has a line. And, there are vendors selling their own versions online, including claycoyote.com and Bill Sax.

Now those home cooks who have gas burners or traditional electric coil burners should be fine with stovetop clay pot cooking (you’ll need a diffuser with electric burners, of course). But those who, like me, have a ceramic cooktop will have to take a different route. You can’t put the clay pots directly on the cooktop and my research (and a call to Maytag customer service, which is the manufacturer of my stove) determined that you can’t use a diffuser either. Wolfert patiently helped me through this challenge, and at her suggestion, I ended up buying a CucinaPro 12-inch Griddle and Crepe Maker. The griddle acts as a diffuser. You get great temperature control and the heat can go up to 450 degrees. I used it to make the “Clay Pot-Roasted Eggplant with Cheese” and admittedly it takes longer, but it worked beautifully.

Yes, it all takes longer. Clay pot cooking just takes awhile and requires some patience, but it yields magnificent flavors and textures you won’t get from metal. “I’ve been cooking in clay for 50 years,” says Wolfert. “I do notice the difference. But you have to put in the extra time.”

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