Chef Interrupted: Delicious Chefs’ Recipes that you Can Actually Make at Home by Melissa Clark (2024)

Chef Interrupted: Delicious Chefs’ Recipes that you Can Actually Make at Home by Melissa Clark

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Recipes from this book:

Turkish Red Pepper and Walnut Dip

Peter Hoffman, Savoy, New York

In 1990, when Savoy opened on the fringes of Soho, Peter Hoffman was an urban pioneer in the sustainable and local agriculture movement, which at that time was really just picking up steam as the network of New York City farmer’s markets found its footing and began its tremendous, borough-wide expansion. Of course now every chef espouses this farmer’s market rhetoric, but Peter is one of maybe a handful who I actually see there on a regular basis, trolling the stands for the season’s first oniony ramps or the last tiny, fragrant strawberries. This recipe is based on muhammara, a Middle Eastern spread that he often uses as a building block for other dishes at the restaurant. But taken back to its roots, it makes a spicy, intense dip that’s even easier to prepare if you use purchased roasted peppers (see Tip).

Yield: 3 cups
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Peter’s Tips:
- Make this a day or so ahead and store it in the refrigerator to give the flavors a chance to come together. Just bring the dip to room temperature before serving.
- Choose thick, meaty, dark red peppers for this recipe. They have the best flavor.
- Take your time when charring the peppers. They should be black on all sides. It’s easiest to peel the peppers while they are still warm. Use a paper towel to help remove the skin and seeds. Don’t run them under water, which dilutes the flavor.

Melissa’s Tips:
- Peter would never do it but you can use purchased roasted red peppers to prepare this dip, which takes the prep time down to about 3 minutes. Just make sure to seek out really high quality ones, preferably from an Italian or specialty market. You can tell those that have been roasted by the dark brown smudges on the flesh. Skip the ones packed in jars in brine; their flavor is usually pretty dubious.
-Whenever you have an old loaf of plain artisanal bread, let it dry out thoroughly, then cut off the crusts and grind it to coarse crumbs in a food processor. If you want to make breadcrumbs with fresher bread, cut away the crust, slice the loaf, place the slices on the oven rack and dry at 325˚ F until they are thoroughly brittle, (this can take up to 45 minutes) then grind to crumbs. Dried breadcrumbs will keep, stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place, for up to a month or two. Sample them before using to make sure they don’t taste stale.
-You can serve this dip with toasted pita wedges or other breads, or with raw or lightly cooked veggies. Or serve it warmed, as a sauce for plain chicken or fish.
- Thick and dark ruby-black, pomegranate molasses is a sweet-tart Middle Eastern syrup made from nothing but concentrated pomegranate juice. It is traditionally used in everything from soups to shish-kebabs, as well as dips like this. Nowadays pomegranates are getting a lot of press for their anti-oxidant content, so the molasses seems to be getting easier to find, but Middle Eastern stores are still the best source for a pure pomegranate brand (nothing added), or you can order it online (see Sources, page 000). If you cannot get your hands on a bottle, balsamic vinegar also works in this recipe.
- Stores that cater to Mexican cooks stock numerous dried red chiles. For this recipe, any small pepper will work, but they do vary in spiciness and flavor. Dried chiles that are wrinkled tend to offer more flavor and sweetness than the more pungent smooth-skinned ones. Chiles de Arbol and New Mexico red chiles are both spicy, long skinny red peppers—use a 1 to 2-inch segment for this recipe, since they are longer than needed. Other good choices include the small red Japanese of Chinese chiles found in Asian groceries, the Costeño Rojo, or the Chilcostle. In general, chiles get hotter as they ripen from green to red, and the spice is concentrated when they are dried. If you are not a fan of heat, don rubber gloves, slice the pepper open, and remove the potent seeds. The dried, seedless pepper will deliver a greater ratio of flavor to heat.

4 large red bell peppers
1 ½ cups walnuts
½ cup dried breadcrumbs
1 small, dried hot red chili pepper, stemmed and seeded (see Tip)
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (see Sources, page 000)
1 tablespoon plus 1 ½ teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus additional to taste
½ teaspoon toasted and ground cumin
¾ teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon sugar, or to taste

Mushroom Tart Tatin

Tom Colicchio, Gramercy Tavern, New York, NY

This clever appetizer is take off on a classic apple tart tatin, but made savory with mushrooms and onions. The recipe was a collaboration between Tom Colicchio, the chef at Gramercy Tavern and Craft, and Claudia Fleming, his former pastry chef, who worked out the pastry part. I pared this recipe down by using frozen puff pastry and eliminating a delicious but time-consuming onion confit. But even so, it’s a ridiculously impressive dish that’s way easier than it seems.

Yield: 4 servings
Preparation Time: 50 minutes, plus 20 minutes baking

Tom’s Tips:
- If you want to try some unusual, flavorful wild mushroom varieties in this recipe, look for them at farmer’s markets or order them from my favorite purveyor, Marché Aux Delices (see sources, page 000) . Buy mushrooms that feel heavy, moist (but not slimy) and flexible, rather than dried out and brittle. It’s best not to wash mushrooms under running water, and a dry brush is all you need to clean most, but if you’re contending with grit-filled crevices, give the mushrooms a swirl in a bowl of water, then blot them dry right away with a paper towel.
- When cooking mushrooms, avoid overcrowding the pan, which causes the mushrooms to release their liquid and steam to a rubbery texture instead of caramelizing to a nice brown on the outside.

Melissa’s Tip:
-Wild mushrooms have so much flavor that a few interesting ones, mixed in with cultivated button and cremini mushrooms, will provide all the mushroomy flavor you need. Choose whatever looks the most plump and fragrant, which might include standards like shiitake and Portobello, or some of the more unusual looking fungi at the farmer’s market like oyster, hen-of-the-woods, maitake, or even fresh morels and porcini in season—these are expensive, but a little goes a long way.

5 to 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 large shallots, thinly sliced
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
2 anchovy fillets (optional)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
¾ pound mixed wild and cultivated mushrooms, brushed clean of grit, thickly sliced (about 4 cups)
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon sherry vinegar
8 ounces prepared puff pastry, thawed if frozen (see Tip, page 000)

1. In a skillet over medium-high heat, warm 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the shallots and salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and brown on the edges, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the anchovies if using, and half the thyme, and cook for 1 more minute, mashing the anchovy up with a spoon. Transfer the shallots to a bowl, swirl the white wine vinegar in the pan for 30 seconds, then pour it over the shallots.
2. Add another 1 to 2 tablespoons of the oil to the pan and warm it over medium-high heat. Add just enough mushrooms to cover the bottom of the pan in a single layer. Add salt and pepper and cook, turning the mushrooms as they brown, about 2 minutes for the first side. Add half of the garlic and remaining thyme, and continue cooking until the mushrooms are tender and golden, about 2 minutes more. Transfer the mushrooms to a plate, wipe out the skillet, add another tablespoon or 2 of oil and repeat with the remaining mushrooms, garlic and thyme.
5. Raise the oven temperature to 425˚ F. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar with 1 tablespoon water. Swirl the pan until the sugar has completely dissolved, then let the mixture boil, swirling occasionally, until the sugar caramelizes and turns nut brown, about 8 minutes (if the sugar starts to cling to the sides of the pan, dip a pastry brush in water and brush around the sides of the pan). Swirl the sherry vinegar into the caramel and remove from the heat.
6. Pour the caramel into four 4-ounce ramekins and let cool for 1 minute. Spoon the mushrooms into the dishes and top with the shallot mixture.
7. Roll out the puff pastry to ¼-inch thick. Cut the pastry into 4 circles slightly larger than the opening of the ramekins. Lay the pastry circles over the top of each ramekin and place on a baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and golden. Cool for 1 to 2 minutes then carefully invert each tart onto a plate and serve warm or at room temperature.

Basque Style Striped Bass with Piperade and Seared Lemon

Bill Yosses, Joseph’s, New York, NY

Although most people know Bill Yosses as a pastry chef extraordinaire (after learning his craft in Paris, he spent nearly a decade at Bouley), he’s also a genius on the savory side of the kitchen. Like his desserts, his main dishes are seasonally driven and based on clean, simple flavors. In this recipe, he caramelized lemon-covered filets of striped bass, then steams them on a bed of orange zest-and-anchovy-spiked tomatoes and peppers. It’s an easy and absolutely stunning way to cook fish that’s even more so if you can find multi-colored heirloom tomatoes.

Yield: 4 servings
Preparation Time: 45 minutes plus 2 hours roasting

Bill’s Tips:
-This recipe stars a roasted tomato sauce that is very simple to put together, though it does spend two hours in the oven. If the timing is more convenient, you can make the sauce up to a day in advance and then reheat it in the pan before adding the fish.
- You can use any white-fleshed, firm fish in place of the striped bass, such as dorade, halibut or cod.

Melissa’s Tips:
- White anchovies marinated in vinegar, called boquerones in Spain, are sweeter and milder the more common, salt-cured anchovies. Look for them at specialty food stores or substitute 2 regular anchovies.
- A mandoline or Japanese Benriner is the perfect tool for quickly and thinly slicing lemon rounds, though you can also do this with a good knife. Once sliced, remove the seeds. In this recipe it helps to interlock the lemon slices by cutting along the radius of each slice and then fitting them into one another so that they stay joined when you flip the fish.

6 tomatoes, preferably heirloom (the more colors the better), cored, seeded and roughly chopped
1 red bell pepper, trimmed and roughly chopped
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 white anchovies (see Tip), roughly chopped
Freshly grated zest of 1 orange
1 tablespoon drained capers
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large sprig each fresh thyme and oregano
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 lemons, ends trimmed, sliced paper-thin (you will need 16 nice lemon slices)
4 filets (8 ounces each) striped bass
Chopped fresh basil or parsley, for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 275˚ F. Toss together the tomatoes, red pepper, ½ cup of the oil, the anchovies, orange, capers, garlic, and herbs in a 9-by-13-inch baking pan or similar-sized gratin dish. Bake for 2 hours. The mixture should break down and look like a chunky sauce.
2. In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, warm the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Layer 4 of the lemon slices on the bottom of the pan so they overlap by about a ½ inch (or interlock them, see tip). Cook them until they just begin to turn golden, about 2 minutes. Gently place a filet, flesh side down, on top of the slices. Cook about 2 minutes, or until the fish begins to brown but before the lemons burn. Using a spatula, flip the fish so the lemons stay on top of the flesh. You may want to first flip the fish onto a plate, then slide it back into the skillet. If the lemons come off, just rearrange them back on the fish but don’t burn your fingers! After the skin side is seared, about 2 minutes, slide the fish on to a plate and repeat with the remaining lemon slices and filets.
3. Raise the oven temperature to 400˚ F. Carefully place the fish lemon-side up on top of the tomatoes and cover the baking dish with foil (use an oven mitt for this; the baking dish will be hot). Bake the fish until the filets are opaque and tender all the way through, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve the fish garnished with the basil or parsley.

Rack of Lamb with A Cumin Salt Crust, Lemon and Cilantro

David Waltuck, Chanterelle, New York, NY

Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Preparation Time:

David’s Tip:
- The average rack of lamb has about 7 ribs, which will feel two or three, depending upon what else you serving. If you aren’t that familiar with rack of lamb, make sure to notice which side has the layer of fat before you coat it with the spice mixture. This is the side that needs to go into the pan first to brown.

Melissa’s Tips:
- The extra oil-poached garlic can be kept in the refrigerator for up a week. It’s excellent spread on crostini or added to a salad dressing.
- If you aren’t making the flans and you don’t want to bother roasting garlic, just press two raw cloves into the sauce instead. It will have a sharper, more pungent garlic flavor but is no less delicious.

3 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 racks of lamb (about 1 ¼ pounds each)
1 head garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup chicken stock or low sodium broth
¼ cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 500° F and place a heavy-duty metal roasting pan in the oven to heat up.
2. In a bowl, combine the cumin, salt, pepper. Rinse the lamb and shake it dry, but do not dry it off—you want the seasoning to stick. Put the lamb on a plate and rub it all over with the cumin mixture. Let sit for about 20 minutes, while the oven and pan preheat.
3. Meanwhile, put the garlic in a pan and cover with ½ cup of the olive oil. Bring the mixture to a bare simmer (there should only be a bubble or two) and let cook gently until the cloves are very soft, about 20 to 30 minutes. Set aside.
4. When the roasting pan is very hot, carefully add the remaining 3 tablespoons of the olive oil (it may splatter) and place the lamb, fat side down, into the pan. Roast the lamb until nicely browned on the bottom, about 10 minutes, then flip the racks and cook about 5 minutes on the other side for rare (about 120ºF on an instant read thermometer, or cook it more or less to taste). If the fat side is not as brown as you would like at this point, turn up the broiler to high and broil until really brown, 2 to 3 minutes longer. Transfer the lamb to a carving board and let rest for about 10 minutes.
6. Place the roasting pan on the stovetop over high heat. Add the chicken stock, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Pass another 2 of the roasted garlic cloves through a garlic press into the sauce, or alternately smash it in a bowl and add it in. Add the wine and lemon juice and simmer until slightly thickened, about 6 minutes. Whisk in the butter and season with salt and pepper.
7. Serve the lamb with the pan sauce and garnished with cilantro leaves, and a flan if desired.

Sidebar: Eggplant Flans
These flans can be made up to two days in advance and reheated in a microwave or 250˚ F oven, or steamed briefly in a pot over simmering water.

2 medium size eggplants, pricked here and there with a fork
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
4 cloves roasted garlic (see lamb recipe)
1 cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch ground cayenne pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Put the eggplants in a foil lined baking dish and drizzle them with olive oil. Bake until the eggplants implode, about 30 to 40 minutes. Let the eggplants cool slightly.
2. Scrape the eggplant flesh out of the skins. In a blender, puree 2 cups of the cooked eggplant with the roasted garlic, cream, eggs, yolk, and salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Run the blender until everything is completely smooth. Pour the mixture into seven 6-ounce ramekins and bake in a water bath (set in a roasting pan that’s filled halfway with hot water and covered with foil, see Tip, page 000) until just set in the center, about 1 hour.

Roasted Pork Chops with Peaches and Basil

Chris Douglass, Icarus, Boston, MA

At Icarus, Chris Douglass roasts a pork loin to serve with softly cooked peaches and fragrant, fresh basil. I substituted pork chops because I find them both quicker to cook and juicier, even if you don’t brine them, and I love the way the salty, fatty pork drippings mix with the sweet peaches on the plate. This was created as a very summery dish, perfect when peaches and basil are in abundance, and it should really stay that way; substitute apples and sage in the fall or winter rather than using cottony, out of season peaches.

Yield: 4 servings
Preparation Time: 1 ½ hours, plus up to 1 ½ hours brining

Chris’ Tip:
- Brining—soaking in salt water—is a great way to improve the flavor and moistness of meats like pork and turkey, which can become dry and bland. The salt not only seasons the meat but also increases its ability to hold moisture when cooked. These pork chops need to brine for 1 to 1 ½ hours, so plan accordingly.

Melissa’s Tip:
- People talk about new pork and old pork because a lot has changed in the way pigs are bred for meat in this country, and the reputation of pork has changed as a result, going from a fatty, succulent delicacy to a dry, healthful, so-called “white meat.” Chefs, of course, are not in favor of fat-robbing, and they have been a major proponent of retro pork, that is heritage breeds and farming practices that humanely and sustainably produce natural, flavorful, old-fashioned meat with enough fat to insulate it during cooking. Ask your butcher to help you find well-marbled pork, or look for Niman Ranch products, one of the biggest, and best, names in this field (see www.nimanranch.com for more info).

¾ cup kosher salt, plus additional to taste
½ cup sugar
Four 1-inch-thick pork chops
Freshly ground black pepper
4 ripe peaches, pitted and quartered
4 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 shallots, diced
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cubes
½ cup fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces, for garnish

1. In a in a deep, non-reactive bowl or pan, dissolve the salt and sugar in 8 cups of warm tap water. Add the pork chops (they should be completely submerged). Refrigerate for 1 to 1 ½ hours. Remove the pork from the brine, rinse, and pat dry. Season the chops liberally with black pepper. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature while the peaches are cooking.
2. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spread 2 tablespoons of the oil evenly over a shallow roasting pan that will comfortably fit the peaches in a single layer. Arrange the peaches in the pan and roast until soft and just cooked though, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before carefully removing the skins. Set aside the 12 nicest pieces of peach for garnish. Pour the sherry vinegar into the pan and scrape up the browned bits to deglaze the pan. Pour the contents of the pan into a blender and puree for the sauce.
3. In a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, simmer the peach puree with the shallots until reduced by half, about 7 minutes. Turn down the heat and add the butter 1 piece at a time, stirring constantly. Pass the sauce though a sieve and cover to keep warm.
4. In an ovenproof skillet over medium heat, warm the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the chops and brown them on all sides, about 5 minutes per side. Place the pan in the oven and roast for 25 to 35 minutes, until the chops reach an internal temperature of 140° F (pink) to 150° F (less pink). Remove the pan from the oven, add the reserved peach wedges, cover loosely with foil, and set aside to rest for 10 minutes.
5. To serve, transfer the pork chops and peaches to plates. Pour the peach sauce into the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and heat gently. Spoon the sauce over and around the pork and scatter the torn basil leaves over the pork.

Spicy Pork Ribs with Garlic and Tomatoes

Frank Proto, Landmarc, New York, NY

Frank Proto is Marc Murphy’s chef-de-cuisine at Landmarc, one of my favorite casual Tribeca spots. Frank has a different take on the usual rib preparation. Instead of smoky, barbecued-all-day-in-a-pit ribs, or the lacquered, slightly sweet Chinese-style of spareribs, Frank cooks ribs Italian style, with tomatoes, garlic, and crushed red pepper. It’s a pretty easy dish to begin with, though I had my work cut out scaling down the proportions. One of the most popular dishes on the menu, the original recipe makes enough for 30 to 40 servings. This version comfortably feeds eight.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Preparation Time: 1 hour, plus up to 3 hours braising

Frank’s Tips:
- If the bacon is especially fatty, pour off some of the fat before you add in the onions.
- The ribs can be cooked up to two days ahead (store them in their tomato sauce the fridge). Then warm them up when you finish the sauce.

Melissa’s Tip:
- Cut from the sparerib and trimmed so there is less waste, St. Louis cut ribs are particularly meaty and succulent. The racks are pretty large, so you’ll need a great big roasting pan for this recipe.

2 racks St. Louis cut pork ribs (about 3 pounds each)
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Two 28-ounce cans plum tomatoes
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, plus additional chopped basil for garnish
½ pound bacon, diced
10 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3 red onions, sliced
2 ½ cups dry white wine
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup sherry vinegar
4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Season the ribs with salt and pepper and lay them in a large, flameproof roasting pan. Pour the tomatoes over the ribs and scatter the basil on top.
2. In a skillet over medium-high heat, sauté the bacon until slightly crisp, about 4 minutes. Add half the garlic and all the onions and cook until browned, about 7 minutes. Pour in the wine and let the mixture simmer until it’s reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Pour the onion mixture over the ribs, cover the pan tightly with foil, and cook until the meat is literally falling off the bone, 2 ½ to 3 hours. Transfer the ribs but not the sauce to a plate.
3. Just before serving, in a skillet over high heat, warm the oil. Add the remaining garlic and sauté until fragrant and lightly golden, about 2 minutes. Add the vinegar and crushed red pepper and bring back to a simmer. Pour the garlic mixture into the pan with the sauce from the ribs, place it over heat high, and let it reduce by about a third, about 10 minutes. Add the ribs to the pan and toss them around to coat them in the sauce and reheat them. Serve them hot, garnished with more basil, if desired.

Sidebar: Polenta
This is also excellent with the roasted pork on page 000.

1 cup medium-grind cornmeal or quick cooking polenta
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Bring 3 ½ cups of water to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the salt, then slowly pour in the polenta while stirring. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring frequently until done, about 15 minutes for quick-cooking polenta. Stir in the butter and serve.

Mario Batali, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, New York, NY

At Babbo, Mario Batali’s original dish, called mint love letters, involves stuffing homemade pasta ravioli with a sweet minted pea puree. My shortcut version takes the puree out of the pasta and dollops it on top instead. You get the same ingenious flavor combination, but the whole dish is ready in under an hour—less time than you’d likely spend trying to get through to the deservedly popular Babbo for a reservation.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Preparation Time: 1 hour

Mario’s Tips:
- When I say Parmesan cheese I mean Parmigiano-Reggiano, the crumbly, nutty-tasting grating cheese produced and aged in a defined region of northern Italy that includes the counties of Parma and Reggio-Emilia. The big 80-pound wheels of this cheese are aged for at least 12 months, though I recommend one that has been aged for twice that long. Parmigiano-Reggiano is ranked in six grades, so buying a top grade from a good cheese store will make a big difference. True, your pasta will be excellent with any good Parmesan cheese, but taste a piece of top-quality Reggiano Parmesan and you’ll see what I mean.
- Merguez is a spicy lamb sausage from North Africa, flavored with garlic and the peppery mix called harissa, along with black pepper and fennel seeds.
- Though there are plenty of good-quality canned tomatoes on the market, the crème de la crème are San Marzano tomatoes, an intense tomato with a perfect balance of sweetness and acidity. They are available canned, imported from Italy. But so are a lot of impostors. Look for San Marzanos with the letters DOP on the can, which indicates that they were grown and packed near Mt. Vesuvius according to traditional methods.

Melissa’s Tips:
- You can prepare the pea puree and tomato-merguez sauce in advance, then warm them up as you cook the pasta.
- Frozen peas are generally more reliably sweet and tasty than most fresh peas, which, by the time we get them, are days old and starchy. Of course, fresh peas from the farmers’ market, bought the day you plan to use them, are the best of all if you can get them—just cook them a minute or so longer than the frozen.

1 box (10 ounces) frozen peas, or 2 cups fresh shelled peas
1 cup fresh mint leaves, plus additional chopped mint for garnish
1 cup (about 3 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan cheese, preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ½ pounds merguez (spicy lamb sausage), sliced ½ inch thick
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (28-ounces) plum tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
1 bay leaf
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound fresh pappardelle or tagliatelle pasta
1 1/3 cups (about ¼ pound) freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook the peas with ¼ cup of water until they are just tender, about 2 minutes.
2. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the peas to a blender along with the mint, Parmesan, and cream (reserve the pea cooking water). Blend until smooth. If the puree seems too thick (it should drop from the spoon easily), blend in a little of the pea cooking water.
3. Meanwhile, in a skillet over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the merguez and sauté until brown, about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the sausage to a plate lined with paper towels. Toss the garlic into the pan and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and bay leaf and simmer, mashing the tomatoes a bit to break them up, for 20 minutes. Return the sausage to the pan and simmer until the mixture is a thick sauce, about 20 minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper.
4. While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until just al dente, about 3 minutes. Drain, add to the tomato sauce, and toss well. Divide the pasta between 4 to 6 plates and dollop the pea sauce over the top of each serving. Garnish with the pecorino cheese and fresh mint and serve immediately.

Claudia Fleming, Amuse, New York, NY

I met Claudia Fleming when I was writing her chef’s column for the New York Times back in 1999. But even by then, I already knew who she was and had been following her career for a long time. Before she started working at Gramercy Tavern (which is where she was when we first worked together) I lapped up her desserts at Luxe. Anytime I heard of an event featuring one of her creations, I went out of my way to attend. I wasn’t really stalking her, although it might have seemed that way. I just couldn’t resist her flavor combinations. Chocolate with bay leaf and lemon verbena custards, to me, were and still are the height of pastry chef brilliance.

Of course, when you idolize someone’s desserts for that long, there’s always a risk you won’t actually like the person when you meet her. Not so with Claudia. We hit it off right away, over that first recipe we made for the Times, Rhubarb Rose Cobbler with Goat-Yogurt Rose Cream. By the time the column was over (it was eight weeks long), we were finishing each other’s sentences. I knew I had to somehow finagle collaborating with her on her cookbook. The problem was that she already had a co-author, an extremely talented women who was also a good friend of hers. Thinking that was the end of that, I sulked and tried to forget all about her exquisite blood orange caramel.

But one day, a few weeks after the column came to an end, Claudia called and asked me to work on her book. Her co-author, it turns out, was too busy on someone else’s book to focus on Claudia’s, and besides, she explained, Kathy didn’t really eat dessert. Obviously, this wasn’t a problem with me.

There is a version of this goat cheesecake recipe in the cookbook Claudia and I wrote (The Last Course, Random House, 2000), but I’ve simplified and streamlined it here. Claudia served the cake with a hazelnut tart and a scoop of Concord grape sorbet. I’ve substituted another of her signatures, raspberry compote with lemon thyme, which is much easier to make. And if using both goat cheese and lemon thyme in one dessert sounds like too much, make it at least once and see for yourself why it’s not.

Yield: 8 servings
Preparation Time: 35 minutes, plus 2 hours baking and standing

Claudia’s Tips
- Use an extremely fresh, mild goat cheese here. It should be clean and creamy tasting, with a slight tang, but should not taste barnyardy.
- If you can find it, use lemon thyme. It gives the berries a particularly bright flavor.
- This creamy cheesecake works really well when served with a crisp cookie on the side—kind of like what a graham cracker crust is supposed to do, but rarely does since it usually gets soggy. Shortbread cookies or gingersnaps are good, or you can make the graham crackers from my mallomar recipe on page 000, which are a perfect complement.

Melissa’s Tips
- Although the berries need to be prepared just before serving, the cheesecake can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated. Bring it to room temperature, then unmold it immediately before serving for the best texture.
- Mascarpone, a gentle, milky fresh cheese from Italy, works really well in the recipe because it’s almost the antithesis of the goat cheese—luscious and subtle next to tart and earthy. But if you can’t find it, heavy cream makes a fine substitute.
- Other herbs can be substituted for the thyme. Basil is great with berries, as is mint or tarragon. Or leave out the herbs altogether. It will be a slightly less nuanced dessert, but perhaps less challenging, too.

Cheesecake:
1 ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons (about 12 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
8 ounces fresh goat cheese, at room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped (see Tip, page 000)
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ cups mascarpone

Raspberry Compote:
3 cups fresh raspberries
¼ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, preferably lemon thyme
2 tablespoons sugar, or more to taste

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the cream cheese, goat cheese, the ½ cup sugar, and the vanilla bean scrapings and beat until smooth and creamy.
2. Add the eggs and mix well. Add the mascarpone and beat until smooth.
3. Wrap the outside of an 8-inch springform pan with foil. Scrape the mixture into the pan and place it in the center of a larger baking pan. Pour enough very hot water into the baking pan to reach two-thirds of the way up the side of the springform pan. Cover the entire baking pan with foil. Prick the foil in several places. Bake in a water bath for 1 hour, then lift the foil to allow the steam to escape. Replace the foil and return the cake to the oven to cook until just slightly jiggly in the center, about 50 minutes more.
4. Transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.
5. Just before serving, prepare the compote. In a blender or food processor, puree 1 cup of the raspberries with the lemon thyme leaves and 2 tablespoons of sugar (or more if the berries seem tart). Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes. Toss gently with the remaining raspberries. Serve immediately.