Cheese

It’s hard to believe a plate this beautiful is so easy to make. Crudi means “raw” and the freshness of raw vegetables is especially welcome as an accompaniment to a heavier pasta. The key to this dish is creating long, graceful ribbons of the raw zucchini; they should look almost like pale green fettuccine noodles.

I always prefer to use Japanese eggplants when I can because I find they are less bitter and don’t require salting the way bigger eggplants sometimes do. This is a very substantial salad and also very good looking, with pretty layers of eggplant, cheese, and nuts.

In this frittata, pasta plays a supporting rather than starring role, giving the eggs a little body. It makes a very pretty, satisfying lunch served with a simple side salad.

Here’s a fun way to use up leftover pasta. When I was young, my mother would throw leftovers of any kind of pasta—red-sauced, white-sauced, whatever—into her frittata mixture for a quick snack for us kids. She generally made one large frittata, but I like to make them in individual servings; that way you can keep them in the fridge and grab one for a quick, nutritious snack, hot or cold.

Use a sweet, ripe (but not overripe) pear such as Bosc or Anjou; if it’s not ripe enough, the flavor won’t marry with the cheese. Taleggio is a mild, creamy Italian cheese; if you can’t find it, Brie is a perfectly fine substitute.

I could eat this sandwich every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. The heat of the panini press melts the chocolate and Brie together, and the salty-sweet-gooey goodness that results is my idea of heaven. Sometimes I make these for a cocktail party, cutting each sandwich into four small squares, and it’s always a conversation starter.

A hearty yet sophisticated sandwich with enough meat in it to satisfy big appetites. Don’t use your stale, leftover croissants for this; you want the butter to melt and crisp up the dough, making it even flakier and completely delicious.

Purists will probably take issue with my spin on lobster rolls, but I think the light, sweet texture of mascarpone enhances the flavor of lobster far better than mayo does. There’s no question, though, that this is a decadent dish; enjoy it as an occasional—and outrageously delicious—treat.

There’s a lot of flavor in these little crackers, which are the perfect blend of flakey and cheesy. I add these to a bread basket, crumble them over salads, and float them in soup. They keep well in a sealable plastic bag, so make a double batch; you’ll find lots of ways to use them.

A crostata is a free-form tart that can be served as a dessert or, like these two, filled with savory ingredients as an elegant starter.

Honestly, there’s not much that’s better than fried mozzarella with something sweet drizzled on top. In Santorini I tasted a dish like this, but made with feta; here I’ve substituted smoked mozzarella, which has a similar salty flavor but is a bit creamier. The smokiness plays off the sweetness of the figs beautifully.

If you think stuffed mushrooms are bland, you’ll find these a welcome change of pace: the flavors are quite robust. These are equally good right out of the oven or at room temperature, and they make a nice hors d’oeuvre option for non-meat-eaters.

Most Italians would have all these ingredients readily at hand in their pantry; in fact, it’s what my mother fixed for me and my siblings as an after-school snack. I’ve updated it a bit with fresh mint to make a snappy appetizer bite.

Here’s why I love this dish: it looks gorgeous on the plate, and it’s much more sophisticated than the simplicity of the ingredients would suggest. It’s a two-biter with lots of strong layers of flavor: first the bite of the cheese, then the crisp lemony tang of the apple and the sweet jammy aftertaste of the figs. Together, the combination is amazing. Use the fig jam on anything from pancakes to pork chops.

Despite the apricot topping, this is a savory dish, not a dessert, and it’s a knockout addition to an appetizer buffet. Be sure to pat the bell peppers dry with paper towels and don’t chop them too fine or they will turn the cheese filling pink. Note that the pan size is a bit unusual so make sure you have the right one before you start the recipe.

For entertaining I usually prefer dishes that can be made ahead of time, but I make an exception for this one. It does need to be assembled at the last minute; but when you want something particularly beautiful to start a small dinner party, it’s worth the extra effort. The flavor of mint really shines through and the colors are stunning together, especially if you use a mix of heirloom tomato varieties.

As a native New Yorker, I grew up eating my fair share of Junior’s cheesecake from Brooklyn, and I have to admit that it still continues to be one of my favorite desserts to this day. So while coming up with ideas for this chapter, I thought, cream cheese—in a milkshake? Why not? I know that strawberries are the traditional fruit topping for a cheesecake, and you can definitely use them or any other berry or fruit in the recipe, but I have a special fondness for blackberries. This milkshake is so rich, you might want to share.

Use this béchamel-based sauce as a dip for potato chips and French fries or as a topping for burgers, such as the Buffalo Burger (page 27) or the Blue Burger (page 70).

I couldn’t do this book without including a blue cheese and bacon burger; the combination of a juicy burger, crisp, smoky bacon, and sharp and tangy blue cheese is just too good. You can top this burger with crumbled blue cheese or you can do what I often do and spoon some hot Blue Cheese Sauce (page 110) over the finished burger. Serve it with warm Homemade Potato Chips (page 98) and extra sauce for dipping; it’s insanely delicious. (See photograph on page 2.)