Vegetable

Tart crusts can be made from other ingredients, including cooked spaghetti, polenta, and rice, or in this case, thinly sliced potatoes. The goal is to make a crisp, shallow vessel that will contain the filling without leaking. This is especially important when a custard filling is used. The baby artichokes in this recipe can be replaced by thinly sliced artichoke hearts.

This tart with a lattice top is a real showstopper. Your guests’ eyes will light up when it’s brought to the table. Known as a torta rustica in Italy, versions are served around Easter in celebration of the season. The filling is traditionally spinach, though I’ve incorporated other greens for more contrast in flavors. Other versions can have sausage, eggplant, and peppers as the filling.

Cassoulet is a traditional French dish of white beans and various meats, cooked slowly for the flavors to blend. This fragrant vegetarian version uses Indian spices and lentils rather than white beans. It’s wonderful as a main course or as a side dish with roasted chicken or fish.

I love the Southwest of the United States and the foods of that region. This recipe features three ingredients borrowed from its Native American culture: corn, beans, and peppers. Here, the stew is made with vegetable stock, but you can also use chicken stock. Wood-roasted pork shoulder or chicken can be shredded and added to the dish for an even heartier meal. The heirloom beans come from my friend Steve Sando’s company, Rancho Gordo. You can substitute other dried beans, but the flavor will be best if you use Rancho Gordo beans (see Resources). The stew can be made a day ahead and reheated just before serving. Any leftovers are terrific as a filling for tamales or enchiladas.

Luscious cannellini beans are one of my favorites, whether plain, drizzled with olive oil, or baked with melting garlic and rosemary. They can be cooked in a wood-fired oven, in embers in the fireplace, or over indirect heat on a grill. Cook the sausage at the same time. This recipe is extraordinarily easy to make, letting the clay pot and the fire be the star flavor contributors, along with the sausage.

Risotto is typically made on the stove top with a fair amount of stirring to release the starch from the grains of rice. It can also be baked in a casserole, though it will be less creamy because less starch is released. Cooking it in a wood-fired oven adds a smoky flavor. The asparagus and Swiss chard are perfect additions in spring. You can use any of your favorite seasonal greens in their place. Diced butternut squash or yellow beets are terrific here too, as are the traditional mushrooms.

This is a grown-up mac and cheese with lots of rich Italian flair. Using three flavorful Italian cheeses and incorporating pancetta makes this hearty dish the ultimate comfort food. You can use a different shape of dried pasta as long as it has a cavity to hold the creamy sauce. Try other cheeses, too.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe my friend Deborah Madison shared in her book, Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen. It is absolutely gorgeous! Purple eggplant, red peppers, and golden saffron custard are a beautiful combination. Eggplant and red peppers are the perfect ingredients to cook in a wood-fired oven, as they both take on the wonderful smokiness of the fire. In this recipe, the eggplant is lightly sautéed in a skillet in the oven. The red peppers, tomatoes, and garlic are roasted whole, directly on the floor of the oven or in the embers, until the skins are blistered and beautifully charred. When cooled, they are skinned and seeded. Peppers roasted this way have a more complex flavor than when blackened on the stove top.

This recipe from Georgeanne Brennan shows a classic way to cook in a tajine, layering flavors and food together for the slow, moist cooking. It includes the Moroccan sauce sharmula, which gives a spicy flavor and adds moisture to the fish during the cooking. You can make many variations on this dish, substituting chicken for fish or tomatoes and eggplant for artichokes.

In the south of France, beautiful large ripe tomatoes are often stuffed with herbs and bread crumbs, then served with grilled fish. Here, the tomatoes are wood-roasted for added flavor. You can play with other herbs such as dill or marjoram in the stuffing.

These potatoes are the best roasted potatoes you’ve ever tasted! The radiant heat from the salt crisps the skin while holding in the natural moisture of the potatoes. This method can be used for roasting other vegetables, such as beets, sweet potatoes, and even small acorn squash. The salt can be saved and reused for roasting another batch of vegetables. Or you can place some of the salt in a jar to add to the flavored-salt collection in your pantry.

As soon as it’s artichoke season, I often make this dish when I’m firing the oven for making bread or pizza. It’s so very simple in both ingredients and technique, you’ll want to make it often. After you’ve baked your bread, throw this dish in the oven for a quick accompaniment to your meal. The heat from the oven slightly caramelizes the outer leaves of the artichokes and the skins of the lemons. You’ll be amazed at how flavorful and sweet artichokes taste cooked this way! The lemons and juices are used to make a dipping sauce.

Often people are intimidated by the thought of making a soufflé, but soufflés are actually quite easy to make and are delicious. This simple version has seasonal herbs and greens and is baked as a casserole in a shallow dish. It doesn’t have to be served before it deflates, because the amount of pouf is less important in this presentation. This casserole is wonderful for brunch or a light lunch served with some lightly dressed tender salad greens. If you want a traditional presentation, this same recipe can be made in an 8-cup soufflé dish.

Brussels sprouts are misunderstood. They are often served overcooked, mushy, with not a lot of flavor. When wood-fire roasted along with shallots, however, they become caramelized, subtly smoky, and sweet.

Paula Wolfert and I revised this fabulous dish of hers for cooking in my wood-fired oven. The key is to cook it until the lamb is falling-apart tender. The recipe is adapted from Paula’s book, The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. It comes from the southern Italian region of Apulia, where it is baked in a shallow terra-cotta dish called a tiella. You can make it entirely in the wood-fired oven, or cook the onions and brown the lamb on the stove top, then move it all to the oven to finish cooking.

Scalloped potatoes was one of my favorite childhood dishes. I’ve added the classic combination of crab and spinach to this version and lightened the sauce a bit by using milk instead of cream. You can substitute shrimp or lobster meat for the crab.

This delicious stew of roasted baby artichokes, trumpet mushrooms, and asparagus is a nod to spring. Deborah Madison and I developed this recipe at her Santa Fe home using ingredients from the local farmers’ market and topped it with a lovely goat cheese from northern New Mexico. Upon returning home to Northern California, I roasted the ragout in a clay baker in my wood-fired oven, which further highlighted the earthy flavors. It’s easy to prepare, and the rich broth and meaty mushrooms are so satisfying. All you need is a few hunks of crusty bread and some beautiful cheese and you have a robust supper.

This is not your basic antipasti. Serving a beautiful platter of wood-roasted seasonal vegetables, cured meats, hand-crafted cheeses, home-cured olives, and smoke-kissed crusty bread to family and friends as a prelude to dinner is an artful way to honor guests. This is just what chef Chris Bianco does at his restaurant, Pizzeria Bianco, in Phoenix, Arizona. Chris’s wood-fired pizzas are now legendary, but his wood-roasted antipasti platter sings. I hope you will enjoy my version, and create many versions of your own.

Many Mediterranean cuisines wrap fish in leaves for grilling or roasting. This version uses Swiss chard. You can use either the white-stemmed variety or one of the colorful rainbow chards. Use fresh grape or fig leaves for an even more flavorful result.

Roasting chicken under bricks creates an evenly golden skin and moist, succulent meat. The bricks keep the chicken weighted down and somewhat flattened, which allows it to cook evenly and more quickly than if roasted whole. Brining the chicken keeps the flesh moist. Any number of vegetables can be roasted as part of this dish, but I prefer just tomatoes and shallots.