Nut

Here, the brittle adds the excitement to the ice cream sandwich by providing the crunch. But don’t add the brittle too far in advance, as it will begin to dissolve into the ice cream. If pecans are not your favorite, you can substitute a nut that’s more to your liking.

We developed this recipe for this cookbook and promptly vowed to place it on the menu in the coming fall. Loosely based on pumpkin ravioli, it is the sandwich equivalent of comfort food.

Please do not let the bad bologna sandwiches of your youth deter you from trying this sandwich. Good mortadella is silky, flavorful, and because it doesn’t require aging, usually far more affordable than most artisanal sandwich meats. Here, we balance the smooth texture and rich taste of mortadella with the bitterness of grilled radicchio. The Pistachio Vinaigrette (page 181) is a nod to the classic use of pistachios embedded in the meat.

Do you know anyone who does not make chicken salad with leftover chicken? We don’t. And folks tend to want mayonnaise, some fruity sweetness and/or nuts, crunch, and texture. We’re happy to oblige. We start with our homemade Mayonnaise (page 176). And if you have not yet tried the Pickled Mustard Seeds (page 187), this chicken salad gives you the perfect excuse. We’re not sure “pickled” is the perfect term for them—they’re flavored with sugar, vinegar, and water and puff up, caviar-like. This gives the chicken salad little bubbles that pop as you eat it, as caviar does, releasing a lightly mustardy flavor. The Pickled Red Onions (page 190) lend sweet, sour, and oniony flavors, as well as texture and crunch. Frisée adds texture as well. And using Roasted Tomatoes (page 195)—a staple in our own home kitchens—makes this sandwich a year-round choice.

Eggplant is like a sponge, soaking up whatever moisture it encounters. This, at least in part, is why it is typically breaded when fried—the bread crumbs serve as a shield to limit how much oil is absorbed. In this recipe, however, we salt the eggplant for about an hour to remove excess moisture and then fry it without a coating so it absorbs some oil. Decadent? Absolutely; the eggplant becomes luxuriously creamy and custardy. As buffalo mozzarella is a bit milder and softer than regular mozzarella, it is a perfect complement to the eggplant, but you can use whichever mozzarella you prefer. Interestingly, both the eggplant and the cheese are really the supporting cast in this sandwich; it is the relish that’s the star. The secret ingredient? Anchovies. If you need a purely vegetarian sandwich, leave them out, but they lend a subtle kick, and with the sweetness of the raisins and texture of the pinenuts, you have a picante and assertive relish.

A cheese-and-fruit Danish, the Austro-Hungarian apricot dumpling called Marillenknödel, a Turkish dessert of poached dried apricots with sweet-tangy cream and pistachios . . . some flavor combinations just work well, across cultures and continents. This especially pretty open-faced sandwich is great for breakfast, brunch, a light lunch, an afternoon snack, even a dessert; it’s sweet but not too sweet. The colors, tastes, and textures of puffy white ricotta, velvety golden apricots, silky syrupy ribbons of fennel, crunchy toasted green pistachios, and a grinding or two of black pepper on top create a surprise for the palate and a feast for the eye. We both love putting a big platter of these sandwiches in the middle of the table and watching them disappear. Use slightly under ripe apricots; you can stew them longer than riper fruit and so they will absorb more of the flavors of the spices. Other stone fruits such as plums work well, too. The stewed fruit can be prepared in advance and kept refrigerated in its own syrup for several days.

You could double this recipe and have extra caramel on hand to spoon over cheesecake or ice cream. I like to chop nuts before roasting them, since chopping exposes more surface area. The more area that gets toasted, the more flavor. So coarsely chop the hazelnuts or pound them with the end of a rolling pin in a deep container to break them up.

I like serving these with Corn Panna Cotta (page 83), but they’re also delicious with cheese and perfect to put out with beer for Sunday football.

These elegant nuts are a great accent to summer fruits. If you can find the longer, thinner pistachios from Sicily, use them for this recipe—or any time you’re eating pistachios. They have the best flavor.

What I like most about this caramel is the balance the salt provides; you taste caramel, not sugar. The key to making this is cooking the honey long enough so it just crosses from being sweet to bitter. You could use this as a crunchy topping for ice cream. Or pour it into a ring mold when you make it and use it as a layer in a cake.

I often put these nuts under ice cream, but they make a great bar snack, too.

Try making this sweet, delicate cookie with any nut. It’s a terrific garnish for ice creams or chocolate desserts.

This crisp, sweet almond cookie looks beautiful and has tremendous flavor and a perfect layering texture. What’s great about the batter is that you can freeze it or keep it in the refrigerator and just pull it out when you’re ready to bake.

I’ve always liked the classic combination of chocolate and coffee and have been searching for a unique way to pair the two. In this dessert, the custard is dense and rich, so I wanted the coffee to be light. By using lecithin, I can turn coffee into a cloud.

François Payard, with whom I worked at Daniel and at his own pastry shop, believes in signature desserts. His banana tartlet is one of those signatures, with crunchy cashews and creamy white chocolate mousse paired with rum-sautéed bananas. In this tribute to his dessert, I borrowed the structure and changed the flavors to creamy milk chocolate paired with a salty hazelnut caramel.