Olive

Phil Donaldson writes: “This Italian sauce is probably the best-tasting spaghetti sauce we have ever tasted. However, it is not very well known. The name means ‘prostitute’s sauce,’ and the story goes that the ladies would prepare the sauce and put it on their windowsills, and the smell was so fabulous that it attracted clients for them.”

Young potatoes of any sort roast sweetly, especially if scrubbed hard so their skin almost disappears and they are allowed to develop a sticky, golden coating in the oven. They need a few minutes in boiling water before they hit the oven if they are not to toughen as they roast. I match them with robust ingredients—slices of fat-flecked salami or perhaps a spoonful of softly fibrous pork rillettes—as a Saturday lunch.

Sicily’s cooks make much of the eggplant. They fry it in crisp disks, with mint and vinegar; bake it with tomato sauce and salty caciocavallo cheese; stuff it with anchovies, parsley, and capers; or grill it over charcoal before seasoning with garlic and oregano. Occasionally, they will roll up a thick jam of eggplant in soft disks of dough like a savory strudel, called scaccie, while all the time matching it to the Arab-influenced exotica of their cupboards: anchovies, olives, fennel, mint, pomegranates, currants, and pine nuts. The thin, Turkish eggplant with the bulbous end is the one they prefer, though you could use any shape for their famous caponata, the rich sweet-sour stew braised with celery, golden raisins, vinegar, and bell peppers. I can eat this fragrant, amber slop at any time of year, but somehow I always end up making it when the sun is shining, eating it outside with flat, chewy bread and maybe some grilled sardines flecked with torn mint leaves and lemon. If you make it the day before, its character—salty, sweet, and sour—will have time to settle itself.

This is a cross between an egg salad and a potato salad, two classic warm-weather dishes that usually rely on mayonnaise for flavor and binding. In this recipe, the creamy texture of the new potatoes pulls the ingredients together, and the nut-and-olive pesto imparts a rich taste. A traditional basil pesto works just as well. Because their skin is thin and delicate, there is no need to peel new potatoes; simply wash them thoroughly. This healthy salad can be eaten in sandwiches or with lightly dressed lettuce greens.

My grandparents had a garden each summer and fall. To keep the soil rich and fertile, Dede would alternate between the fields in front of the house and behind it and the property down at the river. He planted by the moon and used time-honored wisdom as his guide. Meme would drive the tractor and Dede would follow behind with the plow. Dede loved green beans and would plant rows and rows. When he passed away, Mama tucked a handful in his suit pocket as he lay in his coffin so he wouldn’t miss them. These green beans are fresh and flavorful—a favorite Southern vegetable made with a classic French technique. This dish is excellent served hot, at room temperature, or chilled. If making it ahead, do not add the vinegar until the last moment or it will cause the beans to look mottled and green like hunter’s camouflage.

I think Dede, who loved green beans, would have choked if I had suggested serving them with olives and feta cheese. He was more inclined to enjoy beans simmered until very soft and laced with transparent bits of fatback, swimming in a deliciously salty broth. More often than not, before cooking, green beans only need their tough, unsightly stems removed. I guess we are getting lazy about everything, including green beans. I like to leave them whole, curly “tail” attached, instead of snapping them.

Halibut caught in the Pacific Ocean, in the northern areas near Alaska, and in the Bering Sea are caught by long-lining, which uses a central fishing line with smaller lines of baited hooks attached. This method is far less destructive to the marine habitat than the trawling methods used in the Atlantic. So, try to find Pacific halibut; alternatives include mako shark or farm-raised sturgeon. This recipe would also work well with a thick fillet of wild salmon. It’s important to cook the vegetables first to evaporate their moisture and concentrate their flavors. While cooking, the fish makes a lovely, fragrant broth, perfect to serve over grits, rice, or instant couscous in a shallow bowl.

In French, tartine means a slice of bread with jam, butter, or other spread. It’s a typical after-school snack for children. But there is nothing childlike about this grown-up version: baguette toasts covered with a savory, deliciously salty tapenade, enhanced with capers. Adding capers to olives and anchovies may seem redundantly salty, but they add another layer of flavor. As Meme grew older, her doctor told her to avoid seeds. She loved all sorts of fresh vegetables and typically “worked around” this restriction. I was happy to help her out by removing tomato seeds. Here is my way: halve the tomato crosswise through its midsection with a serrated knife. Use your index finger to scoop out the seeds from each half, then give the tomato a gentle squeeze to draw out any seeds that remain.

Although originally from the Mexican state of Veracruz, Snapper a la Veracruzana is served all over the country. Clearly Mexicans know a good thing when they see it! A light tomato broth poaches the fish, while jalapeño, capers, and olives deliver a flavorful punch. This is a great choice for a family meal or a dinner party because the sauce can be made ahead of time, leaving only the fish to simmer in it. Quick and delicious!

Jill and I fell in love with Moroccan food while we were studying in France and had to include a dish with those amazing flavors. The cinnamon, curry, and raisins that are commonly found in Moroccan cooking combine to give this stew an unexpected depth. When all the flavors are cooked together and served over the couscous it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

Tapenade is essentially puréed olives with other flavorings added. This is a pretty mild version, but if you like the sharp taste of Kalamata olives, feel free to add more.

Before I was an exchange student in France, I wasn’t sure how I felt about raw zucchini. I now know how delicious it can be. Using a vegetable peeler to make long pasta-like strips for this yummy salad will give it a sophisticated look, but you can also simply grate or thinly slice them, so do whatever makes you happy.

The ingredients in this simple vegetable stew are made to order for the long, slow heat of the communal oven or the slow cooker. Flavors meld, juices blend together, and the whole thing is a fragrant, pleasurable afternoon’s work.

Most of us are familiar with “rolled” enchiladas: some kind of savory filling rolled up in a tortilla, then baked. But a stacked enchilada is even easier to make, and the results, especially when done in a slow cooker, are a lot like a casserole. A layer of corn or flour tortillas, a layer of fresh vegetables, another layer of tortillas, another layer of filling, and so on until the slow cooker insert is a bit over half full. Then a nice long, slow cook that allows all the juicy vegetable flavors to meld and blend. You can certainly vary the type of vegetables according to the season and what’s in your garden or farmers’ market at any given time. This is great freshly cooked and is even better as leftovers.

In baseball, the utility man is the one who can do everything. He keeps four different gloves on hand in case he’s called on to play catcher, first base, the infield, or the outfield. I suppose he also does the team’s laundry between games of a doubleheader. I think of capers as my utility guys, capable of blending into many dishes from eggs to polenta. Capers, which are actually flower buds, are usually pickled. They may be tiny, but they pack a flavorful punch. Here, they’re blended with chopped olives and lemon zest to create a mouth-popping relish.

The creamy white beans provide a nutritious canvas that blends well with the purplish black kalamatas. The beans are high in protein, which keeps the body in fighting shape during treatment.

Here’s a great example of what I call culinary architecture, which entails building on a great foundation. In this case, I’m playing off what Middle Easterners call tabouli, a wonderful salad with a fantastic fresh taste that’s incredibly easy to make (and impossible to mess up). The base of any tabouli is a grain, lemon juice, parsley, and mint. That’s our building block. Then we add the ornamentation, which always emphasizes both form and function. The beans create a complete protein, the pleasing crunch (and a whole bunch of antioxidants) comes from pepper, while olives add a little healthy salt. Like any powerful piece of architecture, it’s the combination of simplicity and tasteful elegance that makes this salad so enjoyable and memorable.

Here’s an unusual bread that teams beautifully with many kinds of soup. Try this with anything from hearty bean soups to light, brothy ones. Use your favorite kind of olive; it works well with most any variety.

With the help of a food processor, this tasty, no-cook soup will be ready to eat in minutes. Serve with stone-ground tortilla chips or warmed flour tortillas.