Roast

WHY IT’S LIGHT Low-fat yogurt, garlic, and vinegar are combined in a creamy, tangy dressing—without a drop of oil. Walnuts roasted with the vegetables add satisfying crunch and not much fat.

FLAVOR BOOSTER Naturally sweet, pears become even more so when baked until very tender. They are delicious on their own or topped with a dollop of rich mascarpone cheese and crumbled almond-flavored cookies for a slightly more lavish treat.

Mushrooms and beef have long been an inspired combination, and here they're joined in a particularly sophisticated way. Dried porcini mushrooms grind to a powder in no time in a blender and add a subtle woodsiness to the beef, while the truffle butter enriches the sauce with its heady aroma. Black-truffle butter is the best deal going. It gives you tremendous flavor at an affordable price, a fraction of the cost of a fresh black truffle.

A bone-in pork rib roast has everything: lean and moist meat, a crusty fatty exterior, and rib bones. When you buy the roast, ask the butcher to remove the spinal chine bone and to separate the thin layer of meat on the ribs, stopping about an inch from the end of the bones. This allows you to season the interior of the meat next to the bones. Season the meat 1 or 2 days before cooking; it makes a big difference in the flavor of the roast.

Leg of lamb cooks well either on the bone or boned. The price per pound will be more when boned, but the advantage is that it makes it very easy to slice and carve for serving. Have it tied by the butcher, or do it yourself at home. Roast lamb is traditionally served with beans, such as green flageolet or cannellini, and for a very good reason: They are a perfect combination.

I like to roast a chicken with nothing more than a few herbs and seasonings. It is always satisfying, and the pan juices make a perfect sauce for the cooked bird.

Oven-roasting is an especially good way of cooking winter root vegetables such as potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and celery root, as well as onions, unpeeled garlic cloves, squashes, and fennel. The crispiness and caramelization that develops in the oven brings out the vegetables’ natural sweetness and intensifies their flavors.

This salad is especially good made with peppers roasted over a wood or charcoal fire.

In Mexico, salsas are typically made with ingredients roasted on a clay comal, or griddle. A cast-iron skillet is a good substitute. When whole chile peppers, unpeeled garlic cloves, tomatoes, and tomatillos are dry-roasted, they brown as they cook and develop the toasty overtones that create deep flavors in the salsa. Another traditional tool is the molcajete y tejolote, a rough stone mortar and pestle used to mash and blend the salsa.

I couldn’t cook without garlic. I use it raw and cooked in all manner of dishes. Many varieties of garlic are available, each with its own individual flavor, some with white skins and some with red skins. In the spring, you can also find immature or green garlic. It looks a lot like a leek and its flavor is a little milder and subtler than that of mature garlic. Green garlic tastes great and can be used in all its phases of development. As green garlic starts to mature, the bulb of cloves begins to form, but the skin will still be moist and tender. To prepare green garlic, trim off the root end and remove any damaged or dried outer layers. Use all the white parts of the plant and the tender, light green parts of the stalk. Mature garlic starts coming to market in summer. Look for firm, tight heads of garlic that are hard and heavy. Garlic has a definite season and eventually starts to sprout; the germ inside each clove starts to turn green and grow. When it has been in storage too long, it may become oxidized, turning yellow with an unpleasant odor. If the clove has started to sprout, cut it in half and remove the green germ from the center. Do not use cloves that have begun to turn yellow. I find the easiest way to peel garlic is to press down on the head with the heel of my palm to separate it into individual cloves. Use a sharp paring knife to cut off the tip and butt end of a clove and peel off the skin. I prefer not to smash garlic unless I am going to use it right away. Garlic begins to oxidize immediately and should not remain exposed to the air once it has been smashed or cut. Chopped or pounded garlic can be kept a short time under a bit of oil.

Cauliflower is a bunched mass of flower stems. The mass of flowers is referred to as the curd. Cauliflower is typically white, but there are green and purple varieties as well. The leaves are the best indicator of a cauliflower’s freshness. Look for bright fresh leaves, and heads with tight, brightly colored curd. There should be no brown spots; these are signs of age, as is a coarse-textured curd. Wash the cauliflower well. Trim away any damaged leaves, but leave the nice ones, as they are actually quite tasty.

Roast pork, with its tender interior and crusty juicy exterior, is superb eating. Pork loin can be roasted boneless or as a standing rib roast. When requesting a bone-in roast, ask your butcher to cut it from the rib end and to remove the chine (or spinal) bone. A bone-in roast can be carved into thick chops with rib bones attached or it can be completely boned after roasting and sliced thin. In that case, cut apart the bones and serve them along with the meat.

Braising short ribs on the bone makes one of the most succulent meat dishes there is.

This is a very simple preparation to satisfy that wintertime craving for deep tomato flavor. Exact proportions are unimportant.

A properly seasoned and cooked roast is an elegant and simple dish to prepare, and something very valuable to know how to do confidently for feeding a large gathering of family or friends. With insufficient know-how, roasting meat can be an intimidating prospect, so here are a few basic ground rules to equip you for cooking a superb roast. I know I’m repeating myself here, but the best meat comes from animals that are locally produced, pasture-raised, and organically fed. Factory farms may produce a lot of inexpensive meat, but it is at great cost to the health of the land, the animals, and both the people who eat them and those involved in their production. Not only is the meat from humanely raised animals the tastiest, but your purchase supports those in your community who are tending the land, creating a very rewarding reciprocal relationship. It is really important to seek out markets and butchers who carry this type of meat. Some cuts of meat can be bought with or without the bone. Roasting meat on the bone will produce a better roast; it helps the meat to retain its juices and adds flavor as the roast cooks. Leg of lamb, lamb shoulder roast, rack of lamb, saddle of lamb, bone-in pork loin, pork shoulder roast, and prime rib are some examples of cuts that can be roasted on the bone. For easier carving, the bone may be removed before the meat is taken to the table to be cut. Or slice it in the kitchen and arrange it on a warm platter to pass; that is what I do most often. Seasoning the meat in advance makes a roast more juicy, tender, and tasty. Applying the salt one day ahead of cooking will do, but two or three days ahead is not too far in advance, especially for a large roast. A fresh herb marinade or dry rub is good to put on a few hours ahead or even the night before. It is important to bring the meat to room temperature before you cook it. Meat put to roast when still cold will cook very unevenly. The exterior will be fully cooked before the interior has even had a chance to warm up. Take the meat from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before roasting, or 2 hours for a bone-in roast. A good temperature for roasting is 375°F. Choose a pan just slightly larger than the roast. A rack is not necessary; instead, turn the meat twice while it is cooking. First, after the meat has browned, after 20 to 30 minutes; then, after another 20 minutes, when the underside has browned, turn it again and finish cooking. This allows for even browning and distributes the juices and fat all through the meat as it is cooking. (If the roast is small, brown it in a pan with a little olive oil over high heat before putting it into the oven to roast. It does not need to be turned then, unless it is browning too much on the top.) If you are roasting a rack of lamb, a bone-in pork loin, or a prime rib, lay the meat in the pan, bones down, for a natural rack. These roasts do not need to be turned. How do you know when it is done? I will poke and prod a roast to see if it is done, but I always take the internal temperature to confirm my judgment. An instant-read thermometer can be inserted anywhere in the roast and will immediately reveal the interior temperature. For the most accurate temperature reading, insert the thermometer lengthwise into the thickest part of the roast, parallel to the bone (but not touching it). You want to take the reading at the coldest part of the roast, as that will tell you where it is least done. For lamb I take the meat out at 128°F, for beef at 120 to 125°F, and for pork loin at 135°F. These temperatures are for medium-rare lamb and beef and medium-rare to medium pork. At these temperatures, the meat is still tender, juicy, and full of flavor. If you prefer your meat cooked more, for each increasing level of doneness, take the temperature up ten degrees—138°F for a medium leg of lamb, for example. It is very important to let roasted meat rest before cutting and serving. This allows ...