People are often daunted when they see anchovies in a recipe. I’ve written a primer to help the anchovy-curious (and perhaps even anchovy-averse) to feel comfortable selecting, buying and using them.  Among the types of anchovies I recommend are whole salted anchovies. They keep fresh in the refrigerator for a long time. Using whole salted anchovies is easy.  But each time you use them, you must remove the surface salt and clean them. When you

At Restaurant du Village, we served a dish called Pasta à la Provençal. (It was our version of the Italian harlot’s classic, Pasta Puttanesca.) We made large vats of the sauce to serve over spaghetti. My favorite step was smelling the anchovies melting into the garlic in that giant pot. I could not resist dragging a slice of bread through that fragrant paste. Anchovies are the character actors that make a dish a hit. The

Soups rarely require a recipe in our house.  Seat-of-the-pants soup I call it. For the most part, I just chop up a mirepoix.  I sauté it until the vegetables are slightly limp or darker brown for more flavor. It depends on what I’m going to add to the pot. Whatever scraps of fish, meat or poultry I find get added along with more vegetables if we have them and some water.  Or stock. The ingredients

Much of what we cook during the short cold days of winter start with mirepoix – a mastermind of flavor. It’s the base mixture of carrots, celery and onions used to make soups and stews. Knowing how to make it and cook it will exponentially improve your cooking. It’s simple and versatile too. Mirepoix consists of diced carrot, celery and onion. It is sautéed briefly or left to caramelize before liquid is added. Cook it

Basic Sugar Syrup is used in so many recipes I think it merits a spot of its own. Use it to sweeten iced coffee or tea or in cocktails. Flavored with a little Cointreau or cognac, it moistens cake layers before filling. And it is an essential ingredient in frozen icy treats such as granita, pictured here, or sorbet. Ingredient Note – Sugar Sugar is what’s known as a “technical food.” This means that it