Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking by Paula Wolfert. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
Monday, September 6, 2010

Paula Wolfert is the undisputed “queen of Mediterranean cooking”.  She is one of America’s premier food writers, and has been a role model of mine since I cooked from her first book, Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, originally published in 1973, and inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame by the James Beard Association in 2008. Over the ensuing years Paula has written for some of America’s most prestigious publications, and has published other cookbooks, including the critically acclaimed The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen and The Cooking of Southwest France.  Paula has won just about every award that could be bestowed on a food writer in this country. 

A self-confessed clay pot “junkie”, Paula wrote Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking: Traditional and Modern Recipes to Savor and Share to extol the virtues of cooking with clay pots. “Most food – and Mediterranean food in particular – tastes better cooked in clay.  Ever since I started studying Mediterranean cuisines fifty years ago, I heard cooks from the south of France to Morocco sing the praises of clay pots and how they enhanced the local food” Wolfert writes in the book’s introduction.  If you would tend to shy away from this book because you don’t know anything about clay pots, or which one to use for what dish – no need to worry.  Paula provides “A Clay Pot Primer” in the book that covers everything you need to know about clay pots and provides a list of the half dozen styles of pots she uses most often, although there are innumerable specialized clay pots in the world.

Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking is an incredibly comprehensive book comprised of ten chapters which cover everything - from First Courses; Soups; Fish and Shellfish; Chicken, Duck, and Other Poultry; Meats; Pasta and Grains; Vegetables and Beans; Savory Pies and Breads; Eggs and Dairy Dishes - to Desserts.  The book features full-page photos of eighteen dishes prepared in a variety of Paula’s gorgeous personal collection of clay pots.

Woven throughout the book are stories from Wolfert’s extensive travels and studies in the Mediterranean, as well as tales from local cooks and famous chefs she met along the road. But, the best part, of course, are the great recipes, which include such delights as Orange-Glazed Pork Belly; Cazuela Duck Confit with a Ragout of Green Lentilles du Puy; Stuffed Breast of Lamb Aegean Style; and her marvelous Potato Gnocchi, for which she’s created a fool-proof 10-step process that results in an ethereal dish of gnocchi.  There are many dishes which are baked in the classic Romertopf clay baker, such as Romertopf Clay-Baked Chicken Stuffed with Serrano Ham and Olives, which we prepared and savored to the last bite. 

Wolfert’s recipes are clear, concise, and easy to follow.  They are useable by cooks on all levels of expertise – and they work flawlessly.  This is a cookbook author that tests her recipes exhaustively, straightening out the kinks and removing confusing or incomplete instructions.  You’ll have no fear of failure with a recipe written by Paul Wolfert! 

Since I often like a non-meat entrée for dinner I was most anxious to try the Tian of Eggplant, Tomato, and Fresh Cheese, which is served at room temperature.  It was stellar even in chilly weather, using out of season vegetables from the supermarket.  It will be a dish I will prepare often in the warmer months using fresh, seasonal vegetables from the Farmer’s Market for casual meals on the porch.

Tian of Eggplant, Tomato and Fresh Cheese
Re-printed with permission from Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking
By Paula Wolfert. John Wiley and Sons, 2009.

Serves 4 to 5.

Here is a personal favorite, a tian of ripe summer vegetables at their peak – layers of small heirloom tomatoes, sweet bulb onions, thin-skinned eggplant, and fresh salty cheese such as ricotta or chèvre.  I like to prepare this tian in the morning and serve it no sooner than 6 hours after it has emerged from the oven, allowing time for the flavors to meld.  It should be left at room temperature; refrigeration diminishes the tate.

My method of setting the tian in a preheated clay-lined oven and then, at the appropriate time, turning the oven off and allowing the tian to set for an addition thrity minutes in the receding heat simulates the way food cooks in a traditional wood-burning oven.  That is, first the food is cooked in the hottest part over the wood fire; then tian is moved to the coolest part of the oven to finish the development of its topping.

Preferred Clay Pot: A 9- or 10-inch round earthenware baking dish or pie dish.
Suggested Clay Environment: Double slabs of pizza stones or food-safe quarry tiles set on the upper and lower oven racks.

1-1/2 pounds long, slender eggplants
Coarse salt
6 small ripe tomatoes (about 1-1/2 pounds)
½ cup soft cheese, such as ricotta or fresh goat cheese, at room temperature
1-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 bay leaf
2 fresh thyme sprigs
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
½ cup chopped spring bulb onion, green or bunching onion, or fat scallions
2 garlic cloves, peeled and bruised
1-1/2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated (1/3 cup)
2 pinches of sugar

1. Trim and peel the eggplants. Cut lengthwise into slices about ½-inch thick.  Sprinkle both sides with salt and drain in a colander for 30 minutes.  Rinse the eggplant slices and pat dry.
2. Use a serrated swivel-bladed vegetable peeler to skin the tomatoes or dip them briefly in a pot of boiling water and slip off the skins.  Slice the tomatoes and spread them out on paper towels.  Dust lightly with coarse salt.
3. In a mixing bowl, mash the soft cheese with the flour and milk until smooth.  Beat in the egg. Season with ½ teaspoon salt, the pepper, and the nutmeg.  Set the cheese mixture aside.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a medium conventional skillet.  Add the bay leaf, thyme, parsley, spring bulb onion, and one of the garlic cloves.  Cook over medium-low heat until the onion is soft and golden, about 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat and discard the bay leaf.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Set a ridged grill pan over medium-high heat; lightly brush with olive oil.  When the pan is hot, grill the eggplant, in batches as necessary, turning once, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes on each side.
6. Rub the earthenware baking dish with the second garlic clove and brush with oil.  Layer about half of the eggplant slices over the bottom.  Combine the onion and cheese mixture and spread on top.  Cover with a layer of half of the tomatoes.  Add another layer of eggplant slices, sprinkle with the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and top with the remaining tomato slices.  Sprinkle the sugar and remaining oil on top and bake for 1 hour.
7. Turn off the heat and leave the tian in the oven another 30 to 45 minutes, or until the tomatoes acquire a lovely charred edge but remain shiny on top.  Serve directly from the dish at room temperature.  Do not refrigerate.

Top

Back