A Winter Dinner Menu That Brings the Sunshine
It’s always a bit of a thrill delving into cold-weather ingredients, as easy to love as warm-weather ones, and in some ways even more satisfying.
Radicchio and other chicories like ruby Treviso, speckled Castelfranco and pale green curly endive are best grown at cool temperatures. Their slight bitterness pairs and plays well with winter fruit, like pears, apples, persimmons and pomegranates, in a luxurious winter salad.
Recipe: Pear and Radicchio Salad With Blue Cheese
Walnuts, hazelnuts and pecans are welcome in a dish like this. Nut oils contribute a particular aroma and deep flavor that other oils can’t. I recommend keeping a small bottle of walnut oil in the refrigerator, at the ready for winter vinaigrettes. Sweeter vinegars, such as sherry vinegar, balsamic vinegar or Banyuls vinegar can join, too. A bit of honey stirred in can be a nice counterpoint, or sometimes just a thin drizzle of honey over the dressed salad is appropriate.
As for sliced fruit in the salad, firm pears are most satisfying here if they aren’t too ripe. Otherwise, crisp tart apples are always a good choice. Sweet-sour pomegranate arils are wonderful sprinkled over a salad like this. To learn more about how to open a pomegranate, and for great entertainment, consult online how-to videos made in Morocco or the Middle East, where pomegranates are used in great quantities. They are enlightening.
Finally, a salty element complements both the bitter and the sweet. Consider adding sharp cheeses for garnish, like blue-veined cheeses, hard sheep’s milk cheese like pecorino or crumbled feta.
This is the quintessential salad for autumn and winter, haunting and colorful.
Recipe: Meatballs With Lentils and Greens
For a main course, meatballs are a satisfying and hearty option. Italian polpette are large meatballs, about golf ball size or slightly larger (make them smaller and they are polpettine). These are tender, oven-baked and highly seasoned, and can be made with any kind of ground not-too-lean meat. They are especially nice with lamb, but also delicious with beef, pork or the dark meat of poultry; you can also use a mixture of meats.
Smoked paprika, cumin and garlic flavor these meatballs, along with a good pinch of hot red pepper. For the best-tasting result, season the ground meat and let it rest overnight in the refrigerator to let all the spices infuse. Loosely pack the mixture, forming spheres that just hold together, so they will be tender. Then roast them till nicely browned, with juices oozing, cooked through in 15 minutes or so. (They are equally good cooked a day in advance of serving and reheated.)
To accompany the meatballs, rather than a sauce, I suggest a savory combination of lentils and chard, bolstered with leeks and garlic. The lentils and greens can be cooked separately and then stirred together, but I like the presentation better with the lentils below and the beautiful chard on top. (This lentil-greens combo also makes a fine simple meal on its own or tossed with pasta.) If you’d like one more vegetable alongside, I’d suggest roasted parsnips or carrots. Consider steamed rice to accompany, as well.
Recipe: Lemon Curd Roulade
For dessert, I propose a very doable, though somewhat complicated, lemon curd roulade. It’s a bit of a project, best prepared well in advance of dinner, but it’s a stunner — a sponge cake rolled up like a carpet, with a tart lemon custard filling. It may be served unadorned, with a little shower of confectioner’s sugar. But it would be a shame not to give it a coat of softly whipped cream. It is a festive cake, suitable for a fancy tea party, a birthday celebration or a Champagne toast. Each slice is a lemon-yellow spiral.
A roulade can adapt to any season. In spring and summer, it can sport colorful fruit or rose petals. Now, during the winter holidays, it begs to be dressed as a Yule log, surrounded by an evergreen garland and an artfully placed pine cone or two.