Everything But The...Ruffoni Gratin Pan!

I have to confess that I'm cheating on Baby with an Italian: not just any Italian mind you, but the handsomely turned out, absolutely gorgeous hammered copper Italian Ruffoni Gratin Pan with brass acorn and oak leaf embellishments. We met at Williams-Sonoma several months ago and it was, at least for me, love at first sight. When at last I finally was able to take this beauty home, I couldn't wait to make wild, passionate Swiss Chard Gratin with it.

Swiss Chard Gratin

Adapted from Saveur, #88, November 2005

Any flamboyant sort of chard can be separated into two parts: the abundant leaves and the considerable stalks.

Start with the stalks: get about a pound of Swiss Chard (green, red, or rainbow), trim the ends and remove the stalks, cutting them into 3-inch pieces and boiling for a few minutes in a reliable pot with salted water and a few bay leaves. Drain into a colander.

Now, for the leafy greens: roll them up and cut thinly on the bias to make a chiffonade. Wilt in a large pan with at least two tablespoons olive oil and minced garlic. Add cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper to taste. With a slotted spoon, place into colander as well.

To make the bechamel sauce: in a heavy saucepan, stir a quarter cup flour into a melted stick of butter over a medium-low flame. Stir constantly for three minutes and increase heat to medium, whisking in two cups of cold milk, a little at a time to make a fine paste. Add salt! Pepper! And most importantly a lot of grated nutmeg! Whisk continually for 15 minutes and you'll have a greatly thickened, most virtuous sauce.

Put your chard leaves and stems into the gratin pan, cover with the bechamel sauce, add even more nutmeg, a whole lot of grated gruyere cheese and place in a 400 degree preheated oven. Bake until shimmering perfection is achieved, roughly 25 minutes.

Everything But The...All-Clad Reduction Pan!

Williams-Sonoma is my Tiffany's. You know, when in Breakfast At Tiffany's, Holly Golightly blissfully asserts that nothing bad could ever happen there, and that they've got the most charming employees, etc.? That's how I feel when I enter Williams-Sonoma. I become sorta fuzzy all over and exhilarated at the same time by being around all the pots and pans and dinnerware. I lovingly stare at the Breville kitchen equipment and Japanese knives crying out to slice and dice a tomato with the precision of a culinary Ninja on olive wood cutting boards, and oh! something, anything from the heartbreakingly gorgeous, prohibitively priced Ruffoni hammered stainless steel collection wrought from workshops in Alpine Italy, and yes! the sturdy Mauviel copper pots, all the while musing that, "One day...this...will be mine!" Sometimes I do go a little overboard when I find a brilliant set of glasses, a particular table cloth or dish towels, herb snippers, or a fine mesh sieve that I must have. I wait though. At least a day. Maybe longer. I feel that if I make the trek back then it truly must be something I really want. I do that with most things when shopping. My credit card company loves me.

As you go along in life, whatever your passion, one of the great passages it seems to me is the importance found in replacing old, merely functional items in your kitchen or wherever, with solid, better quality items that will last forever, things that are more satisfying to use. For me, I started chucking out stuff sometime in my 20's and over the years, it's all been replaced, one Le Creuset pot, All-Clad pan or Henckels knife at a time.

The All-Clad Reduction Pan is a gem. Baby makes his stock, I make my reductions. This pan actually assists with both in the most marvelous, stainless-steel way: measure marks are etched inside the pan in cups and liters! When a recipe calls for a sauce or a stock to be reduced to say, one cup, just read between the lines.