A grand trifle, a lesson in meat, creams with Latin culture, and a good wine with a gray name - includes recipes

Sunset, June, 1995 by Jerry Anne Di Vecchio

One warm June evening in Bologna, I was dining alone in a legendary restaurant. The host, attentive to the comfort of his guests, sat down to chat with me. As a result, I came away with the recipe for this marvelous dessert. It resembles a trifle, but outdoes the best of them. And the recipe is so simple, it stuck in my head - along with other pleasant memories.

In the beginning, I had to make my own mascarpone. Now you can buy it - or use creme fraiche, which works as well. And I have discovered that whipping cream does the job, too. I used to bake the pound cake, but it's much quicker to buy it fresh or frozen, and the results don't suffer.

The essence of this dessert - excellent even without the berries piled on top - is a combination of foams. (For an egg-safe variation, omit the eggs and sugar and whip up 1 package [4.4 oz.] pavlova meringue mix with sugar and water as directed; do not bake.) The foams, folded gently together, are sandwiched between cake slices saturated with the liqueur or juice of your choice. But if, like me, you can't decide which choice is ideal, just keep experimenting. It's a delicious task.

BACK TO BASICS

Butterfly meats for speed

A boned and butterflied leg of lamb is a great barbecue favorite, but it's not the only meat for butterflying. In the August 1994 Food Guide (page 110), I butterflied a beef rib-eye roast to make a quick-cooking steak. And any hunk of boneless meat, from beef or pork roasts to a turkey breast, can be cut that way, too. Occasionally, there's a gasp from kitchen onlookers when I'm seen taking a knife to a gorgeous roast, laying it out flat with long cuts. But as I spread the cuts open to make the piece of meat wider and thinner, the benefit of such boldness is evident. Butterflying not only creates more area for sauces and marinades to stick to the meat, but also creates more surface to brown - and the thinner meat cooks much, much faster.

Another advantage is that one big piece of meat is easier to manage on the grill than many little ones.

Butterflying sounds more complicated than it is. These step-by-step illustrations show you where to make butterflying cuts in a leg of lamb; a boned roast such as beef rib-eye, cross-rib, tenderloin, or New York strip, or a boned pork loin or tenderloin; and even a whole or half turkey breast.

To butterfly: The cut doesn't have to follow the grain of the meat (on a steak or chop, make the cut horizontally). Each cut should be made through the middle of a thick part of meat (be careful not to cut the piece apart). Push the cuts open and down to flatten the meat. Where you want the meat thinner, repeat the step, always dividing the thick parts equally. For easy handling on the grill, I usually run a couple of metal skewers parallel through the longest dimension of the meat.

GREAT INGREDIENT

Nice rice vinegar

Rice vinegar, plain or seasoned (salt and sugar added), has become a staple in my kitchen. Most rice vinegars have Japanese names, but many are made here and they're in most supermarkets. A characteristic common to all rice vinegars is a mild, slightly sweet flavor. Sugar makes the seasoned version even smoother. You know the taste if you've ever eaten sushi - rice vinegar gives the rice that subtle and distinctive tang.

Wine lovers, especially, have come to appreciate rice vinegar in salad dressings because it does not have the sharp acetic aroma present in wine, cider, and white distilled vinegars.

But my pleasure in rice vinegar goes beyond sushi and green salads. It has become one of my favorite no-fat seasonings.

A good splash of rice vinegar with some minced fresh ginger makes a baked potato or sweet potato taste even better than butter does. I also brush vinegar on ears of corn and sprinkle them with salt.

And I actually yearn for this no-fat rice vinegar salad dressing on all kinds of other foods - cold asparagus, shrimp and grapefruit, Belgian endive, sliced pears, sliced tomatoes, celery root, crab, tuna, and, yes, potatoes. Once made, the dressing can be chilled indefinitely.

Rice vinegar dressing. Mix rice vinegar (about 1/4 cup) with enough fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla) or soy sauce (1 to 2 tablespoons) to make it a little salty, enough sugar (2 to 3 teaspoons) so it no longer stings your tongue, and a generous sprinkling of minced fresh ginger (at least 1 tablespoon). Makes about 1/3 cup.

Per tablespoon: 16 cal. (0 percent from fat); 0.5 g protein; 0 g fat; 2.9 g carbo.; 119 mg sodium; 0 mg chol.

Seasoned rice vinegar, with its sweet finish, makes this really hot mustard that goes extremely well with barbecued meats - butterflied, perhaps.

Cook the mustard to get rid of the raw taste and texture - it's easy in the microwave.

Sweet-hot rice vinegar mustard. In a glass measuring cup, mix cup dry mustard, 2 tablespoons water, and 1 tablespoon honey. Let stand 10 minutes to get rid of the mustard's natural bitterness. Stir in 3 to 4 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar and cook on high (100 percent) in a microwave oven until mixture bubbles at edges, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes; stir several times. Serve warm or cool. Store airtight up to 5 days and stir before using. Makes 1/3 cup.