The first is Paula Wolfert's "Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking."

Paula's been working on this book for years, and while not a coffee table book, it's absolutely gorgeous. Her idea is that everything, and particularly Mediterranean food, tastes better cooked in clay, and she offers recipes for dishes cooked in any kind of ceramic cooking vessel, whether on the stovetop (Moroccan lamb tagine with winter squash and toasted pine nuts; Roman artichokes braised with garlic and mint) or in the oven (roast pork shoulder with glazed turnips; clafoutis with prunes, Armagnac and candied violets). Flipping through and looking at those photos makes me so hungry. There's one, of a ribollita in the style of Siena, that I can't get out of my mind. It's covered with a layer of thinly sliced, deeply caramelized onions, and I have just the right clay pot for it. When I get around to cooking it (soon, I hope!) I'll report back.

Article published by the Dallas Morning News (www.dallasnews.com) on Oct. 14, 2009