I asked Facebook about Romano’s and the post has going on 200 responses about favorite dishes. Tortellini in Alfredo. Stuffed mushrooms. Veal marsala.

Romano’s specialized in a kind of Italian- American restaurant cuisine that no one eats in Italy but that never goes out of style here. Tonight, there will be a wait at every restaurant in Anchorage that offers garlic bread, wine, and a menu that includes creamy seafood pastas, single-portions of lasagna served under rafts of bubbly cheese, and salads made of crisp iceberg lettuce, wedges of tomato, and a vinaigrette dressing made with dried oregano and wine vinegar.

But, maybe you’d like to have your ’80s romance at home? I offer you the main ingredient for many a Romano’s tribute pasta. Add shrimp, scallops, clams, smoked salmon (a little goes a long way), or top it with a sliced, breaded chicken cutlet. Turn the lights down and the Dean Martin up.

The key with this pretty simple recipe is to watch the heat. Keep it on the low side and pay attention; you don’t want butter or cream to separate. Also, don’t overcook the pasta, and it will not work with pre-grated cheese.

Restaurant-style Alfredo pasta

Ingredients  

• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1½ cups cream
• 1½ cups Parmesan, freshly grated (do not use pre-grated Parmesan), plus additional to serve
• Freshly ground pepper to taste, plus more to serve
• Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
• 1 pound fettuccine, preferably fresh
• Chopped Italian parsley to garnish

Instructions 

1. Put a pan of salted pasta water on to boil. In a large frying pan, melt butter over medium-low heat and sauté the garlic until it’s just fragrant. Pour in the cream and, on medium-low heat, allow it to reach a gentle simmer and then let it reduce for about 5 minutes. Stirring with a wooden spoon, add 1 cup of Parmesan and stir until sauce is thickened and creamy. Remove from the heat. Stir in several cracks of fresh pepper and the nutmeg, if desired. Meanwhile, when the water is boiling, add the pasta and cook according to directions, until it is al dente. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water and drain. Put the sauce back over low heat and toss with the hot pasta and an additional ½ cup of cheese. If the sauce seems thick, add reserved water, a little bit at a time, until the noodles are silky. Serve with a sprinkle of cheese, chopped Italian parsley, and additional cracks of pepper.

This recipe was originally published in Edible Alaska magazine.

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I gave myself a challenge to make a complete summer meal with all Alaska-grown foods and settled on homemade ricotta, made from Alaska Range Dairy whole milk, homemade sourdough bread, and locally grown cherry tomatoes roasted with Cousin Emily’s honey from Twitter Creek Gardens in Homer. I’m a real fan of Alaska Range Dairy milk. It’s Alaska’s only local cow milk, produced on the Plagerman family farm in Delta Junction. It’s not homogenized, so there is a layer of cream on top, and it’s pasteurized more slowly and at a lower temperature than milk from large commercial dairies. The free-ranging cows eat hay, grains, barley, and peas. The milk has a creaminess and distinct funk—perfect for making ricotta. You should be able to find it at your local health food store. In Anchorage, I find it at Blue Market, Johnny’s Produce, and sometimes Sagaya. In the Mat-Su, you can find it at Three Bears, Bushes Bunches, and even Walmart.

Of all the cheese a person might make, ricotta is pretty easy. It’s a process that takes half an hour, and it’s really more about having the right equipment than anything else. You need a heavy-bottomed pan, a thermometer, a strainer, and some cheesecloth. You heat the milk, add acid, in this case lemon, but you can also sub in white vinegar, and then strain out the solids. A lot of liquid whey will be left. You can stir that stuff right into your pancake batter for extra protein. (I am certain there is also a whole vein of homesteader social media videos about using whey.) If you want to add a little more volume to your ricotta, sub in some cream. I also sometimes sub a tablespoon of hot honey into the tomato mixture.

Homemade Ricotta With Honey-Blistered Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 8 cups whole milk or 6 cups milk + 2 cups cream
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• Honey-Blistered Cherry Tomatoes, for topping (recipe follows)
• 4 slices fresh sourdough bread
• Fresh basil leaves, for garnish

For the tomatoes:

• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons local honey
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1½ tablespoons good olive oil

Instructions: 

1. Position a large metal strainer over an empty bowl that will hold at least 8 cups. Line the strainer with at least 4 layers of cheesecloth. In a heavy bottomed pot, heat milk and salt slowly over medium-low heat. Use a thermometer to monitor the milk’s temperature. When it reaches 185° F, add the lemon juice and stir gently for 2 minutes. You should see the milk separating into fat solids and whey liquid.
2. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 20 minutes. Ladle the milk mixture slowly into the cheesecloth, allowing the liquid to drip out. Once you have ladled all of it in, let it drain for at least 20 minutes. Then, if desired, you can wrap the cheesecloth around the curds, twist the top, and gently squeeze to remove a bit more moisture.
3. Once the tomatoes are prepared, spoon the ricotta onto the fresh sourdough bread slices, spoon the tomatoes on top, and drizzle with some sweet tomato liquid. Garnish with fresh basil.

FOR THE HONEY-BLISTERED CHERRY TOMATOES:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Whisk the salt into the honey. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, on a prepared baking sheet. Drizzle half the honey over the tomatoes. Bake for 25–30 minutes, until soft, dried a bit, and slightly scorched on the edges. Remove to a bowl. Drizzle in the rest of the honey and the oil.

This recipe was originally published in Edible Alaska magazine.

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I happen to have just such a muffin recipe in my back pocket. I never make it totally the same and tend to riff. You can too. Sometimes I add lemon zest, sometimes I skip. Sometimes I add just a tiny drop of almond extract and throw some slivered almonds in the topping. I often reduce the sugar to 2/3 cup when I use store-bought berries, which tend to be less tart. And, I use whatever dairy I have on hand for the liquid, including heavy cream, buttermilk or even plain yogurt or sour cream.

For a tidy look, when I’m using store-bought berries, I toss them in a little bit of the dry ingredients. This keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin cup and eases their tendency to bleed juices. It’s far harder to control those things with wild blueberries, but I still do the toss. Frozen blueberries should be added when they are thawed. Those are going to turn a muffin blue no matter what, but there’s something kind of nice about that too.

Essential Alaska blueberry muffins

Makes 12

Ingredients

For the muffins:

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk (can substitute buttermilk or sour cream)

1/2 cup (one cube) salted butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups fresh blueberries

For the topping:

1/4 cups flour

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cold salted butter

Method: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-muffin pan with paper muffin cups. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pull out a 1/4 cup of that dry mixture and set it aside in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, melted butter, milk, lemon zest and vanilla. Pour that mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined into a batter. In the bowl with the 1/4 cup of dry ingredients, gently toss the blueberries until they’re floured. Fold the blueberries into the batter. Now make the topping. Combine all the dry topping ingredients in a bowl. Using your hand, work the butter into the dry ingredients until it is broken down to balls slightly smaller than a pea. Using a cookie scoop or spoon, fill each muffin cup with 4 tablespoons of batter. Sprinkle each with a little less than a tablespoon of the topping. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top of a muffin springs back when you press it. Serve warm with butter.

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This sauce inspired me to think about making a special Sunday dinner extra-green lasagna with some of the greenest things I could find at the grocery store: leeks, baby asparagus and green peas. The result is a verdant take on classic “lasagna in bianca” or white lasagna, as beautiful and seasonal as it is delicious. I call it Green Queen lasagna because it feels very fancy.

This recipe has a number of components — green sauce, bechamel and sauteed spring vegetables — but I found making it went faster than I expected, thanks in part to using no-boil noodles. You can make the pesto ahead of time, like when you have some extra Costco spinach you need to use, and store it for a few days in the fridge. I wouldn’t freeze to preserve the green color. I used regular grated mozzarella, but you can also use torn fresh mozzarella. In that case, I would use a light hand with it because it can get heavy. When I make it again, I may lay basil leaves on top for one more touch of spring.

Green Queen Spring Lasagna

3 cups baby spinach, loosely packed

2 cups basil leaves, loosely packed

1/2 cup olive oil

1 large clove of garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons white miso

Juice and zest of one lemon

One 9-ounce box oven ready lasagna noodles

2 tablespoons butter

1 large leek, white part only, thinly sliced

1 bunch thin asparagus, bottoms removed, diced in 1/2-inch pieces

1 cup frozen peas

Salt and pepper

2 cups whole milk

1 stick or 1/2 cup salted butter

2 1/4 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

A pinch of nutmeg

1 15-ounce container whole milk ricotta

1 egg

4 cups grated mozzarella

1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Make the green sauce. In a powerful blender like a Vitamix or a food processor, add spinach, basil, olive oil, miso and lemon zest and juice. Blend on high until all the ingredients are fully broken down into a smooth, very green, concentrated sauce, that’s sort of a smoothie texture. Set aside.

3. Make bechamel. Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Sprinkle flour over it and then whisk a minute or two until it smells nutty. Slowly whisk in the milk. While whisking, bring to a gentle simmer until the sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat and whisk in salt and nutmeg. Set aside.

4. Make the fillings. Heat a large pan over medium heat and melt the butter. Once it’s melted, add leeks. Saute until softened, add asparagus and peas. Saute until the peas have defrosted and the asparagus is a brighter green, about 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat. In a small bowl, combine ricotta with one egg and two thirds of the green sauce.

5. Assemble the lasagna. Butter a 13-by-9-inch lasagna pan. Drizzle 2 or 3 tablespoons of bechamel in the bottom. Lay three noodle sheets in the pan, spread with 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, 1/3 of the vegetable mixture, about 1/3 cup of bechamel and about 1/3 cup of mozzarella. Continue the layers until you get to the last set of noodles. Spread these with the remaining green sauce, pour remaining bechamel over the top, sprinkle with about 1/2 cup mozzarella and the parmesan. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15 more minutes, until the top is browned and the sides are bubbly.

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The main trick is trying not to overcook the cauliflower. Depending on the size of your florets, this might require a little trial and error. I think it’s better to err on the underdone side. I also recommend doubling this recipe if you plan to serve it as a side with a meal. I love Frank’s RedHot, but some in the family are sensitive about heat. In this case, I’ve reduced the hot sauce-to-butter ratio for a milder version and recommended a healthy serving of cooling ranch. If you’re good with an air fryer, this recipe would be easy to adapt.

Buffalo Cauliflower

Makes four snack-sized servings

1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets

1/2 cup white flour

1 cup water

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoons garlic salt

1/2 cup Frank’s or other Buffalo-style hot sauce

3 tablespoons melted butter

Ranch or blue cheese dressing (Here’s my go-to homemade ranch recipe)

Celery and carrot sticks to garnish

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. In a bowl large enough to hold the cauliflower, whisk together the flour, water, paprika and garlic salt. Toss the cauliflower in the batter and place the pieces on the sheet pan, giving each plenty of room. Bake for 15 minutes. While those are roasting, make the sauce by combining hot sauce and melted butter in a medium bowl. After 15 minutes, the cauliflower pieces should be softened but still a little toothsome and the batter should be dry and set. Remove them from the pan and toss them gently in the sauce. Discard the parchment on the pan and replace it with a fresh piece. Pull each of the florets out of the sauce and place it back on the pan. Roast for another 5 to 8 minutes, until the sauce is set and bubbling around the edges. Serve immediately with dressing and carrot and celery sticks.

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Because you cut the meat into chunks before cooking, it tends to braise a little faster than a regular pot roast. You can do this recipe in a slow cooker, transferring it from the pot to the cooker and going for 6 hours on high. The only trick, really, is getting the right gochujang. I like the kind made by O’Food that comes in a box with a gold lid, which you can for sure get at Sagaya and New Central Market. Whatever you get, make sure you don’t get the kind that says “spicy,” “medium hot” or “very hot.” Those might be good, if you like a kick, but won’t give you the warm, savory sweetness that comes with regular gochujang and makes this recipe totally fine for diners at your table who don’t like spicy food.

It’s also basically essential to serve this roast with kimchi, which adds a lovely acidic punch that perfectly complements the sweet, soft, braised beef. I also like to serve with fluffy white rice. If you’re not a kimchi person, go for pickled Korean vegetables, called banchan, that you can buy deli-style at New Central Market or order from most Korean restaurants. I like to do both.

Gochujang Pot Roast

Ingredients:

1 approximately 5-pound chuck roast, cut into six chunks

1 tablespoon neutral oil

1 shallot, sliced

1 yellow onion, sliced

4 large cloves of garlic, grated

1 1/2 tablespoons ginger, grated

2 1/2 tablespoons gochujang paste — the regular, not the “spicy” variety

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 cups beef stock

Chopped scallions, cilantro, warm rice and kimchi to serve.

Method: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Brown the meat on all sides, working in batches if necessary. Remove the browned meat from the pan and set aside. Turn the heat down to medium, add the shallot and onion, and saute until soft, about five minutes. Add grated garlic, ginger, gochujang, fry for a minute or two. Add brown sugar, soy sauce and beef stock. Return the meat to the pot, put the lid on and place in the oven. Cook for two hours, flipping the meat over halfway through. Once the meat is tender, remove it from the liquid. Skim the fat from the liquid and then put the pan over medium heat to simmer and reduce for about 10 minutes. Serve with warm short-grain white rice and kimchi, and garnish with thin-sliced scallions and cilantro.

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Alaskans were disproportionately reliant on canned fruit, and canned pineapple was one of the first fruits widely available here. Pineapple cakes can be found in Alaska’s community and church cookbooks going back almost 100 years. Flash forward to the 1970s, when cake-mix cakes had totally taken over cookbooks, and “poke cakes” became a common thing. These were sheet cakes, pierced with holes, soaked in Jell-O, pudding or condensed milk and loaded with toppings, including Cool Whip and crumbled candy bars. This led to a bunch of very indulgent cakes jokingly named “Better Than Sex” or “BTS” cakes. Some were named more specifically for hunky actors like Robert Redford and Tom Selleck, who played a charming, mustachioed private investigator on the show “Magnum, P.I.,” set in Oahu. I picked this cake to adapt because it combined both our long tradition of pineapple cakes and the 1970s cake mix craze. And it involves maraschino cherries, which I get nostalgic about because I grew up eating them in canned fruit cocktail, also a longtime Alaska staple.

This recipe is written for a regular coconut cake mix, but I like the Dolly Parton mix the best — it calls for more eggs and butter instead of oil. Use it if you can find it! It’s usually at Walmart. I toned down this recipe a bit, removing a layer of instant vanilla pudding that some versions call for. I also used condensed coconut milk instead of condensed milk, which has a deeper flavor, and I reduced the sugar. I thought about Tom Selleck’s mustache the whole time.

Better Than Tom Selleck Cake

Ingredients:

1 package coconut cake mix

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup water

1 14-ounce can condensed coconut milk, divided

1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup shredded coconut

Maraschino cherries for serving, optional

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 13-by-9-inch pan with cooking spray. Prepare cake mix, blending it with eggs, oil and water. Pour into the pan and bake according to package directions. Meanwhile, drain crushed pineapple well, reserving its juice. Whisk together the pineapple juice and half the condensed coconut milk. When the cake is done, but still hot, poke it all over with a fork and pour the pineapple/condensed milk mixture over it, allowing it to absorb. While the cake is cooling to room temperature, whip the cream and other half of the condensed coconut milk until spreadable. Fold in the pineapple solids. Spread the cooled cake with the whipped cream-pineapple topping. Sprinkle with the shredded coconut. Refrigerate for an hour before serving. If desired, decorate each piece with a cherry.

(This recipe was adapted from “Let them Eat: Cold War Anxieties, Cake Mix, and Alaska Women’s Inner Lives,” a recipe zine produced by the Anchorage Museum.)

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A very Alaska-feeling cousin of classic holiday beef Wellington, our salmon Wellington is a little lighter and brighter, but just as gorgeous and festive. It’s perfect for the center of a holiday table, especially if there are pescatarians coming for dinner.

The coolest thing about this recipe: It’s pretty simple and easy. Our frozen salmon is portioned already, so we made two smaller Wellingtons, but this recipe works just fine with one fat fillet. We painted the fish with Dijon and butter and then layered it in pastry with a rich, savory mixture of cream cheese, spinach and lemon zest. A little brush of egg yolk made it extra golden.

Because it’s so rich, the per-person portion is a little smaller than you might serve if you were grilling salmon. One hack for saving time on defrosting the pastry is to look for fresh pastry dough in the refrigerated section, which is sometimes available during the holidays. I found mine at Walmart. Instead of Tabasco, you might also try Barnacle’s Bullwhip Hot Sauce.

Salmon Wellington

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

About 24 to 28 ounces filleted salmon, skin and bones removed

1 1/2 tablespoons very soft + 1 tablespoon room temperature salted butter

1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cracks black pepper

1 small white onion, finely chopped, no more than 1 1/4 cups

2 cloves finely chopped garlic

1 1/2 cups cups frozen spinach, thawed

1 cup cream cheese, softened

Zest of one lemon

Two dashes of Tabasco sauce

1 13-ounce sheet puff pastry; if frozen, it should be fully thawed

One egg yolk, beaten

Method: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the soft butter, mustard, salt and pepper, stirring until combined. Set aside. In a frying pan over medium heat, melt the rest of the butter and saute the onion until it begins to soften. Add garlic and saute until the onion is transparent and very soft. Turn off the heat, stir in spinach, cream cheese, zest and Tabasco until well combined. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Prep the pastry. Lay the pastry sheet on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper or a silpat and roll it out so it’s about a quarter-inch thick. If you are using a full fillet, you will want to work with the whole or most of the piece.

If you are using two pieces of salmon, you’ll want to cut the pastry into two rectangles. To assemble Wellington, if you are using two pieces of fish, spread 1/3 to 1/2 cup of spinach mixture in the center of the rectangle of pastry, shaping it roughly to match the contours of your fish. Use more if you are doing a full fillet. Paint one side of the fish with the Dijon mixture and then lay it Dijon side down atop the spinach layer. Now paint the other side of the fish with Dijon mixture and cover with 1/3 cup layer of the spinach mixture.

Wrap the fish in the pastry dough the way you might wrap a burrito, folding in the narrower top and the bottom and then wrapping the sides into the center. Pinch the edges together and then carefully flip the pastry-wrapped fish over so that the seam is down. Crimp the edges, if desired, and decorate with a fish scale pattern, gently pressing the edge of a measuring spoon into the dough. Repeat with a second piece of salmon, if you are using two pieces. Bake for 30 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and browned. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

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That vintage feel inspired this canned tart cherry pie, which I’ve flavored as my grandmother and mother did, using cherry kirsch or kirschwasser, an old-timey liquor of German origin. If you don’t mess with alcohol, a quarter teaspoon of almond extract will also be just fine. Or you can use both for a little more complex flavor. I also use one of my favorite crust recipes, which replaces the water with ice-cold vodka. The alcohol evaporates totally, leading to a loftier pastry. One last tip: be careful with the cherries. The goal is to fold them into the gel at the end and leave them mostly whole. They are very delicate. I change up my crust design every time, using a pizza cutter and ruler to cut the dough if I want to weave it into a lattice. If you want inspiration for that, let the internet be your guide.

Vintage tart cherry pie

Makes one 9-inch pie

For the crust:

1 cup (two sticks) salted cold butter

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided

3 tablespoons sugar, divided.

3 to 4 tablespoons ice-cold vodka

For the filling:

3 14.5-ounce cans tart cherries in water

1 cup granulated sugar

Juice of one half a lemon, about 1.5 tablespoons

1 tablespoon cherry kirsch (you can also sub or add in 1/4 teaspoon almond extract)

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons salted butter

One egg, beaten

Sugar for sprinkling over the top

Method:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Make the crusts one at the time. Using a food processor, process one stick of butter with one cup of flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar until it forms a meal. With the blade running, drizzle cold vodka in until it just begins to coalesce into a ball. Pull it out of the bowl of the food processor, press into a disc, wrap it in parchment and put it in the fridge. Repeat. If you refrigerate the pie dough for more than 15 or 20 minutes, you’ll need to let it soften up a little on the counter before you roll it.

Next, make the filling. Drain the cherries, reserving the liquid. Place 1/2 cup of that liquid in a separate, lidded jar. In a sauce pan, combine the remaining liquid, sugar, cinnamon and kirsch or extract over medium heat, bring it to a boil and stir until the sugar dissolves and it begins to simmer. Meanwhile, add the cornstarch to the jar of juice, cover and shake well. Pour the cornstarch slurry into the boiling mixture, turn down the heat and and whisk until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat, fold in the cherries and add lemon. Stir in the butter until it melts. Let it cool to room temperature while you roll out the pie dough. Warm filling will really mess with a lattice crust, in particular.

Ready a 9-inch pie pan. With a floured rolling pin, roll out one disc of dough several inches larger than the diameter of the pan and gently lift and press it in place. Fill it with the cherry filling. Roll the second disc to roughly the same size. If you choose to make a lattice top, I recommend searching for a video. I sort of like to freehand it, but for a tidier look, build the crust on parchment and lift it onto the pie. Pinch the edges all the way around and crimp them. Brush the pie with beaten egg. Place on a sheet pan to catch any extra filling and bake for 20 minutes, before turning 180 degrees, and, if it’s getting too brown, tenting it gently with foil. Bake for another 20 minutes, or until you can see the cherry filling bubbling around the edges. Allow to cool completely before cutting.

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Say what you want about that, but those earthy, buttery caramelized onions, the broth-soaked bread and that delicious toasted cheese cemented a life-long soup love. Recently, after I stumbled on an old Harry’s menu, I went on a re-creation mission.

The first order of business was to collect eight broiler-safe ceramic soup bowls, the kind with the little handles, which was actually pretty easy at Goodwill. This is, of course, optional, as you probably have something in your cabinet that can stand the broiler, but it was just a festive touch. Next, because it’s peak farmers market season, I bought some fresh onions. Then I set about making soup.

The main labor of French onion soup is caramelizing the onions in butter. The process takes about an hour over low heat. I think the best flavor comes from mixing a couple types. After that, you add wine and sherry. You can add dry white or red wine but the menu description from Harry’s says red. Then you add beef broth and, because I like it, I add rosemary. I am not sure about how authentically Harry’s that is. At this point the soup can be taken from the heat and refrigerated for a few days or even frozen for a few months. I used sturdy, bakery-made French bread — note: the super light grocery store stuff will not hold up in this recipe — but you can also use a hearty sourdough, which is sometimes easier to find. Harry’s soup used a mix of Gruyere and Parmesan, but lots of recipes use Gruyere only. I think the best price you’ll find on a block of Gruyere is at Walmart. And you can, if you want to be really true to Harry’s form, finish it with some chives.

Harry’s Restaurant tribute French onion soup

Serves 8

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter

A mix of 3-4 large yellow, white or sweet onions, thinly sliced into half-moons

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup sherry

3/4 cups dry red wine

8 cups beef broth

2 sprigs fresh rosemary (optional)

8 1/2-inch slices good quality French or sourdough bread

1 1/2 cups grated Gruyere cheese

1/2 cup grated or micro-planed Parmesan cheese

Chopped herbs, like thyme, rosemary or chives, to garnish

Method: Over medium heat, melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottom 10- or 12-cup Dutch oven or soup pot. Turn the heat to medium low, add onions and sauté until they are softened and translucent, about 10 minutes. Turn the heat lower and carmelize, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes to an hour. If the onions are sticking or appear to be browning unevenly, splash a little bit of wine, stock or water in the pan and scrape the bottom. When the onions are done, they should be a rich brown and somewhat jammy. Add sea salt and pepper to taste. Now add the wine and sherry and bring to a bubble. Add broth and whole rosemary sprigs, bring to a simmer and allow to cook for 25 minutes. Remove the rosemary and remove from heat. You can stop at this point and refrigerate the soup, covered, if you’re making it ahead. About 15 minutes before you’re ready to serve, gently begin warming the broth over low heat, position your oven rack 6 to 8 inches from the heating element and preheat the broiler. Once the soup is warm, ladle it into oven-safe bowls. Place a piece of sourdough in each bowl and cover completely with cheeses. Place the bowls on a sheet pan — you may have to work in batches — and slide under the broiler, watching carefully, for 2 to 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown. Garnish with herbs or chives. Serve immediately.

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