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Serves 4

Gnocchi

¾ cup (3½ ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Grated zest of 1 lemon

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup whole-milk ricotta, drained

1 large egg

Sauce

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

12 medium morels, soaked briefly in salted water, rinsed, and gently patted dry

½ shallot, thinly sliced

Kosher salt

1 garlic clove, thinly sliced

12 fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

Juice of 1 lemon

½ cup shelled fresh peas

⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese

For the gnocchi dough, combine the flour, Parmesan, lemon zest, and salt in a bowl. Add the ricotta and egg. Combine well with a wooden spoon or your fingers until the dough just comes together, taking care not to overwork, which could cause the dough to toughen.

Scrape the dough onto a well-floured work surface and pat into a rough square. Cut the dough into thirds using a bench scraper or knife. Gently roll each piece into foot-long ropes, about an inch in diameter, flouring as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface. Place the dough ropes onto a lightly floured plate or rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate, uncovered, for 5 minutes and up to 2 hours.

After the dough has rested, return the ropes to a floured surface. Cut each rope into ½-inch pieces with a bench scraper or knife and set aside while you start the sauce.

Put 4 tablespoons of the butter in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the butter foams, add the morels and sauté until they begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the shallot and sauté, seasoning with a pinch of salt. Add the garlic and parsley, then reduce the heat to medium. Add the lemon juice and peas, sautéing just until the peas brighten in color. Turn off the heat and set aside while you sauté the gnocchi.

Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat in a sauté pan large enough to accommodate all of the gnocchi without crowding. When the butter becomes brown and fragrant, add the gnocchi to the pan and cook, turning as necessary, until they’re browned and crisp on all sides, 5 or 6 minutes. Pour in the morel and pea sauce, turning to coat. Add the remaining tablespoon butter, the Parmesan, and 2 tablespoons of water while turning the gnocchi. Allow the sauce ingredients to emulsify and form a silken coating, 1 to 2 minutes. Spoon the gnocchi and sauce into shallow bowls and serve immediately.

LOLA BACON

LOLITA PANCETTA

LAMB BRESAOLA

PORK SAUSAGE

VEAL SAUSAGE

LAMB SAUSAGE

POACHED FOIE GRAS BRATWURST

DUCK CONFIT

While it’s enjoying something of a renaissance in America, especially among restaurant chefs, charcuterie—a category of cooking that applies primarily to cured or cooked meats and dry-cured, cooked, and fresh sausages—is still a dying art in my mind because it’s so infrequently practiced at home. Most people still go out and buy bacon and salami rather than attempt to make their own. This is a crying shame because there are just so many things to be learned from the craft of charcuterie, so much flavor to be created, so much pleasure in the making and the eating.

As a chef, my love of charcuterie runs deep. There’s something truly satisfying about taking cheaper cuts of meat and off cuts and turning them into something spectacular, which is really what charcuterie is about. The most important part of practicing charcuterie for me is that it allows me to control the flavors of my dishes from start to finish, whether it’s adding coriander and dried chili to the bacon cure, controlling the fat content in a sausage, or choosing the breed of hog that gives me the best belly for curing, and how much smoke to give it.

Charcuterie takes time and thought and therefore encourages a respect for our food.

A word about an ingredient generically referred to as pink salt. Pink salt refers to sodium nitrite, a curing salt that’s dyed pink. It gives a piquant flavor to products like ham and bacon, keeps the meat pink, and protects it from the bacterium that causes