Thanksgiving at the Wolfert Home

[Bruce Cole]

Hello Paula,

I have a more personal question, if you will.

I'm guessing some of the readers of your books get the impression that you cook and eat the recipes you write about for your everyday meals (although I've seen the inside of your fridge...).

So - I'm wondering, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, what your menu might be? Will there be couscous at the end? Will it be a table full of slow-cooked claypot dishes? Or do you do the traditional green beans, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie? If Food & Wine Magazine showed up to do a "Paula Wolfert's Thanksgiving" (or better yet, if you showed up at my door to cook me Thanksgiving dinner), what would the menu be?

Curiously hungry,

Bruce

[Wolfert]

Hello Paula,

I have a more personal question, if you will.

I'm guessing some of the readers of your books get the impression that you cook and eat the recipes you write about for your everyday meals (although I've seen the inside of your fridge...).

So - I'm wondering, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, what your menu might be? Will there be couscous at the end? Will it be a table full of slow-cooked claypot dishes? Or do you do the traditional green beans, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie? If Food & Wine Magazine showed up to do a "Paula Wolfert's Thanksgiving" (or better yet, if you showed up at my door to cook me Thanksgiving dinner), what would the menu be?

Curiously hungry,

Bruce

←

Hi Bruce,

No, we don't do a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner, because when my daughter comes home for holidays she always asks for couscous and my son always asks for zampone with lentils! Like all kids, they're nostalgic for their favorite foods from their childhoods.

But there is a great Turkey dish I sometimes cook on holidays -- see the turkey recipe I got from Michel Bras in PW World of Food. It's anything but traditional, but, boy, is it delicious! If I showed up at your door to cook for you on Thanksgiving, that's probably what I'd prepare.

[bleudauvergne]

Can you tell us more about that dish, Paula? Does it involve a whole turkey?

[Wolfert]

Can you tell us more about that dish, Paula?  Does it involve a whole turkey?

←

The whole bird is stuffed with a mixture of sauteed mushrooms, ham, walnuts, and boudin blanc all cooked along with stuffed onions and pan juices.

The recipe for stuffed onions in the in the CSWF.