The Cooking of South-West France
By Paula Wolfert
Mention French food to most people and they'll think of beautifully presented dishes served in small portions. But it's rustic, hearty food that many French people eat every day, and this cuisine is wonderfully detailed in the Paula Wolfert classic, The Cooking of South-West France, first published in 1983.
The cuisine of the southwest is based on fat taken from the pigs, ducks and geese that are used in so many of the region's dishes, such as confit. It is rich food, originally meant to sustain farmers and others who have physically demanding jobs.
The region is known for its rillettes and other preserved meats, and for foie gras, produced from ducks and geese. Wolfert goes into great detail about these and delves deeply into one of the region's most famous dishes, cassoulet. She tastes many versions of the dish and writes about how it differs from town to town.
Wolfert gives recipes for several of versions - fava bean cassoulet and Toulouse cassoulet (with garlic sausages and duck or goose confit), one that contains mutton and another with sausage, ham and pork skin. Not all of the recipes are complex, though, and include those for potato cakes with braised leek, cheese terrine and prune and armagnac ice cream.
