Includes many of the same ingredients used in Antipasto, but each is varied by the sauce. A traditional hors d’oeuvres includes:

• Hardboiled egg, masked with mayonnaise and decorated with drained capers
• Celery stalk and scallion, radishes, olives
• A small slice of Pate Maison Sardines and tuna fish, but put a dab of mayonnaise on the tuna fish and decorate with a strip of pimiento.
• Tomato slices
• Haricots Blancs (white bean salad)
• Vegetable Salads—any plain-cooked chilled vegetable, coated with Vinaigrette dressing
• Celeri Remoulade
• Artichoke Hearts
• Anchovy fillets

The essential dressings for an hors d’oeuvres are mayon­naise; and Vinaigrette, which is also the true French dressing used for salads.

For last minute preparation of hors d’oeuvres vegetables, a basic Vinaigrette is 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 3 tablespoons of good olive oil, plus salt and pepper to taste, and these may be sprinkled directly into a mixing bowl after which the gentle mixing and turning will suffice to combine the dress­ing.

A traditional molded chicken liver paste, to be used either as a cocktail spread with salted crackers or served in a small wedge as part of a hors d’oeuvres plate.

• 1 pound chicken livers
• 1 white onion
• ¾ cup rendered chicken fat (or melted butter)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp mace
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• 1½ tsp dry mustard
• 1/8 tsp anchovy paste
• 4 T grated white onion
• 1 T cognac brandy

Step 1:
Wash livers, trim away any discolorations, place in a saucepan, add the whole peeled onion, barely cover with cold water and bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Drain and discard the onion.

Grind the livers very very finely, using the finest blade of the grinder and putting them through a second time if neces­sary to reduce them to a smooth paste.

Add all the other ingredients, mixing very thoroughly. Pack in a straight-sided mold, cover with waxed paper, and chill overnight.

Step 2:
Unmold on a plate and slice thinly, for hors d’oeuvres— or serve in a ring of crisp salted crackers, for cocktail hour.

• 8 slices very fresh white bread, crusts removed
• Butter
• Soft Cheddar spread

Butter the bread, spread with cheese; roll up the slices— easily done by placing the bread buttered-side up on a damp kitchen towel. Fasten the rolls either with extra butter or by a toothpick; place in a shallow pan beneath the broiler flame and toast evenly on all sides . . . about 5 minutes over all.

Allow 8 to 12 Cherrystones per portion for a main dish; 4 clams for each appetizer service. Have the clams opened at the fish market and packed on the half-shells.

Sauce:

Heat the oven to 450.

Remove clams from shells and discard the juice. Bed the shells firmly in a baking pan, surrounded by crumpled alumi­num foil to keep them upright (rock salt is fancier, if you have it).

Cream butter and anchovy paste, distribute evenly among the shells. Insert a clam in each shell and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Combine chopped pepper, pimiento, onion, salt and pep­per, and distribute among the clam shells. Top with bacon bits, and bake until top browns: about 20 minutes.

• 1 ½ pounds cleaned large raw shrimp
• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ cup minced parsley
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 2 minced shallots or scallions
• ¼ tsp oregano

Sauté shrimp in olive oil for 5 minutes over high heat, shaking or stirring briskly until cooked. Season with salt and pepper and remove to a hot ovenproof platter, draining off the oil.

Add remaining ingredients to olive oil, sauté over medium high flame for 3 minutes, shaking the pan briskly. Pour sauce over shrimp and broil for 2 minutes.

For each serving,

• Half a hardboiled egg
• 1 slice of salami
• 2 or 3 drained sardines
• ¼ tin of tuna fish, drained and sprinkled with lemon juice
• A cooked cold vegetable: asparagus tips, green beans, beets
• Tomato slice
• Celery stalk
• Radishes, green and black olives, Greek olives
• Pimiento section, crisscrossed with 2 anchovy fillets
• Lentils, or chickpeas (Garbanzo beans) – 1 T draine

Arrange the components attractively, starting with a table­spoon of lentils in the center, covered with pimiento and anchovy fillets, and surrounded by sardines next to salami, and tuna fish next to tomato slice, with the egg, celery, and gar­nishes used for color accents, and so on.

Beef tenderloin on toast, with a traditional sauce.

Cook 4 toumedos in butter, place on small slices of but­tered toast (crusts removed), add 2 or 3 tablespoons of Béarnaise sauce on top of each tournedo—and serve extra Béarnaise sauce in a warmed sauce boat.

Sweetbreads atop ham, atop toast, and covered with a rich cream sauce.

Heat the oven to 450.

Saute pepper, shallots and mushrooms in butter gently un­til soft (about 5 minutes). Do not brown.

Combine 1½ tins cream of chicken condensed soup with % cup of heavy cream in a double boiler top. Add sauteed vegetables and simmer sauce gently, adding a little milk if needed to thin sauce. Prepare the buttered toast strips; place them in a buttered shallow baking dish. Top with a neat slice of ham, and place half a sweetbread on the ham. For ease in serving, make four distinct portions—or prepare in individual ramekins.

Pour sauce over the ham-sweetbread mixture, sprinkle with parsley, and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Because of their delicate flavor, wine can overpower sweet­breads, and no more than a tablespoon or two should ever be used in the sauce.

Baked chicken with olive-tomato sauce.

Nice is a southern French city; its cooking is closer to Italy than Paris. For this dish, brown chicken parts in a mixture of 2 T olive oil and 2 T butter. Remove to an ovenproof dish with ¼ cup of fat, and bake tender in a 375 oven for about 15 minutes, basting once or twice, using pan juices.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce, as follows:

• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 24 pitted black olives
• 8 small tomatoes, peeled and coarsely cut
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 4 T tomato sauce
• ½ crumbled bay leaf
• 1 pinch each: rosemary, summer savory, tarragon
• 2 T flour
• 4 cooked artichoke hearts, coarsely cut

In a separate pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and brown onion and garlic; sprinkle with flour and cook gently until golden brown, adding a little more olive oil if needed. Add the wine, tomatoes, artichoke hearts and olives; season with herbs, and simmer over lowest possible heat for 20 min­utes.

Pour the sauce over chicken and return to the oven for another 10 minutes before serving.

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 large yellow onions, thin-sliced
• ½ green pepper, seeded and thin-sliced
• 2 or 3 stalks of celery, coarsely cut
• ½ pound ground beef
• 2 tins condensed tomato soup
• 1 small tin tomato paste
• ¼ pound of fresh mushroom stems, thin sliced
• 1 C water
• 1 tsp oregano

Saute onion, celery and green pepper in olive oil for 3 minutes. Add ground meat (the cheapest grade is advisable here—because its fat content adds to the cooking liquid). Brown and pull apart meat into crumbs with a fork.

Add soup, oregano, mushrooms and tomato paste—plus a little water if needed to keep the sauce from being too thick.

Cover and simmer over the lowest possible heat for 25 minutes, checking occasionally to be sure it does not stick to the pan.

Serve on thin spaghetti—which cooks while the sauce is maturing. Place plenty of grated Parmesan cheese on the table, to sprinkle on top.

This is the basis for your own invention. You may add a cup of mixed leftover cooked vegetables; this not only ex­tends the sauce for unexpected guests but also cleans out the refrigerator painlessly. Beans of all sorts, peas, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower . . . anything and everything is permissible in a good spaghetti sauce.

SPAGHETTI CARUSO substitutes ½ a pound of fresh chicken livers for the ground beef . . . and CLAM SAUCE is rapidly made by using a tin of minced clams (with their juice) instead of meat.
Cooked lobster meat, crabmeat, cleaned shrimps, or diced chicken can also be substituted for the raw ground beef— or you may use 2 dozen well scrubbed.

Cherrystone clams or fresh mussels, distributed atop the sauce for the final ten minutes of cooling.
Traditional seasoning is oregano, but marjoram, basil, rose­mary or summer savory will do equally well. A teaspoon of celery seeds can replace celery stalks, and ¼ tsp garlic powder can replace the minced garlic clove.

For the palate geared to hot seasonings, add a tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce, or a tablespoon of “hot” catsup.