Molded Italy's Way

THE MOST POPULAR cookbook in Italy is a chunky volume called "The Silver Spoon." With more than 2,000 recipes, it's been called Italy's "Joy of Cooking," and like that American standard, it's the book people turn to for basic formulas when they want to re-create the dishes they already know and love.

So when Phaidon Press released the first English translation in 2005, I had to have a look. All the dishes you would expect — Pizza Napoletana, Minestrone, Spaghetti Carbonara, Tiramisu — are there. But I was looking for something specific, an obscure category of Italian dishes known as "sformati" or "molded things." The name sounds less than lyrical, but, like so many things, it sounds better in Italian. French cooks call them flans. But for some reason, we almost never see them in American versions of French and Italian cookbooks or on American menus, for that matter.

I first encountered savory flans almost 20 years ago when I was working in the kitchen of Roger Verge's Moulin de Mougins in the south of France. Verge made flans from vegetables to serve as side dishes with his carefully crafted main dishes. And I learned from Verge that a savory flan or vegetable sformata is one of the most versatile and reliable dishes a cook can have.

More interesting than soup or salad, a flan makes a great first course. And since these dishes hold up very well in a warm oven, they make good vegetable sides for entertaining. When I was putting together the index for one of my books, "Entertaining in the Northwest Style," I realized I had included a half dozen recipes for savory flans. Among them were a spinach flan served with sautéed prawns, and a Japanese pumpkin flan served as a side dish with cider-brined pork chops.

And I was very happy to discover that "The Silver Spoon" has an entire chapter devoted to "Molds and Souffles." There are leek, artichoke, carrot-and-fennel molds, some 16 sformati and 10 soufflés in all. And I liked the association of these dishes with soufflés. Like soufflés, they are set with eggs, but unlike soufflés, they are not fussy. The egg whites are not whipped so assembly is a lot easier, and the finished forms are more stable; they will not collapse in on themselves when they are pulled from the oven.

The only drawback to a vegetable flan might be the name. When I told a friend that the menu I had created for a dinner she would be attending included a savory pumpkin flan, I couldn't help noticing that she was putting on a brave face. She was too polite to say anything, but I could tell something was wrong. There was a tell-tale lift to the eyebrows, a drawing back from the shoulders. A few days later, when the flan was actually served, I watched her grimace as I announced the dish.

Then she tentatively tried a bite and said with unmasked surprise, "Wow, this is really good!"

"I hate flan," she said in a flood of confession and explanation as she polished off the last bite or two. "I thought the idea of a vegetable flan sounded even worse than the usual sweet flan. I didn't want to say anything but I really didn't want to have to eat it."

I have seen the same reaction to a Green Pea Flan served with sautéed pea vines and morel mushrooms that I like to serve in the springtime as an appetizer. One reluctant diner was so excited to discover she liked it that she asked for the recipe and made it part of her own repertoire.

Maybe "The Silver Spoon" will introduce a few more hesitant cooks to the joys of savory flans, but I don't know if any home cook is going to rush out and buy the ingredients for a Celery and Ham Mold or a Sea Trout Mold unless they have already developed a taste for this sort of thing. More than likely, the whole notion of sformati and savory flans is going to have to be passed from one person to another, one patient cook to one adventurous diner at a time. A good place to start might well be Q restaurant on Queen Anne Hill, where the genre appears as Goat Cheese Flan with Tomato and Basil.

Greg Atkinson is author of "Entertaining in the Northwest Style." He can be reached at greg@northwestessentials.com. Barry Wong is a Seattle-based freelance photographer. He can be reached at studio@barrywongphoto.com.