If warm-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies or dark, chewy brownies are among the first things that most of us bake, savory baked dishes may well be the recipes you become most passionate about, or at least the ones you turn to most often. Nourishing and open to endless interpretation, things like Baked Eggs, Pasta Frittata, or Scallion Pancakes can be quickly assembled on weeknights. Some, like Cheese Soufflé, Baked Brie, or Flaky Caramelized Fennel and Sausage Tart, can be readily dispatched for easy and impressive entertaining. And every pizza lover should try his or her hand at homemade (pages 544–554) to see how easy it is and have a field day with the toppings; like bread, this is something about which you can become downright obsessive.
The overriding rules here are no different from elsewhere in this book. In fact the key differences are that vegetables, cheeses, herbs, and spices take the place of sugar, fruit, and chocolate. A moderately stocked kitchen will be more than enough to prepare any of the recipes that follow. It should come as no surprise that variations and mix-and-match flavors are welcomed and nearly foolproof; most of these dishes are more like templates than commands, which means that whether you’re an avid baker or a novice, you will never run out of possibilities.