Crave Magazine
Spring 2005

The toast is perfect—a soft loaf, turned slightly golden and crisp, studded with juicy raisins, brightened with a bit of ground fennel seed, and given a gentle texture from cornmeal. Of course, toast is not generally cause for excitement, but when it's made from Amy Scherber's semolina raisin and fennel bread, it might as well be Oysters and Pearls at Per Se.

Scherber, owner and founder of Amy's Bread, makes me two slices of her incredible toast as we gear up to spend the day cooking in the cozy West 50s apartment she shares with her husband, Troy, and their son, Harry. Her home is charming in a classic Newark City apartment sort of way—hardwood floors, a working fireplace, a wall of rough-hewn exposed brick, shelves and shelves of books. Her modest open kitchen, lined with white tiles and blue trim, has a butcher-block island that serves as a central station for entertaining. "I love my open kitchen," she says, "because while I am cooking, I feel like I am with the party."

Scherber, who began her culinary career at Bouley after ditching a career in corporate marketing, found her passion for bread while interning at three small bakeries in France. "I loved baking bread," she says. "It was a very organic process—the pace of the dough rising, staying up all night and baking, and the smell of the bread coming out of the oven in the morning."

After her experience in France, she knew she had to work with bread. Luckily, when she came back to New York in 1989, she found a chef willing to allow her to do just that—Tom Colicchio (chef-owner of Craft and Gramercy Tavern), then the chef at Mondrian. He gave Scherber the opportunity to experiment with top-notch ingredients and develop her own unique repertoire. "Every day I made a different bread, and I got a sense of what people liked," she says. "Tom was one of my real mentors. He has a wonderful palate and a vision for what something should be, and he would just direct the bread and help me fine-tune the recipes."

In 1992, she decided to take a leap and open a bakery where her breads would take center stage. She found a small store on an unchartered stretch of Ninth Avenue and made it Amy's Bread. "I thought the neighborhood was so interesting," she recalls. "I kept walking by this one space. It had an old windowed facade and a great old New York storefront feeling that I wanted." Today, Scherber's Amy's Bread empire includes the original store (now expanded to double its size), a large retail and work space in Chelsea Market, and a cafe and bakery in the West Village that opened in February.

Scherber found her stride professionally, but her personal life was significantly altered this past July when Harry was born. He has changed everything, including their eating habits. "We used to go out to dinner four nights a week, but now I cook at home more often," says Scherber. She prefers to make simple, well-balanced, sometimes meat-free meals. "I always include two veggies," she says. "They are the magic to staying healthy. I eat broccoli, carrots, and kale. I also make some whole grains, beans, and pasta." Naturally, then, she favors big salads. "I make lots of salads with whatever is in season. In the middle of winter I am sick of mushy root vegetables, so I'll chop up celery, carrots, fennel—a variety of crunchy flavorful things that are good to eat raw."

Scherber's cooking tends to be more elaborate when she entertains, but she still embraces simplicity. The meal she prepared recently for a few close friends (and again for me today) - an orange almond salad with avocado, a boneless pork loin roast stuffed with garlic and herbs, steamed greens, vegetable couscous, and lemon pie for dessert - was homey and elegant. "This whole-lemon pie is my mom's recipe," she says, "but I like to use Meyer lemons because they have thinner skins and are so juicy, and that makes the pie so much better."

If she's having a cocktail party, she assembles a variety of bread-based hors d'oeuvres, like her potato onion dill bread topped with gravlax, creme fraiche, and caviar, her semolina raisin and fennel topped with serrano ham, Manchego cheese, and quince paste, her black olive bread topped with black-olive puree, oven-roasted tomatoes, and basil, and her walnut bread with melted goat cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. "They are bite-sized, and you get salty, sweet, and soft. And it's really easy," she says.

When she shops for ingredients, she stays close to home. "I don't like to carry groceries very far, so I just go to places around [the West 50s]," she says, like the greenmarket on 57th and Ninth, Whole Foods Market in the Time Warner Center, and Westerly Natural Market. "I am not a very good planner, so often I go to the grocery store or the farmers market and just browse. You can get inspired ideas that way."

As the afternoon sunlight streams into her kitchen, Scherber asks me to play with Harry while she gets to work on dinner. While I hang with Harry she slices into the pork roast, seasons it with salt and pepper, stuffs it with minced garlic and fresh herbs, ties it up, browns it on the stove top, and pops it in the oven. Meanwhile, she steams the couscous, whips up the Meyer lemon pie filling in a blender (which takes all of four minutes), makes quick work of slicing an onion, avocado, and some oranges for the salad, and toasts a few slices of semolina raisin and fennel bread for croutons.

After the meal is completed - in record time and with me falling hard for Harry - I notice there are some leftover slices of toast from the croutons sitting out on a plate, looking very enticing. I also realize Harry is not the only one in the room drooling.

Orange-Almond Salad with Avocado

Serves 4

1/2 large head red leaf lettuce, washed and torn into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 large orange, peeled and sectioned
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
1 medium avocado, diced small
1/4 loaf semolina raisin and fennel bread or other bread for croutons
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Toast sliced almonds in a skillet over medium heat until they begin to brown, shaking pan constantly to prevent burning. Set aside.

2. Place lettuce in large bowl. Cut each orange section into 4 pieces and add to bowl along with red onion and avocado.

3. Cut 4 thin slices of bread. Lightly toast slices, then cut toasts in half on the diagonal. Set aside.

4. Drizzle salad with extra-virgin olive oil and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss, garnish with almonds and croutons, and serve.

Herb Stuffed Pork Loin Roast with Onion Sauce

Serves 4

Roast
2 pound boneless pork loin
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste Butcher's twine for tying roast

Onion Sauce
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup water
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Combine herbs and garlic in a small bowl.

2. Cut pork loin halfway open lengthwise, leaving % inch of meat uncut at one end. Lay the roast open and season generously with salt and pepper. Fill with chopped herbs and garlic, reserving 2 tablespoons. Close loin and tie with butcher's twine in 3 places to hold in stuffing. Season the outside with salt and pepper.

3. Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a large oven-proof skillet over high heat. When oil is shimmering, place meat in pan and sear outside of roast until browned, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer pan to oven and roast for 25 to 30 minutes, or until internal temperature reads 145° on a meat thermometer.

4. Remove roast from pan and allow to rest on serving plate for 15 minutes. Return pan to stove over medium heat. Place onions in pan with the oil and juices remaining from roast (you may need to add 1 tablespoon of olive oil if pan is too dry). Pour ¹/2 cup of water into pan, scraping up brown bits with a wooden spoon. Cook until onions soften and brown, about 15-20 minutes, stirring often. Add wine and reserved herbs and garlic. Simmer for 10 minutes or until liquid has reduced by a third. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Remove string from roast and slice meat into '/2-inch-thick pieces. Serve with onion sauce.

Whole-Lemon Pie

Serves 6-8

1 9-inch Flaky Pie Crust, chilled and unbaked (see recipe below)
1 large lemon, preferably Meyer
1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Cut lemon into wedges and remove seeds. Place wedges into blender and blend briefly, about 30 seconds.

2. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour filling into pie crust.

3. Bake 40-50 minutes or until center of pie is just set. Let cool on wire rack. Serve at room temperature. Can be stored at room temperature, covered with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.

Flaky Pie Crust

Makes 2 9-inch crusts

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2pound cold unsalted butter, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
6-8 tablespoons ice water

1. Mix flour and salt together with fork in a large mixing bowl. Add butter.

2. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut flour and butter together until mixture forms pea-size pieces. Work quickly so butter does not soften too much.

3. Slowly begin to add ice water around the outside edge of dough, 1 tablespoon at a time. Mix gently with a fork to gather dough together. Add water one tablespoon at a time until dough begins to form a ball. Do not overwork dough.

4. Gather dough into a ball, then divide into two equal pieces. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

5. Roll one disk of pie dough into a 9-inch circle and place in pie dish. Trim away excess dough that is hanging over the edge. Crimp crust and chill in refrigerator until ready to fill. Dough may be stored in the freezer for up to 1 month.