New Year's Cassoulet

For almost ten years now, we've been making cassoulet for New Year's Day. It takes awhile to put it together so I always need about three days off to get it prepped. The run up to New Year's Day affords me the time and leisure to make this savory peasant stew. Nothing is overwhelming in the preparation but it has many parts - duck legs to confit (or buy already prepared); lamb and bean stew to make a day ahead; chicken broth to make; bread to put out to grow stale for crumbs.

I discovered the pleasures of this stew in the January 2002 issue of Fine Cooking  in an article written by Chef Jean-Pierre Moulle (online at their website  for the short version). Now the pages of that article and it's recipe are crinkled, spotted and thin. I start looking at it in October and thinking about where I will find my ingredients. That article is with me all the time over those months running up to January.

Each year, we play with the contents - changing a thing or two: growing the shell beans in the garden; looking for local artisan sausage to include; using our home-baked bread for the crumbs; skipping the pancetta and using the dark applewood flavor of a chunk of Nueske's bacon. The next year we do it entirely differently. Cassoulet isn't fussy.

It's meaty and plain and rich and delicious. It is always a party dish - friends have joined us for years - there are seldom many left-overs. It is mindful cooking in the deepest way I know. It starts the new year. The pleasure of good food, good wine and good friends warms us in the winter.