From the Earth to the Table: John Ash's Wine Country Cuisine

Ash, a noted Northern California restaurateur (his Santa Rosa restaurant bears his name) and author (he collaborated with Goldstein on American Game Cooking) is immersed in the wine-country gestalt, according to which dinner--and what we drink with it--is a way of life. A passionate advocate of cooks knowing where, when and how their food is grown and raised, he urges readers to eat ``seasonally and locally.'' Instead of using tasteless tomatoes in a salad in December, he suggests the likes of Warm Red Cabbage Salad with Pancetta and California Goat Cheese. Along with imaginative salads (Fresh Corn, Orzo, and Smoked Chicken Salad with Pine Nuts), Ash offers a bountiful array of soups (Roasted Eggplant Soup with Sweet Peppers), pastas (Fusilli with Collards, Bacon, and Garlic) and desserts (Peach-Mint Granita). Fish (Seared Ahi Tuna with a Lavender-Pepper Crust), poultry, meat (Pork and Pepper Stew with Oranges) and vegetable dishes are innovative and tempting. For each salad and main dish, he suggests a wine (``Gewurztraminer is a showstopper'' with Crab Wontons with Orange-Chipotle Sauce), and his cooking tips (e.g., ``never throw away shrimp shells,'' which can be frozen and counted on to save a fish stock or soup) are jewels. This is a cookbook for those who truly want to live with their food. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)