Got leftovers? This simple but spectacular sandwich fashioned from the remains of a Thanksgiving dinner is so good, it would be worth roasting a turkey just so you can have one.

I'm traveling this week, visiting family in Florida, so let's keep things short and go straight to the sandwich, which comes down the wire by word of mouth: My friend Karen passed on the recipe with a strong endorsement; she got it from the public-radio program The Splendid Table.

It's deliciously simple: Layer leftover turkey with cranberry sauce and cream cheese, season with a bit of mustard and a dab of mayo, tuck it all between slices of the best white bread you've got, and that's the story. The turkey-and-cranberries make it seasonal, but don't leave any of the ingredients out - not even the mustard, although I was skeptical at first. The sum of the parts adds up to one of the best sandwiches I ever ate. Well, two of them, actually, both for me, to tell the gluttonous truth.

The simple instructions above really suffice as a recipe, but just to keep things tidy, here's a more detailed set of directions.

INGREDIENTS: (Serves two average appetites or one very hungry person)

4 slices good quality white bread
4 tablespoons (60g) cream cheese
4 tablespoons jellied cranberry sauce
4 ounces (120g) sliced, cooked turkey, light or dark
Grainy mustard (I used Gulden's Spicy Brown)
Mayonnaise

PROCEDURE:

1. Toast the bread, if you like. (I like.) I used Pepperidge Farm oatmeal bread; Karen likes a sunflower-seed bread from Fresh Market. Any good white or even a light rye or wheat bread would do, but I recommend white, and I mean good white bread, not Wonder Bread, please.

2. Spread the cream cheese on two of the pieces of toast. Spread cranberry sauce on each.

3. Put on the turkey slices and dress them with just a little mustard.

4. Spread a little mayonnaise on the remaining slices of toast, and put them on top to finish the sandwiches. Cut in halves, or not, and serve.

WINE MATCH: Frankly, even though wine is my business, I don't usually indulge with a sandwich lunch. This one is so fine, though, I could see it working very nicely indeed with a celebratory bottle of excellent bubbly.

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PRINT OUT A COPY OF THIS ARTICLE:
Want a copy that's easy to use in the kitchen? You'll find a simple, plain-text version of this recipe, suitable for printing, online at
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/print051201.html

This hefty volume, Italy's answer to The Joy of Cooking, has just come out in English. It's too recent an arrival to justify a full review, but after a quick scan, and trying a couple of quick side-dish and vegetable recipes (a simple steamed cauliflower dish cloaked with a silken instant sauce of beaten egg, and a mess of fresh greens wrapped in foil with garlic, oil and lemon and baked at high heat), I'm already learning to love it.

Thick as a brick but much more readable, it contains thousands of Italian recipes - not fancy restaurant stuff, but the dishes that good Italian cooks make at home, ranging from spaghetti and meatballs to, well, gazpacho and stir-fried green beans with sesame seeds.

It's not a high-budget book: With its cheap hard-coated cardboard cover, thin paper, low-budget photos and design and typography that fall a bit short of prime time, it's far from a slick, professional volume. But it's the contents that count, and this treasure trove of things Italian is a must-have, at least for me.

The Silver Spoon is currently available from Amazon.com for $26.37, 34 percent off the $39.95 list price; and using this link to buy will return a small commission to us at WineLoversPage.com.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0714845310/robingarrswineloA/

• Last week's Wine Advisor Foodletter: Blow-dry duck (Nov. 24, 2005)
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tsfl051124.phtml

• Wine Advisor Foodletter archive:
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/foodlist.phtml

• 30 Second Wine Advisor archive:
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Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005
Copyright 2005 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved.