Andouille Sausage

To drive home the point that oaked wines and smoky foods belong together, Marcia Kiesel tops rich, fatty grilled salmon with buttered andouille, a spicy, heavily smoked sausage that's used in jambalaya.

To make this jambalaya stand out, use incredible lump crabmeat, great andouille sausage and a good hit of Old Bay seasoning.

At The Heron, in Narrowsburg, New York, chef Paul Nanni grinds and smokes his own andouille sausage for supergenerous portions of Cajun-inspired macaroni and cheese.

For a crisp and chewy crust, be sure to bake the pizza on a stone that has been preheated for at least 30 minutes. It's also best to bake only one pizza at a time to allow for maximum air circulation.

Chef Way The creamy sweet potato filling in this sweet-potato pie is actually fairly simple, but Donald Link opts to prepare the crust by hand; he also tosses the salad with mustard greens, which can be tricky to find.

Easy Way Make the crust in a food processor and substitute watercress for the mustard greens in the salad.

John Folse, who owns the New Orleans-based specialty-food company Chef John Folse & Co., learned all about Cajun ingredients while growing up in a trapper's cabin in St. James Parish, Louisiana. After opening his first restaurant, Lafitte's Landing, Folse sought out a hot sauce that he could use in his elegant French-Cajun dishes. He automatically thought of the long skinny bottle of Louisiana Hot Pepper Sauce that was a staple on his family's dinner table because it seemed to go with everything. Folse located that sauce, but found that he liked a newer Tabasco-mixed chile version, called Louisiana Gold Pepper Sauce, even better. He particularly liked that it's pure chile flavor was not masked by the addition of vinegar which he thinks interferes with the subtle flavors of foods like the buttery crab and andouille sauce that tops the succulent sauteed snapper here.

This sensational seafood-packed gumbo comes from TV personality and F&W contributor Andrew Zimmern. It's terrific in its simplicity, with a foolproof roux (the mix of fat and flour that is the basis for all gumbos) that requires just 15 minutes of stirring instead of the usual hour.

Three ingredients form the foundation of Creole and Acadian cookery--onion, celery, and green bell pepper. Our dish starts with this trio and is enhanced by garlic, tomatoes, and the deliciously hot andouille sausage.

This chowder pairs together leafy kale and spicy andouille sausage for a hearty and satisfying dish.

Katy Sparks doesn't agree that nursing mothers shouldn't eat spicy foods. But if you want to lower the heat level in this recipe, substitute sweet sausage for the andouille and skip the poblano.

This gluten-free take on the beloved Cajun dish employs toasted mochiko rice flour to replicate the signature roasted roux that is traditionally used to prepare gumbo.

This delicious shrimp and andouille stew recipe by superstar chef Hugh Acheson is an easy one-pot weeknight meal that's impressive enough to serve when entertaining.