Beans and Rice

• Almost any bean dish will benefit from the addition of tasso. Red beans and rice, a southern Louisiana favorite, is traditionally served on Monday, when the ham bone from Sunday's dinner simmers in a pot of beans all day. Cooked on the stove top, the dish takes about three hours. In a slow cooker, the beans can take as long as 10 hours. Cassoulet, a rustic French dish, uses white beans, meat, vegetables and herbs, and is slowly cooked so the flavors meld. Add the tasso toward the end of cooking in both dishes so it doesn’t toughen. If you’re in a rush, use canned beans. Add seasonings like brown sugar for baked beans or barbecue sauce, and diced tasso. Bake the beans until they’re warm.

Soups and Stews

• Tasso is a critical ingredient in most Cajun soups and stews, but you can substitute tasso for ham or sausage in many other soup recipes. Dice tasso and add it to chowder or bisque for the last half of the cooking time. Use it in place of a ham hock in barley, lentil, split pea or bean soup. For traditional Cajun dishes, use it in jambalaya, gumbo or etouffee. The differences between the three stews made from meat and vegetables may be hard for a neophyte to discern, but jambalaya is cooked with raw rice and as the rice cooks, the flavors meld. Gumbo is thickened with a roux or okra -- file powder, a seasoning made from sassafras, is added at the end of cooking or at the table. Etouffee is served over cooked rice.

Breakfast

• Serve tasso as a side dish at breakfast as you would ham, bacon or sausage. Cut it up and add it to an omelet, cheesy grits or a baked breakfast frittata layered with potatoes, meat, beaten eggs and cheese baked in the oven. Substitute a fried green tomato for the English muffin and tasso for the ham in eggs Benedict and top it with hollandaise spiced with Cajun seasoning for a Southern twist on a classic dish. For an elegant brunch dish, finely chop tasso and add it to the crust on a quiche. Add a little bit of diced tasso to the custard for the quiche.

Pasta and Grains

• Tasso is a spicy substitute for bacon in carbonara, a very simple preparation of spaghetti noodles, beaten eggs and meat. The heat of the cooked spaghetti cooks the eggs when they’re tossed together and the ham adds substance. Pair tasso with polenta, either by incorporating it into the corn meal and water mixture or by adding it to a creamy sauce as a topping. Saute your favorite vegetables in butter and olive oil until they’re almost cooked and add peeled and deveined shrimp. When the shrimp is almost cooked, add diced tasso and serve the mixture over pasta. For an elegant, but easy dish, saute tasso with wild mushrooms for a few minutes, then add green onion and garlic. Mix in heavy cream and cook until the sauce thickens slightly. Serve over angel hair pasta and top it with grated Parmesan cheese.