Stuffing is one of the easiest things in the world to make; it's just the shopping and chopping that take time. After that, it's generally a matter of briefly sauteing the vegetables, combining the ingredients, drizzling the liquid (and sometimes fats) over. Then it's oven time.

But easy to make doesn't mean easy to make well: Too many stuffings arrive on the table a heavy, soggy, indigestible mess.

The key here is to employ a light hand, both with the fats and the liquids. A lot of recipes call for whole sticks of butter, but you can generally cut the fat by half without ill effect. Keep the saute temperature at medium and use a little lowfat broth if the vegetables start to stick. If you're going to drizzle turkey drippings over the stuffing, de-fat the drippings first. And when you add liquids, go slowly — add no more than half a cup at a time, then toss the ingredients. The bread should be slightly moist, not soggy. You can always add more liquid.

Sometimes the flavor of stuffings isn't wonderful because the cook neglected to taste. And use the best ingredients you can, especially if it's a quite plain recipe — real butter, a rich broth, fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts, good-quality bread. As many stuffings contain raw ingredients, heat a tablespoon or so with a little butter or broth until it's cooked through, then taste to see what it needs before you serve up an over-salted or under-herbed dish.

My strong preference is for stuffing recipes that exercise restraint, relying on just a few flavor and texture notes in the right balance with each other (rather than fighting or overpowering each other). I think there should be no more than two or three things going on: For example, the crunch of nuts, the warm sweetness of fruit and spices, the richness of butter-bread-broth. That's plenty. Don't throw stuff in just because you can.

My grandmother's recheado (Portuguese for stuffing) — which is, of course, the best on the planet, except for my godmother Cyrilla's — has just eight ingredients, and that's counting the salt and pepper.

Riffling through a friend's recipe collection earlier this month, I came across an almost equally simple apple-onion stuffing recipe that actually tempted me to consider not doing Grandma's recipe this year. My friend vouched for this one, which I found on many Web sites when I went in search of its origins.

People seem to like it, and when I tested it, I could see why: It's a tart, tangy, crunchy stuffing that is a good foil to the richness and silkiness of the other Thanksgiving foods — turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes dripping with gravy.

The apples should be the tart, baking kind; I used Granny Smiths in testing this. If you don't like to use wine in cooking, substitute broth or a blend of water and white grape juice or water and apple juice.

The bread crumbs should be fresh; choose a good quality French- or Italian-style loaf and cut away the crust, using the soft middle. You have a texture choice here: If you like a loose, chunkier dressing, cut the bread into small cubes. For a finer, more dense texture, put the bread through a food processor.

APPLE ONION TURKEY STUFFING

In a large saute pan, Dutch oven or wok, melt butter and saute onion over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add bread crumbs, using a spatula or large spoon to lift from the bottom to combine (avoid packing or mashing the ingredients). Gently add apples, white wine and nuts and cook for 5 minutes longer; the wine will cook off, leaving very little liquid in the bottom of the pan. Add lemon juice, nutmeg and allspice.

Stuff in turkey or bake alongside turkey (325 to 350 degrees) in a buttered baking dish, about 30 minutes; until lightly browned and crispy on top and heated through.

Makes 8 smaller servings; 6 larger.

And a final word on safety: As with the turkey, the internal temperature of stuffings that contain raw meats, seafood, eggs or meat juices should reach 165 degrees. The safest way to assure this is to cook the stuffing separately rather than in the body cavity of the turkey.

Send recipes and queries to Wanda A. Adams, Food Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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