Citrus

For a prettier salad, we used two varieties of radicchio — the common Verona, with red leaves and white ribs, and Treviso, which can range from pink to red and has narrower, pointed leaves.

A pretty pink dessert that is refreshing and light. Plums with dark purple skin or flesh will give the sherbet beautiful color. Serve a pot of green tea alongside.

Having run the cake table at my daughter's school last year, I can say that there are two types of optimum bake sale fare: small, individual pieces that look cute and fetch high unit-prices and sheet cakes that can be made without effort or dexterity and sliced up easily. This recipe fits the latter category and has the added virtue of appealing to parents and grandparents who feel that something from the sale should be gratifyingly old-fashioned. The fresh ginger is a modern touch, admittedly, but I always keep some in the fridge and wanted to try it in a less contemporary, pan-Asian way one day (it worked.) The lemon icing may not be conventional either, but there is another starkly practical reason for it: brown things — if they're not gooily chocolate — don't sell so well; and the lemon spruceness of the topping is perfect with the musky sweetness beneath it.

A few tips: At several points in the recipe, components need to be chilled for a while before you can proceed, so plan accordingly. In our test kitchen, Philadelphia-brand cream cheese gave consistently good results. Note, too, that the cake can be completely assembled, then frozen for up to one week.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Vanilla-Bean Cheesecake with Guava Topping .

This recipe was created to accompany Traditional Hamantaschen or Cream Cheese Hamantaschen . Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe was created to accompany Cocoa Angel Food Cake with Orange Glaze

Preserved lemons, sold ready-made in Moroccan souks, are essential to that country's cuisine. The peel, pulp, and juice squeezed from the lemons can all be used. Sometimes, however, the juice and preserving brine can be bitter; use fresh lemon juice in that case.

This feather-light, sweet-tart bread is as good as it sounds.

Look for ripe mangoes that are slightly soft to the touch. To evoke the tropics even more, serve the fruit with coconut macaroons or macadamia nut cookies.

Poach the pears and serve with traditional anise-flavored fried pastries. Start the pears one day ahead.

You can use the more traditional orange flower water or rose water instead of the orange peel and juice concentrate to flavor these crispy cookies.