Summer

This is probably one of the most common paletas—maybe because the flavor is so kid- and adult-friendly. Strawberry paletas have been my brother’s favorite since he was a kid. The best strawberries in Mexico are from Irapuato; they’re a kind of wild strawberry that sweetens the air, and people travel from all over to get big baskets of them. If you are lucky enough to have access to wild strawberries, which are smaller than those that you find at grocery stores but have intensely concentrated sweet flavor, please use them to make these paletas. They are so good and also quite delicate, so they squish easily—perfect for our purposes.

A refreshing and versatile sauce, this pairs nicely with ice cream, cake, fruit, and chocolate desserts. Make a couple of batches and divide into several small freezer storage bags and store frozen for up to 6 months.

Warm fruit desserts with ice cream are definitely satisfying. This one, with a delectable brandied pecan sauce, is a real winner. My friend (and fellow gourmand) Edward Eglowsky says he could have these peaches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here’s the recipe, Ed.

This is a must-have in the Catalano home. The flavor of this sorbet is intense, and the color is gorgeous. This versatile dessert is a light, refreshing way to end any meal. Melted, it makes a delicious complement to vanilla ice cream or scrumptious sauce for chocolate cake.

This strawberry ice cream has an old-fashioned pale pink color with delicious chunks of whole fruit inside. Using light cream and milk in place of heavy cream reduces the fat and calories without compromising the taste.

Sweet blueberries and juicy peaches remind me of summer. With its buttery biscuit topping, this cobbler brings back memories of backyard picnics and barbeques. Don’t forget the ice cream when serving this dessert. If you like, you can substitute the buttermilk with low-fat plain kefir, a cultured yogurtlike drink. Full of Lactobacillus acidophilus, a beneficial probiotic that aids in digestion, kefir is widely available at health food stores.

Here you have the Queen of Tarts: fresh figs and apricot jam are a wonderful counterpart to the sweet and tangy taste of the seasonal berries and kiwi.

The crumbly cinnamon and almond topping gives this blueberry pie a sweet and crunchy crown. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a scrumptious dessert that will make you nostalgic for the good old days. Although you’ll need only 1 crust for this pie, I’d advise against cutting the piecrust recipe in half since it will make it difficult to handle. Instead, freeze the extra pie dough. You’ll be halfway done the next time your urge for pie comes up. Make this pie vegan by using butter substitute in the topping and crust.

I get raves when I make this cheesecake, and I’m sure you will, too.

This is a special vegan cake that’s an impressive dessert for dinner guests. The custard and fruit make a delightful topping that’s fat-free and looks like you toiled for hours over it.

I cooked for a lot of crazy signoras when I lived in Italy, and one of them whipped me into shape by insisting that the tomatoes for tomato sauce be put through a food mill first. For the uninitiated, it’s kind of like an old coffee mill, but with a more tightly geared hand crank. In would go the roasted tomatoes, and each crank by hand would squeeze them through holes in the side of the mill. I needed a tube of Bengay for my arms after the first batch, but the result is a far lighter sauce than any store-bought variety. If you’re not up for the workout, just lightly pulse the tomatoes in a food processor.

A foodie friend of mine was in the hospital for leukemia treatments when his caregiver called me. Our buddy wasn’t having a great day, and it didn’t help that his doctors were saying he couldn’t have his favorite pick-me-up food, fruit. Now this is a guy who can eat a quart of strawberries at a sitting. In a sense the docs were right; raw fruit can contain bacteria, a problem for people with low white blood cell counts, which show they’re prone to infection. But I had a solution. I told his caregiver, “He can have fruit; you just have to cut it up and heat it thoroughly to kill off the germs.” The docs had no objections, the caregiver came in with a beautiful medley of stewed seasonal fruit, and my friend was thrilled. So if you’re concerned about raw fruits, this is the recipe for you. The heat, along with a little bit of lemon juice and a pinch of sea salt, breaks down the fruit’s fiber, making it soft but not mushy. I used apricots and cherries here, but any fruit in season will do.

When I was a kid, nothing could compare to hearing the jingling bells of the ice cream man; it meant I got a Creamsicle. Looking for that taste again and to create something kids would adore, I came up with this recipe. One note: If you have a sensitive mouth or throat issues, omit the ginger to avoid irritation.

My freezer ended up with warning notes all over it after I made this granita. I put the liquid into a shallow pan in the freezer, and only a few minutes later I completely forgot it was in there. I opened the slide-out freezer drawer and was hit with a tidal wave of red. It wasn’t quite like the elevator door opening in The Shining, but it was pretty bad. I figured, “Okay, fool me once, shame on you.” I swabbed out the whole freezer, put the food back in, made another batch, put that in the freezer, and left the kitchen. A few minutes later my husband, Gregg, wandered into the kitchen. Pause. “Beccaaa!! “ Okay, fool me twice, shame on me. Once I cleaned off Gregg and the freezer (in that order), I made a third batch, and up went the warning notes. Success!

When treatment side effects dry out the body—and believe me, that’s a fairly common occurrence—granitas come to the rescue. Granitas are similar to Italian ices in consistency, which makes them great for people with mouth sores, and melons are full of water, so they’re great for rehydration. In fact, melons in any form are a wonderful source of fluids and nutrients. Eaten on an empty stomach (and that’s the best way to consume them, as they can cause an awful lot of tummy rumbling when combined with other food), melons require little stomach action and go right into the small intestine, allowing quick absorption of their nutrients. And here’s a fun fact: Cantaloupes are named after the Italian town Cantalupo, which means “howl of the wolf.” No telling if there’s a run on cantaloupes there whenever the moon is full …

I like the way nature balances her books. In summertime, everyone gets hot and loses water. So what does Mother Nature do? She produces an abundance of summer squash, which happens to be full of water, making it an ideal vegetable to combat dehydration. I think of zucchini as the perfect party guest. It’s mild and mixes well with a crowd. The key with zucchini is good prep, so that the flesh stays somewhat firm and tasty.

I know they say apple pie is about as American as you can get, but I give that moniker to blueberry pie instead. When I think of pie, I think summertime and blueberries! Every summer, we visit my father in western Massachusetts and go to a big field with the most prolific old blueberry bushes you’ve ever seen, and fill our buckets with heaping cups of blueberries. We eat a lot of them right then and there while picking, but the rest get made into pancakes, and best of all, baked up into pie!

There is nothing more delicious than custard cream and fresh berries, as far as I’m concerned. I could eat it with a spoon, morning, noon, and night. This light, fresh tart is easy to make and a favorite with all ages. My kids adore the shortbread crust, because it tastes like cookies and it’s heaped with antioxidant-rich berries, making it rather virtuous (well, sort of . . .).

This lovely tart is great made during peach season, when peaches are at their peak. It can also be made with frozen peaches, but most store-bought brands are underripe and bland. If using frozen peaches, be sure to macerate them a little longer in the syrup/brandy mixture to soften them up. Test for readiness after the first 30 minutes, and continue to macerate as long as necessary, but not so long that they become mushy.

This moist, buttery coffee cake with its crisp, cinnamon-sugar topping is based on an old fashioned recipe from the 1950s, called Blueberry Boy Bait, a coffee cake named for the effect it had on teenage boys. My boys aren’t teens yet, but this bait works for them. They’ll gobble it up in one day—with not a crumb left over.