Summer

Silky zabaglione, warm from cooking but also imbued with deep heat from the wine, cloaks the vanilla-scented fruit with a heady richness. Though it's normally made with Marsala, this more subtle version gives the season's first apricots a chance to shine.

This dish from Shawn Edelman of Ruby Foo's serves up a third of your daily requirement of vitamin C.

With Lidia by your side, this showstopping dessert is foolproof. You'll need to start preparing the dough and filling at least one day ahead.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Jasper White's The Summer Shack Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Shore Food. To read Epicurious's review of the cookbook, go to Summer Cooking Guides. This is one of my favorite sauces for grilled seafood, especially swordfish. It is also terrific with salmon, striped bass, halibut, tautog, and other white-fleshed fish suitable for grilling. Think of this recipe as a formula. The ratio of cucumber to the other ingredients is important, but from there you can adapt this sauce to match with different fish or even side dishes. For example, with a Latino or Caribbean dish like Black Beans and Rice, you could substitute fresh lime juice for the lemon juice and add chiles and cilantro. This recipe uses half yogurt and half sour cream, but you could use any combination of the two. Or, for salmon, you might want to use all sour cream, with dill. You could also make a low-calorie sauce using all low-fat yogurt. The first time you make the sauce, if you follow my guidelines but omit the jalapeño and use parsley and chives for the herbs, you will have a basic sauce. After that, you are on your own. The list of possible variations is extensive. For equipment, you will need a stainless steel (or plastic) strainer.

A chilled soup with a taste of the tropics; start making it one day ahead.

This recipe was created by chef Michael Kornick of MK Restaurant in Chicago. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.

Instead of the usual approach of topping dandelion greens with hot bacon dressing, here we tame the greens' bitter bite with a Spanish-inspired dressing flavored with almonds, raisins, and Sherry.

This no-hassle mix-and-bake dessert is like the old-fashioned cake Grandma always had ready after dinner, even though you never saw her working on it.

Make this dessert, from Jesus Gonzalez, creative chef at Rancho La Puerta. Then kick back while it chills.

The perfect ending to a springtime brunch. Use the best strawberries you can find for that "real berry" flavor.

This simple roasting method brings deep, bright flavor to winter tomatoes.

This refreshing treat, from Mridula Baljekar, author of Indian Cooking Without Fat (Metro Books), is a cool finish to spicy dishes.

This delicious last course is a little sweet and a little savory—like dessert and a cheese plate in one dish. If you can't find fresh figs, buy dried black Mission figs, soak them in warm water until very soft, then drain and pat dry.

Get two of your daily fruit servings with this diet-friendly dessert from Annie Clemmons, pastry chef at Cyrus in Healdsburg, California.

This layered salad is definitely stacked: Michael Taus, executive chef and owner of Zealous restaurant in Chicago, has piled in all the vitamins C and B12 you need for the day, as well as 50 percent of your daily requirement for vitamin A.

Fork to the bottom of your bowl and you'll put away six servings of veggies! You can thank Michael Dunn, chef at Yankee Pier Santana Row in San Jose, California.

Shake up your standard skewer with a smoky, tangy marinade created by Elissa Meadow, chef-owner of Solar Harvest in Beverly Hills, California. This recipe fills 40 percent of your daily potassium needs and supplies vitamins C and B6, as well.

This starter, from Colby Garrelts, chef and co-owner of Bluestem in Kansas City, Missouri, is ideal for any summer get-together. For only 72 calories per serving, you'll get nearly 30 percent of your daily requirement for vitamin A, plus 4 grams of fiber.

This creation from Salvatore Marino, chef at Il Grano in Los Angeles, is the perfect finger food: tasty and healthy.