Summer

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Makes use of a microwave.

Here's a new take on calabacitas, a traditional Mexican side dish with zucchini, onions and peppers.

Here's a low-fat, no-egg version of panna cotta, a smooth custard from the Piedmont region of Italy. It's soothing and luscious, and requires no baking time.

A delicious low-calorie fat-free dessert.

To allow enough time for the soufflés to freeze, make them at least one day before serving.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

In this recipe we used fresh baby lima beans (the frozen ones are excellent, too), but you can substitute any other fresh young shell beans such as fava or cranberry beans.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but may require additional sitting time.

Saturday night is typically pizza-making night for my family, and one of the standard features of these evenings is pizza with pesto and fresh tomatoes. I use a good store-bought pesto, and, although I once made the dough in my bread machine, I now purchase excellent dough at our local Bertucci's restaurant and keep plenty on hand in the freezer. The dinner is simple and delicious. A pizza stone is a worthwhile investment if you're partial to pizza with a crisp crust that doesn’t droop. For this recipe we used a large pizza stone (about 14 inches across). But don’t despair if you don't have one; we also achieved good results when we baked the pizza on a baking sheet.

For a Fourth of July theme, top these bluish purple potatoes with salmon or red lumpfish roe. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 35 min

Elote Asado Out on a walk in practically any Mexican town, who can pass up the always-present fresh ears of chewy field corn, turning and crisping over the coals? Who isn't attracted to the smoky-smelling, pit-roasted ears (pibinales) when they're poured from gunnysacks in Yucatan? And who doesn't like the fried corn kernels with epazote and chiles in Toluca (esquites), or the ones served from big boiling cazuelas in the capital's Alameda Park, or the ones topped with cream, powdered chile and cheese in the northeastern states? Our sweet corn isn't the same to me, boiled and buttered and served as a summertime vegetable. It lacks a little backbone. So when I'm having it, I usually give it a taste of an open fire, a squeeze of lime and a sprinkling of hot powdered chile…or the lavish spread of butter, cream and cheese of this recipe. Serve it anytime you're grilling, and you'll please practically everyone.

This pasta celebrates the month of September, when tomatoes are truly in full season and just exploding. It's our favorite take on pasta al pomodoro.

"Recently, I had dinner at the super-romantic Shadowbrook Restaurant in nearby Capitola," writes Holly M. Sharps of Menlo Park, California. "To get to Shadowbrook, you have to take a cable car down a hill. The restaurant is on several levels and has spectacular views of the ocean — not to mention great food. The salmon was absolutely delicious." The sake- and soy-based ponzu sauce is traditionally a Japanese dipping sauce. Here, it’s used to baste the fish as it cooks.

"I have a 'stragglers Thanksgiving' — that's what I call it — at my house every year," writes Frances Teasley of North Hollywood, California. "I know a lot of people who, like me, don't have any family nearby. Thirteen years ago I started inviting a few people for dinner. And that small holiday gathering has become a big tradition among my friends. For weekday meals, I look for shortcuts and do-aheads. But for holiday meals, I like to do everything the same day because I love the smell of cooking that fills the house." Nice, fresh flavors for a side dish or salad.

To clean leeks, trim off 3 inches of the green and then slice them in half lengthwise. Run under cold water to remove sand, then continue with the recipe.

This lovely dessert must be chilled at least two hours (or up to one day) before serving.

An old-school ice cream scoop turns out beautiful curls of melon; the pink peppercorn and bay–infused wine syrup keeps things interesting.

When ripe, fresh apricots have a velvety-soft deep golden skin with a faint blush and the most delicate flavor. When picked before maturity, the flavor is less than exciting but baking surprisingly intensifies the flavor even of the pallid ones, bringing them more toward the piquancy of dried apricots. Since baked aprictos are so vivid, I always bake them entirely open-faced in a pie. Glazing them with strained apricot preserves adds extra flavor and makes them glisten.

A nice accompaniment to grilled sea bass, scallops or shrimp.