Summer

Choose the best-quality fish for this simple ceviche.

"Anytime you grill or pan-fry fish," O'Connell says, "it's essential to thoroughly dry it before adding your fat."

Who says gremolata has to have parsley and lemon? No one who's tried this crunchy Thai influenced riff.

No need to buy preflavored vodka; we got great results making our own.

At Rioja, half of the bacon is replaced with ground fatback, a step that makes this excellent burger even better.

Inspired by Alice Medrich's gluten-free corn chiffon cake recipe in her book Flavor Flours, the Epicurious Test Kitchen created this new take on shortcake. The naturally sweet flavor of corn really shines through in the delicate and spongy cake, which forms a wonderful base for blackberries and cream.

The warming spices of chai flavor this fruity smoothie.

This not-too-sweet loaf would also make amazing French toast.

Indulgent raspberry cream cheese makes homemade brownies even better.

Feta, Kalamata olives, oregano, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice give this grilled-squash pizza its unmistakably Greek flavor. I use a panini press to grill the slices of yellow squash and zucchini because I love the look and slightly charred flavor this method produces. You can also cook the squash in the oven or on a grill or stove-top grill pan. Grilling the cut face of a lemon half in the same way gives it a beautiful appearance and tones down its acidity a bit.

I rarely rave about my own recipes, but this is one I can just go on and on about. It is the definition of freshness with its sweet-and-sour late-summer flavors, and it is also an utter delight to look at. But the most incredible thing about it is that it uses a few ingredients that I have been lovingly cooking with for many years, and believed I knew everything there was to know about, yet had never thought of mixing them in such a way. That is, until I traveled to Istanbul and came across a similar combination of fresh tomatoes and pomegranate seeds in a famous local kebab restaurant called Hamdi, right by the Spice Bazaar. It was a proper light-bulb moment when I realized how the two types of sweetness-the sharp, almost bitter sweetness of pomegranate and the savory, sunny sweetness of tomato-can complement each other so gloriously. I use four types of tomato here to make the salad more interesting visually and in flavor. You can easily use fewer, just as long as they are ripe and sweet.

Light, pretty, festive, and special, this can pull off the trick of being either the Christmas Yule log (without the chocolate or the sponge) or the perfect pudding for a midsummer lunch.

These small turnips are perfect with duck or roast chicken.

One of my favorite post-shift hangouts was Painkiller NYC, where my buddy Richie Boccato made a mean Dark and Stormy at his tiki cocktail haven. Sadly, the bar is long gone; I raise my glass to Richie and the best Dark and Stormy anywhere. It is a favorite cocktail of mine, so I thought the combination of rum, lime, and lots of ginger would be really refreshing in a frozen dessert. This is a great summertime treat-light and airy but with a nice boozy kick. What really makes this is the fresh ginger juice. Grate peeled fresh ginger into a small fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl. Once you have a fair amount of pulp, squeeze the juice out of it. You'll need a fairly large piece of fresh ginger, about 12 ounces (335 grams) to get enough juice.

Pea pesto is a condiment, a sauce, a flavor enhancer. I spread it on grilled skirt steak marinated in horseradish and on lamb chops. I sauce spaghettini with pea pesto (just boil the pasta in chicken stock and toss in the pea pesto and garnish with toasted breadcrumbs) and I dress cold roast chicken with pea pesto and homemade yogurt. I broil or grill seafood skewers and serve them on a pillow of pea pesto; I sauté scallops or swordfish in the pan with pea pesto; and serve poached eggs on an English muffin spread with pea pesto. For extra zing, you can add a tablespoon of horseradish to every cup of peas.

Use a very sharp cheddar to make this—it's the difference between pimiento cheese and cheesy mayonnaise.