Summer

This riff on gazpacho gets unexpected sweetness—and great color— from the addition of cherries and a peach.

Warm spices, supersweet Sun Gold tomatoes, and a short cooking time reinvent the ordinary marinara.

The flavor of the spiced pickled fennel really pops with the sweet tomatoes.

How do you make grilled corn taste even better? Douse it in flavorful herb butter.

Believe it or not, watermelon and feta make a great pairing. Toss in some hot chili peppers and cilantro and you have a salad to delight everyone who tries it. Buy seedless watermelon for this—you won't be disappointed when you try it!

Twelve years ago, I made a simple bowl of "strawberries pazzo"—pazzo means "crazy" in Italian — for my friend Ann Spivack (this book's co-writer). The combination of strawberries, balsamic vinegar, and black pepper has been part of my repertoire for decades. Ann thanked me by baking me this pazzo cake. This dessert—while easy to make—is a cut above a standard strawberry shortcake. The cake batter is very forgiving and comes out well when baked on your grill or in your oven. Bake this in a standard 8-by-8-inch baking pan in your oven; if baking inside a covered grill, pour the batter into a cast-iron skillet, enameled cast-iron baking dish, or Dutch oven. The key to the herbed crème fraîche is a light touch with the fresh herbs. You don't want to overwhelm the cake. We used rosemary but small tender basil leaves are delicious too. We dressed up this cake for our Harvest Dinner by drizzling on a balsamic glaze, spooning Roasted Strawberries onto the plate, and finishing with an herbed crème fraîche. You can serve all three with the cake, any one of them, or forget all three of them and just serve the cake simply with a light dusting of confectioners' sugar.

Between the bacon (around 200mg of sodium per slice) and the scallops (over 330mg per 3 ounces), the classic dish is too salty for me to enjoy. But when the bacon is replaced with smoky zucchini ribbons and the scallops are swapped out for halibut rounds, you have a whimsical reinterpretation that actually tastes equally thrilling. I used smoked paprika and cumin to mimic the smoky fl avor of bacon and I decided to glaze the halibut rounds in honey and sugar to mimic the natural sweetness of scallops. The curry is purely for color and to balance the sweetness of the fish, and the spinach pasta lends a rich backdrop for the yellow-tinted "scallops."

Beer in dessert? When it's a naturally sweet brew, we say pour away.

A dollop of yogurt keeps these pops from being too icy, and we love the way the ginger adds a little spice.

To get the most out of your fire, cook these recipes in the order in which they appear. As for the vegetables, use them in any combination you like.

Squeeze out as much liquid from the zucchini as possible.

Lillet, a fruity, easy-drinking fortified wine, is a staple in Chef Ripert's summer pantry.

The secret to homemade brittle? Work fast—it hardens quickly.

Kick off your Independence Day bash with a patriotic take on homemade chips featuring baking potatoes, purple potatoes, and beets that are sliced and then fried into a hot, crispy red, white, and blue snack. Gather your ingredients and check out our tips on the dos and don'ts of deep-frying.

If you don't have a punch bowl, do what van Boven does: "Use a big glass vase—it's nice and tall and doesn't take up too much space on your table."

"I like the fact that just three or four main ingredients can make a smashing result," says van Boven about this sweet and crunchy salad.

Some leaves deserve to infiltrate the dessert menu, like lemon verbena, infused here in a whipped cream that can be spooned over just about anything.