Simmer

An easy, elegant entrée that's perfect for a holiday dinner with friends.

The tradition of Sicilian cooking is well documented in Anna Tasca Lanza’s works, and she is the zen mistress of all of the island’s fascinating food lore. Her school at Regaleali winery is one of the best I have visited and it was an experience to cook shoulder to shoulder with a modern national treasure. This is a variation on a dish from her first book, Flavors of Sicily.

In Italy, this recipe is a classic holiday dish. For Christmas Eve, it would generally be served at room temperature, as part of a buffet.

When corn season is over, this soup is one of the dishes I miss most. I think you'll like cooking the kernel-less cobs with the milk—it's a great way to get every last bit of flavor from the corn.

This recipe originally accompanied Ratatouille .

This recipe calls for a thin, freshly made tomato sauce. Using this sauce will produce the best flavor and texture, but in a pinch you could substitute any plain canned sauce.

Regardless of your foraging skills, you can experience the abundance of the woods with these delectable parcels, which combine the nutty chew of bulgur with rich toasted pine nuts, sweet currants, and smoky trout that could have come from a nearby brook—all neatly wrapped up in a lettuce leaf. And because they're so portable, you can easily enjoy them outdoors on a picnic blanket.

As a wake-up call to his taste buds, food editor Ian Knauer adds a dollop of this vibrant, garlicky hot sauce to his egg sandwich (it often finds its way onto his lunch and dinner plates, too). Its versatility is the key—any variety or combination of chiles will produce a different yet full-flavored, lip-tingling sauce.

You can tell this recipe hails from a tropical environment because of the way the first bite of chiles causes a light sweat to break out on your brow. Then a breeze blows by, and— ahh—you're instantly cooled off and refreshed, able to fully enjoy the sweetness of plump shrimp and an evolving harmony of spices.

Transform your picnic into un pique-nique to remember with this elegant arrangement of tangy potato salad, peas gently mashed with marjoram, and salty ham softly set in parsleyed gelatin.

To intensify the flavor of the compote, Jeanne cooks the plums with their pits. Any leftover compote would be delicious spooned over vanilla ice cream.

<p>Who knew that making your own fruit spread could be so easy and so delicious? I promise this recipe will not disappoint. And it's a perfect complement to the <epi:recipeLink ="350666">Perfect Crostini</epi:recipeLink.</p>

In this chutney-like compote, quince lends a ripe-pear creaminess, and pearl onions a lush sweetness, to tart cranberries.

Sprinkle with crystallized ginger or sliced scallions.

Trim the tops and tails of the beets to 1 inch.