Simmer

This light starter reinvents the classic side dish of lima beans and corn.

This dish from Ciudad in Los Angeles was inspired by the flavors of Portuguese cooking.

Virginia Flesher of Charleston, West Virginia, writes: "Last spring I attended my oldest grandson's college graduation in New York. The evening before the ceremony, the entire family dined at Town in the Chambers Hotel. I can still remember chef Geoffrey Zakarian's superb lentil soup."

This Asian-style stew features egg linguine, an easy substitute for Chinese egg noodles. Look for Chinese five-spice powder and hoisin sauce in the spice aisle or the Asian foods section of the supermarket.

In this recipe from Rick Tramonto, chef at Tru in Chicago, chewy pearl barley meets silky European butter in an outstanding alternative to arborio rice risotto. For best results, use Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 hr

Thakkali Rasam We liked this soup on its own, but in India it is frequently served over rice and topped with a spoonful of warm ghee.

This rich, satisfying main course would be nice with a salad of chopped fresh tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, black olives, and sweet onion. Crusty breadsticks round out the meal, which might end with a plate of assorted grape clusters and anise biscuits.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 45 min

Celebrate the last days of the tomato crop with this recipe. A hearty vegetarian main course, it needs only a salad and a loaf of Italian bread to complete the menu. End with fresh figs (dried are okay, too) steeped in Pernod and spooned over vanilla ice cream.

Serve these beans with bread to sop up the juices.

To start, offer a seafood appetizer, such as chilled cocktail shrimp with herbed mayonnaise. What to drink: Pour Champagne or sparkling wine throughout the meal.

"I've always loved to cook," writes Mary Gareffa of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, "and though at eighty-nine I'm slowing down, I still love it. My grandfather and my father were both cooks in a monastery in Reggio Calabria, Italy, before they moved to this country, and luckily for me, my father was my cooking teacher. He showed me how to make the tomato-and-sausage sauce for the pasta. When my son was young, he used to tease me for standing over the pot of sauce, stirring and simmering it slowly, but that's the way my father showed me. A sauce is like a baby; you have to be gentle with it. And I know I must be doing something right, because my grandson, Jason, called me just last week to get the recipe." Tender meatballs — bound with bread softened in milk — in a good old-fashioned Tomato-Sausage sauce.

Three kinds of ice cream (all chocolate), chocolate sauce, and a chocolate cookie crust make this a chocoholic’s dream come true.

(Tony Tan's Laksa Lemak)