Simmer

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. This sauce is great with roast beef, grilled steaks, and roasted chicken. It is also delicious as a sandwich spread or as a dip for crudités or tortilla chips. The "heat" of the mayonnaise will depend on the variety of chili you use. In a bind, chili powder can be substituted for the chili paste.

Fabio Picchi, owner and chef of the restaurant Cibrèo in Florence, cooks like a Florentine granny with a spicy palate. He takes full advantage of seasonal abundance from the Sant' Ambrogio market next to his restaurant. Fabio's recipes are wonderful but imprecise, quantities are vague, and I've got to pay strict attention so he doesn't skip an ingredient or a step. His refreshing summery tomato aspic is simple and uses traditional ingredients in a novel way, creating a spicy tomato sauce with a wiggle, barely jelled, more fun than a formal aspic. Bright red, speckled with herbs, zapped with chili and garlic, Fabio's appetizer is a far cry from the ladies-lunch image of conventional, transparent consommé aspics. Even my gelatin-hating husband and son love this dish. Double the extra virgin for more authentic Tuscan flavor.

(Sweet Black Rice) Because Thais don't really have a dessert tradition, this simple black rice dish with coconut milk is most commonly eaten as a sweet snack or for breakfast — it also, however, makes a wonderful end to a meal. Recently available in North America, black glutinous rice is unpolished, so it is quite chewy, like brown rice. Thais make a more tender dish by combining the black rice with white sticky rice. As the rices soak together before steaming, the white rice takes on color from the black to become a beautiful dark purple.

No need to squeeze oranges for this recipe, as the sweetness and body of store — bought juice are key. If you cook the mixture down until most of the liquid is evaporated, you’ll end up with a delicious onion confit rather than a sauce. Either way, we like to serve this with grilled meats and chicken as well as fish.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

(Roasted Potato Slices with Salt Cod Purée and Roasted Red Pepper)

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 45 min

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

When I was growing up, my mom periodically brewed a pot of this bitter, allegedly medicinal soup and forced me to drink a bowl (she says the ginseng promotes general well-being). Although I used to sit at the kitchen table for an hour, slowly spooning each dreadful bit into my mouth, I've since discovered that the only way to tolerate it is to gulp the liquid down as quickly as possible. Now nearly every time I go home, she prepares this special (and unfortunately simple-to-make) soup just for me — which probably explains why I don't go home very often.