European

The great thing about this recipe is that even if you mess it up (which is tough to do), you still have a delicious mushroom and bacon cream that you can pour on toast and call it a day. This is a classic coddled egg but with much more garnish.

Consider this recipe a double whammy. Not only do you end up with a dreamy, cheesy bread pudding, but you also get the recipe for an excellent loaf of Irish soda bread. The bread is so easy to make—there's no yeast involved—don't be surprised if you find yourself baking a loaf often. It makes excellent toast. Many Irish cheeses are now sold in our supermarkets, but you'll have good results with any sharp Cheddar. Buried in the recipe is a nifty trick: Adding a bit of Parmesan to the mixture helps amplify the flavor of the Cheddar.

There's no reason why you can't have your Guinness two ways at once: Enjoy as the day's beverage of choice, and while devouring one of our favorite nuggets of meat—lamb rib chops—which we bathe in an intriguing glaze made from the very same stout cooked down with coriander and black peppercorns. Be sure to look at the Cooks' Notes for more information about Guinness, the spices and the lamb chops.

Colcannon, a classic Irish combination of mashed potatoes with cabbage or kale, is standard winter fare. If that sounds, well, boring, trust us, this version is anything but that. We freshen it up by cooking the potatoes and cabbage separately, then we make it easy to serve for a party by adding an egg and baking it in a pie pan, so that you can cut it into wedges.

Lots of oozy cheese and garlic make these vegetarian heros hearty enough to satisfy the most ardent carnivore.

Puttanesca isn't just for pasta. Anchovies and olives punch up a sauce hearty enough to stand up to meat or fish.

A porterhouse is the perfect steak for two to share because it contains good-sized portions of two of the most prized muscles in a steer, each located on either side of the center bone. The top loin, the larger of the two, is the same piece of gorgeous meat as that steakhouse staple, the New York strip. The tenderloin, attached to the other side of the bone, may be smaller, but it's a much larger portion (technically, it has to be 1 1/4-inches in diameter) than you get in a T-bone steak. If you can find dry aged, try it. It's a bit more expensive but yields more tender and flavorful meat. We pan-roast the steak with the Tuscan stalwarts of garlic, rosemary, and thyme, then serve it with a velvety red wine reduction.

This salad is a traditional way to use up day-old bread; the dressing softens the bread and makes it a little more palatable. You can use fresh bread, but stale bread will hold up better under the dressing (super-fresh bread has a tendency to fall apart).

This salad is a delightful interplay of sweet, creamy, tangy, and peppery flavors. If you prefer, you can swap in ricotta salata or a mild feta for the ricotta; both are saltier than fresh ricotta, so skip the seasoning with zest, salt, and pepper. Apricots have but a brief appearance even at the peak of their season. If you miss them, you can substitute with any other stone fruit. White nectarines, peaches, pluots, or plums would be particularly nice. In the fall, sliced fuyu persimmons are perfect. Whatever fruit you use, just make sure it’s ripe and flavorful.

This take on coq au vin has it all: tender, moist chicken, flavorful root veggies, and an incredibly rich sauce; to top it off, it’s a one-pot meal. Serve with a simple garlicky green salad and lots of steamed white rice to soak up all the chicken broth goodness. Duck legs are a great substitute for the chicken legs, too. You’ll get the best results if you salt the legs the day before you cook, but it’s not essential. If you are short on time, skip the salting and jump right in—just season the legs well with salt and pepper before you brown them.

These baseball-size meatballs are a mainstay of the market’s deli case. They’re flavorful and tender and stay good for several days after they’re made. If you have leftovers, they make an incredible meatball sandwich; just slice them up, reheat in the sauce, and put them in the middle of a good crusty roll. Then top with mozzarella or provolone if you have it.

Pimientos de Padrón are little peppers that hail from Spain, where they’re simply prepared and served as a tapa or snack. You can eat these tender peppers whole, and they go perfectly with a glass of crisp dry sherry. This preparation hardly requires a recipe, but it’s so good that it deserves the formal attention of one. If you can’t find Pimientos de Padrón, look for Italian friarielli or Japanese shishitsu peppers (often stocked at Japanese grocers). In their absence, fresh okra spears make an excellent substitute—they just take a little longer to cook. You may also want to add a sprinkle of chile flakes to replicate the occasional heat of the Padróns.

Don’t limit yourself to basil in pesto. You can use just about any tender green herb—even baby arugula or spinach, or a combination of herbs. It’s a great way to use up whatever lingers in the bottom of your fridge. This flavorful sauce is perfect for a simple pasta dish. The nuts are optional, but they add a nice viscosity and flavor. Without them, you get a cleaner flavor and more of the true essence of the herbs. On the other hand, a nut-free version is looser and the oils don’t incorporate quite as well. Pesto definitely tastes best as soon as it’s made, but it also freezes incredibly well. Freeze in an ice cube tray and then transfer to a zip-top bag. The cubes are the perfect size for a single portion of pasta, veggies, or a sandwich.

These pots de crème are ridiculously easy and ridiculously good. Don’t despair if you don’t have eight 4-ounce ramekins; you can use a variety of teacups, prep bowls, or even canning jars of any size. You can also make these a few days ahead of time if you like. Just be sure to wrap them tightly in plastic and remove any particularly stinky items from the refrigerator (chocolate is prone to absorbing neighboring odors).

Delfina is one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, and it happens to be just two doors down from the Market! Although much of their menu changes daily, this spaghetti is always on offer, and I think it’s one of the best things they make. It’s a great example of how a few high-quality ingredients (most of them pantry items) can come together for a simple but nourishing meal. Chef-owner Craig Stoll was generous enough to share his recipe. Craig employs the classical Italian technique of par-cooking the pasta and then finishing the cooking with the sauce. This not only thickens the sauce but also lets the sauce cook into the pasta. He says, “The result should be juicy and shiny and full of flavor, but with no residual sauce. All of the sauce should be contained within the body of the spaghetti. The last bite of pasta should bring the last bit of sauce with it.”

Bagna cauda (“warm bath”) is a traditional Tuscan condiment for dressing veggies and greens. It is meant to showcase the two simple ingredients of anchovy and garlic, which are brought together with oil and butter and tempered by lemon juice. Raw or lightly steamed vegetables are the simplest pairing, but you can also use it to dress fish, especially tuna or swordfish, or dress beans. With a little extra lemon juice, it makes a fantastic salad dressing for sturdy greens.

An Italian semifreddo is a frozen mousse, lighter than ice cream and made without churning. You can vary it according to season, incorporating flavors from raspberry to pear to chestnut. We like to make it with chopped toasted almonds and Marshall’s Farm wildflower honey, collected from hives in one of our vineyards. The result tastes like frozen nougat. Serve with a thin, crisp cookie.

Alexis and Eric Koefoed operate Soul Food Farm (see page 173) in a rural area of Solano County, Napa’s neighbor. The eggs from their pasture-raised chickens are so superior to conventional eggs that they inspired a cooking class at the winery. For the class dessert, Brian created this variation on floating island, a retro French dessert that deserves to come back into fashion. The “islands” are poached meringues that, in the original version, float on vanilla custard—a superb way to showcase first-rate eggs. The unusual caramel sauce flavored with Cakebread Cellars rosé is Brian’s addition.

Who better to provide a cioppino recipe than Jesse Llapitan, the executive chef of San Francisco’s Palace Hotel, the city’s grande dame? Every San Franciscan puts his or her own stamp on this rustic fisherman’s stew, but the Dungeness crab is nonnegotiable. Chef Llapitan attended the 2005 Workshop.

This ten-minute recipe is California chef Ken Frank’s riff on the French classic, sole Véronique. Chef Frank substitutes a Northern California delicacy—bone-in sand dabs—and the tiny and tasty dark grapes known as Zante currants. The fish are lightly floured and sautéed, then sauced with warmed grapes, melted butter, parsley, and lemon. You can use the same preparation on any delicate fish, such as petrale or Dover sole.