European

This is the old-school lasagna that you find in the Italian restaurants in Brooklyn. Fuggedaboudit! You can assemble the lasagna ahead of time … and it’s great for leftovers.

The flavor of peas and bacon takes me back to my childhood; that’s why I like this pasta dish so much. I feel like a little kid wolfing this down. It’s even good cold!

You can use these directions to adapt your favorite biscotti recipe to bake in the convection oven. Both temperature and baking time are reduced, plus you can bake on multiple racks with even results.

To synchronize a dessert soufflé with the rest of the meal, you can get the whole thing ready for baking an hour ahead, and pop it into the oven about 25 minutes before you plan to serve dessert.

There isn’t much difference in baking time between convection and regular ovens when you bake scones, only 5 to 10 minutes. The difference is in the wonderful texture, moist tender crumb, and golden, delicate crust that you can expect from the convection oven.

This is a special bread/cake that Danes like to make for the holiday season. It’s a quick version of flaky Danish pastry.

This bread is close-textured, grainy, and full of hearty flavor. It slices most easily the day after it is baked. Serve it very thinly sliced with a flavorful cheese such as gjetost, Jarlsberg, or Danish Havarti.

This is a favorite bread, especially in the Midwest, where many people have Scandinavian roots.

These breadsticks bake to golden crispness in the convection oven, and are a fun project to do with kids.

If you’re a home baker who is interested in making crusty French bread, you will be pleased with the results when you bake the bread in a convection oven. Remember it is also important to have steam in the oven. I keep a pan of river rocks on the bottom rack in my oven and preheat them right along with the oven itself. For added crustiness I place a baking stone or unglazed tiles on the center rack in the oven. The tiles help to maintain an even, hot heat and to stabilize the oven temperature. I place the loaves on a dark, noninsulated rimless cookie sheet. Spraying water on the rocks creates a burst of steam essential for creating a crusty crust.

This is my version of the classic French salad I enjoyed time and again in Nice. Roasting concentrates the flavor of fresh green beans.

This is a quick and easy main dish. Although most shrimp you buy have been frozen, this dish is absolutely superb made with fresh shrimp, the largest you can find.

Baked in the convection oven, this soufflé rises high and is almost noncollapsible. However, you’d still better have the table set and be ready to eat when the soufflé is done because it won’t stay puffed forever!

The quiche originated in Alsace-Lorraine, in northeastern France. It’s a pastry shell filled with a savory custard of eggs, cream, and other ingredients. Quiche Lorraine always includes crisp bacon with optional cheese. Of course, there are many ways to vary this basic recipe and a few ideas follow. In the convection oven, the temperature is reduced by 25 to 50 degrees and the baking time is reduced as well.

Eggplant, zucchini, sweet onions, and tomatoes all roasted together thicken by themselves to make a deeply flavored sauce for pasta. It’s a meal that’s ready in less than half an hour.

For pizza lovers, here are eight varieties to choose from. The basic dough makes two pizzas. The dough is easy to mix in the food processor.

This focaccia adds onions, olives, and dried tomatoes to the top. Cut into bite-sized pieces, it’s a great appetizer. The dough mixes most easily in a food processor.

You can use any dried lasagna noodles in this easy no-boil method, just be sure that the noodles themselves are completely covered with the filling and sauce.

This delicious flat bread is great cut into 1- to 2-inch squares and served as an appetizer or cut into larger squares to accompany soups and salads. You can create tasty variations by trying different cheese combinations, such as Cheddar, Swiss, or Monterey Jack, or by changing the herbs to oregano and parsley, or chives and shallots.