European

A creamy risotto might make a main course, but for this Italian dish of braised veal , you might want to bend the rules of one dish cooking to be able to serve a traditional Italian-style side dish. Making risotto is not demanding—you can make it with ease while the veal shanks are braising.

This is the classic country paella of Valencia, made with chicken and rabbit, and in snail season, cooked snails called vaquetas. Authentic paella should be made over firewood. Twigs from olive or orange trees are used for hot flames, and thicker logs are used for a slower fire. The trick is to have both at the same time, so that the meat and vegetables can be browned slowly, then the rice brought to the boil over the hottest part of the fire, then set over a lower flame. If you can't build a wood fire, a charcoal one will do. Valencian bachoqueta de herradura and Valencian garrofón (special green and flat green beans, respectively, from the region) were called for in the original recipe, but other green beans can be substituted, and cooked dried beans or lima beans can be substituted for the flat green beans. You can also have your butcher cut up the rabbit for you, if desired.

This tangy marriage of fresh tomato, cucumber, pepper, and onion is a summer favorite. The flavor of gazpacho improves if allowed to chill overnight, but thereafter this soup has a short shelf life because the tomatoes sour very quickly. It this best prepared no more than a day or two before it will be eaten.

Borscht is one of those soups that has dozens of variations. This version of the classic Russian beet soup uses lots of vegetables and a touch of bacon for extra flavor. You can leave the bacon out and use vegetable broth if you prefer a vegetarian soup. Grating the beets into the soup releases maximum beet flavor. Though this recipe calls for the borscht to be served hot, it is also delicious when served cold.

Cassoulet is a robust meal, filled with cured and smoked meats and sausages, baked in a stew of beans until a rich crust forms. According to tradition, the cook repeatedly breaks the crust and pushes it down into the stew.

For more on assembling the torte, see "Prep School."

Spaghetti and meatballs get spiced up with a classic Italian sauce. All'amatriciana hails from Amatrice, a town northeast of Rome. Classic all'amatriciana sauce is made from tomatoes, guanciale (salt-cured pig's jowl), and hot peppers. Here, bacon stands in for the guanciale.

Albóndigas is Spanish for meatballs. Ours are lightened with grated zucchini.

Pumpkin seeds give earthy flavor and lovely color to this side dish.

The piquant pickled red onions are the ideal topping for this traditional Austro-Hungarian cheese spread.

A classic dish perfected. Ask your butcher to cut the meat from the shank into 3/4-inch cubes.

An Italian take on the classic Mexican starter.

For leftovers of this classic seafood stew, increase the recipe by half.

Minestra di porri e castagne Piemonte

Recipes from two New York women respected in the food business influenced this dish: In her book A Fresh Taste of Italy, Michele Scicolone (once my Brooklyn landlady) offers Spaghetti with Rubies, where the rubies are chunks of roasted beets sautéed in olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. At her legendary Brooklyn trattoria Al di Là, chef/co-owner Anna Klinger serves ravioli stuffed with beets tossed in brown butter and poppy seeds. Beets, together with poppy seeds, are typical in dishes of the northern Italian regions of Friuli and Alto Adige. With all these factors in mind, I came up with my own combination of pasta with beets and poppy seeds.

Casônsèi della Val Camonica Casônsèi dates back to the fourteenth century and is a specialty of Brescia in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. It is also known as casunzièi in Belluno, in the northeastern region of Veneto. The word casônsèi comes from the ancient term "cassoncelle," which probably meant "small caskets." Similar to ravioli, these half-moon-shaped parcels are made of an egg-based dough and can have a variety of fillings. The Renaissance version was bittersweet in taste, combing cinnamon and almonds. In the traditional cuisine of Brescia, casônsèi is typically filled with a mixture of sausage, bread dipped in milk, and grated Parmesan.

Bodino Stifado Me Praso Braises like this are perfect for meat with tough muscle tissue and tendons (which come from the part of the animal that works hard), a great example of poverty cooking. This less expensive cut of meat develops its own natural and luscious sauce as it cooks. You want a little marbling in the meat, because it melts down as you cook and adds a lot of flavor to the sauce. You can use brisket, shanks, shoulder—all fairly tough meats—but save the filet mignon for the grill or a pan. It takes a little time to cook and become tender, but it's a relatively easy setup, and once you get it onto the stove you don't have to worry about it for about an hour. So you can do your laundry, or walk the dog, or make a salad. A couple of days later, if you have any leftovers, you can shred the meat, then return the meat to the sauce and add your favorite pasta. The resulting dish is a Greek version of beef Stroganoff. The herbs are very important to the flavor development here, since I'm using water instead of stock, so use fresh herbs if possible.