European

In French bistros, confit duck legs are traditionally served with a very simple, sharply dressed frisée salad. This version of the light meal gilds the lily by switching out frisée for peppery watercress and adding juicy navel oranges and nuggets of toasted walnuts.

This rustic, one-dish meal incorporates ingredients that southwestern France is known for: prunes, Armagnac, leeks, potatoes, and mushrooms. The ragout's combination of sweet, salty, and earthy acts as a complex backdrop for the duck.

This fricassee couldn't be more French, but its velvety sauce carries the flavor of vadouvan, a South Indian spice blend that has started to crop up on Parisian menus. We find it irresistible.

There are many versions of vadouvan, a French interpretation the Indian spice blend, but we like the one that Grimes came up with, starting with a formula by chef Inaki Aizpitarte, of Le Chateaubriand, and roasting it for a deep, meaty flavor.

Though poaching pears in wine often results in a subtle, sophisticated dessert, it rarely looks as lovely as it tastes. Here, Grimes took inspiration from the saturated-red glassware that's ubiquitous in Parisian flea markets and from a dessert at Le Chateaubriand, which uses beet to give the pears a lush garnet hue. As far as its flavor goes, the beet doesn't lend anything more than a nice balance to the overall dish, but you'll probably want to poach pears this way from now on.

At Café Panique, in the 10th arrondissement, Chef Guyader uses smoked haddock, but we've substituted richer smoked sable, which is more readily available in the United States. As simple as classic melon and prosciutto, this sweet and salty combo is made even more magical by a harmonizing ginger emulsion.

Thanksgiving goes Provençal with this elegant dish.

In this redesigned French bistro classic, softened red onions join salty Manchego, and star anise gives the peppery broth a subtle undercurrent of sweetness.

All-butter puff pastry is available at some specialty foods stores.

This pressed sandwich creates an appetizing balance between sweet and savory with the addition of prosciutto and dried figs.

Brandade is a salt cod puree from Provence. In this all-American take on the dish, an heirloom bean puree is mixed with Dungeness crab and two kinds of cheese.

True to its name, this rustic salad calls for a flavorful mix of sweet and savory ingredients, such as fresh and dried fruit, cured meat, and assorted greens. Serve this colorful salad as a side to a savory main course, or have it for lunch.

A globe's worth of influences go into this tender quail, but the result is a very subtle dish with a classic French balance.

The flavor of the wine looms large in this meaty braise, lending an extraordinary savoriness to the melt-in-your-mouth carrots.

In an intriguing play on the combination of chocolate and chiles, this rich mousse gets its faint tingle from Sichuan peppercorns.

Much more interesting than plain mashed potatoes, this purée gets an earthy boost from celery root and chervil and an amazing smoothness and richness from a generous amount of cream.

Roast the wedges with points facing up to brown all sides.

If possible, use flat no-cook lasagna noodles: They look and taste more like homemade than the curly kind.

Until quite recently, Italian restaurants in the U.S. served just one version of gnocchi: the potato kind. But gnocchi made from semolina (such as this one from the James Beard Award-nominated, industrial-chic Osteria in Philadelphia) is equally authentic.

A Sicilian combination—artichokes and beans—becomes another creative variation on crostini at Cinghiale.