European

Lovely for lunch or with a salad for dinner.

Straciatella are little rags or strings, which is what the eggs look like when they are cooked. It is these gentle shreds that make this soup so comforting. The essentials of this soup are the stock, or brodo, the eggs, and the cheese. The spinach or other greens are variants. Cooked peas can be used instead of the greens and Garlic Broth can be substituted for the brodo. The technique in this recipe is stolen, with gratitude, from Pellegrino Artusi, a brilliant cook and gastronome who wrote The Art of Eating Well. Use a pot that is large enough to hold the colander over the stock without actually touching it, so that the egg can flow freely into the soup to form the strings.

A classic sandwich that is guaranteed to satisfy, whether served as a weekend lunch or an easy weeknight supper.

(Pistachio Wafers Layered with Strawberries and Cream)

One summer this was the recipe of the season. I had a guest and we ate this beautifully simple pasta for dinner three nights in a row. I could have gone for a fourth, but we went out to dinner instead. What could possibly be bad about the trio of fresh golden pasta, lemons from the tree, and rosemary from right outside the kitchen door? A touch of Parmesan, a sip of wine, and the celebration has begun!

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This quick-to-make Sicilian side dish can accompany chicken, fish or meats.

The parts of Corsica that are not cultivated or forested are covered with a thick underbrush called the Maquis. It consists of diverse aromatic herbs that make the hillsides white with little flowers in the spring and inspire one of the island's nicknames, "the Scented Isle." A blend of these herbs, called herbes de maquis, is a flavoring for many seafood specialties, including this rich pasta and lobster dish. Many say that the most flavorful lobsters in the Mediterranean come from the waters off Corsica. For reasons of food safety, it is essential to make the sauce and finish cooking the lobster immediately after the lobster has been boiled.

This very ancient dish of pickled salmon is of Swedish origin, and considered by a great many Scandinavians to be superior to smoked salmon. It must be made with fresh fish that has never been frozen, and with a plentiful supply of fresh dill weed.