European

Massimo's Aunt Enza has played an important role in my life as a born-again Tuscan. We often dine at her home on Sunday, for a traditional family lunch, prefaced by Enza's statement that she hasn't prepared anything. This means that there's nothing new on the table and that we're in for our usual treat of a Florentine meal. The main course will probably be what Enza calls magro, literally lean or fatless, a choice cut of beef used for roast beef, sliced thin, lightly sauced with meat juices, topped with whole brown cloves of garlic. Since Italian home cooks in the city rarely had ovens, meat is often roasted on the top of the stove. It's faster than oven-roasting, perfect for those who love rare roast beef. Turning the meat is the hardest part.

Malloreddus, the saffron-flavored pasta shaped like gnocchi, is a Sardinian specialty. For convenience, we used dried pasta of a similar shape and added saffron to the pasta cooking water.

Serve with: Crusty baguette slices and a salad of arugula dressed with Sherry vinaigrette. Dessert: Vanilla ice cream topped with warm caramel sauce.

This sauce is traditionally served with fish, but we like it over steak and vegetables as well.

This gorgeous dish is similar to ratatouille.

Chef Louis Diat created this famous cold soup (without the peas, which are a nice addition) during his tenure at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York. Diat named the soup after Vichy, the resort town near his boyhood home in France. Hot potato-leek soup had been popular with French chefs for centuries, but Diat-inspired by his own childhood habit of adding milk to hot soup to cool it of-served his version cold. Exactly when vichyssoise first appeared on the hotel menu is unclear, but British food writer Elizabeth David claimed that it debuted in 1917.

For toppings, provide some diced avocado and extra chopped cilantro.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Preserved tuna, packed in extra-virgin olive oil, is paired with white beans in Tuscany, a speedy dish to assemble if you've got beans on hand. Canned beans work well and simplify this preparation — open a few cans and chop an onion. Quality tuna makes a big difference in the success of this dish. Leftover grilled or poached tuna can be used instead of canned, but it should be marinated in extra-virgin olive oil. All choices will work better than insipid tuna packed in water. Scallions can be used in the spring, red onions for the rest of the year. Torquato, my farmer and muse, suggested combining green beans with tuna during his glorious green-bean season, a fantastic variation.

For this recipe, it's best to choose a head of cauliflower with a very dense crown so that the "steaks" will hold together during cooking. However, even if they separate a bit, the dish is still delicious.

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 1 hr

These apples are a perfect garnish for the spiced apple cake and caramelized apple crêpes. They're terrific as a topping for ice cream, too. Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 25 min

Lamb has a tender consistency and a rich flavor that enhance the texture of wines such as Hermitage, Côte Rôtie, and Shiraz.

Start with a radicchio and watercress salad tossed with Sherry vinaigrette, and pass crisp semolina rolls with the pasta. Wrap up the meal with chocolate-covered biscotti, assorted grapes, and some good brandy.