European

Italian risotto, traditionally served as an appetizer, makes a great vegetarian meal when served with a salad. In this recipe, butter and cream have been replaced with a flavorful mushroom broth. Porcini mushrooms and Arborio rice are available at Italian markets, specialty food stores and some supermarkets.

You can use good, strong chicken stock for this recipe instead of homemade duck stock — it won't be as rich, but it's better than not cooking the dish at all as it is heavenly!

Lenticchie Brasate
This recipe is an accompaniment for Chicken Breast Valdostana with Braised Lentils.

Start this at least one day before serving.

You can make this dish with white truffles as well. Canned white truffles are more pungent than the black ones and provide an exciting gastronomic treat when added to the sauce.

Accompany this dish with a salad of baby lettuces and sliced sweet onion- such as Vidalia or Maui- and some seeded breadsticks. End with chocolate frozen yogurt drizzled with coffee liqueur or chocolate sauce.

Sole mousselines are a culinary classic — we added scallop to bring in a note of sweetness that perfectly balances the fresh flavor of the cucumber soup. The mousselines would also be delicious served on their own with a beurre blanc, or the purée could be spread and baked in a loaf pan and served as fish pâté. This recipe is an accompaniment for Warm Cucumber Soup with Scallop and Sole Mousselines.

Chestnuts are harvested in the area around Alba and figure in many savory and sweet dishes there, particularly stews like this ragout. Gathered after they have fallen, chestnuts are traditionally served with game, but they also pair well with veal-another staple of northern Italian cuisine. If fresh chestnuts are unavailable, roasted vacuum-packed chestnuts-sold in jars in the specialty foods section of many supermarkets-can be used. Supply crusty bread for soaking up the juices. Accompany with a radicchio and escarole salad, and uncork a Barolo.

This version of the Greek and Turkish dessert features dates instead of nuts. Date palms flourish in the hot climate of the Middle East.

A version of the famous Parisian ham-and-cheese sandwich pairs up with a classic soup.

Tarama, or carp roe caviar, is a favorite Kytheran ingredient.

The sauce for these cheese-based latkes, which are great for breakfast, can be made two days ahead. Be sure to serve the pancakes (enough for four people) as soon as they are made.

Syllabub—a thick, frothy dessert made of wine, sugar and cream—originated in old England. This raspberry-topped version is served at Christiana Campbell's Tavern. Begin preparing it a day before serving.

This modification of a classic soup uses less cream than traditional versions.

In addition to the shiitake mushrooms called for here, look for morels, porcini or even button mushrooms, all of which are available during late spring early summer months.

A French flourless nut cake, topped with poached pears, is lovely for Hanukkah.

(Provençal Basil Sauce) Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Piparelli Abstinence during Lent means that for the forty days preceding Easter, Catholics all over Sicily are supposed to eat cucina magra (literally, lean food). This means no meat, no fat, no eggs. Theoretically. Modern Catholics get to choose what they give up for Lent, and this is called fare un fioretto, or making a sacrifice. There is little indication that pastries and sweets are even near the top of the "to give up" list, other than the presence of quaresimali, the general term for the category of austere cookies that appear in pastry shops during the spring. Piparelli are the Lenten cookies that the people of Messina like best. At the Pasticceria Vinci Domenico in Messina, piparelli are such a favorite that they're now made year-round.