European

A lightened version of a first course that traditionally precedes choucroute garnie.

"My grandmother, who was a successful restaurateur from C″rdoba, Spain, hesitantly relinquished her gazpacho recipe to me," says Lawrence Saez of San Francisco, CA. This nourishing cold soup is ideal for a hot summer day and is best enjoyed with a glass of Manzanilla Sherry.

On the Cycladic islands, homemade salted pork flavors most vegetable dishes. Pancetta makes a good substitute here.

This recipe originally accompanied Lemon-Sage Cornish Game Hens with Tomato-Porcini Sauce. If you can get it, use stone-ground cornmeal; it's grainier than regular cornmeal and gives the dish a slightly crackly texture.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes.

"My husband, Andreas, is from Crete," writes Yolanda Paterakis, "and we have a vacation home on the Greek island of Euboea in the Aegean Sea. No matter where we are, we love to entertain our two children, our three grandchildren, and scores of friends. People often come over in the evening for mezedes and ouzo. For these get-togethers, I always prepare quick, simple dishes because my busy schedule demands it; I write children's and travel books, and I'm the general secretary of the National Society of Greek Writers. I've often thought that cooking is like writing a story — always best when you put your heart into it."

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 25 min

The fragrant secret to this recipe from Delfina Studio Café is the rose water.

A 3 1/2-pound chicken works well, too, in this dish from Syracuse.

French for "crunch in mouth," a classic croquembouche is made with custard-filled cream puffs coated with caramel and stacked in a tall pyramid shape. Here, these chocolate-cream-filled puff pyramids are scaled down to individual servings and drizzled with a chocolate glaze.

Adrienne Herman of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, writes: "I recently enjoyed a terrific meal at the Eiffel Tower restaurant at Paris Las Vegas. The highlight was the crème brûlée, which I would love to re-create at home."

From Daniel Boulud and Alex Lee, the former executive chef at Daniel in New York.

Karla Medina of League City, Texas, writes: "At a food festival in downtown Houston, I had a sampler plate from Carmelo's Italian Restaurant. The eggplant Parmesan and spicy meatballs were very good, but the polenta was out of this world. I'd love to know how they prepared it."

This recipe hails from France.

For this recipe, Lisa uses broccoli rabe, a type of bitter Italian green. But the everyday supermarket broccoli works fine, too.

Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 2 3/4 hr