Bean and Legume

The onions can be made 3 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

If you don't have time to make your own hummus, buy some at the market or specialty foods store, and mix in chipotle chilies and cumin to taste.

This lemony pasta dish is great with sesame breadsticks and a salad of sliced tomatoes and Vidalia onions in a red-wine vinaigrette. End with hazelnut cookies and a mixed-melon compote splashed with Champagne.

Familiar sides meet in a fresh, colorful salad.

Vignarola You'll find this dish in trattorias all over Rome during the spring. The long, slow cooking causes the vegetables to lose their bright color, but the sweet flavor of the stew makes up for its rather bland appearance. Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr

Slightly sweet, fresh ricotta, which can be found in many Italian markets, makes this starter especially delicious. Regular ricotta also works well.

This recipe makes great use of the tough outer leaves of romaine, which are often discarded.

Fine-grain bulgur, sometimes labeled "good for tabbouleh," is essential to this recipe, because coarsely ground bulgur will not soften when soaked in boiling water. A late-season tomato salad or sautéed cherry tomatoes with Indian flavors complete this meal.

If you can get fresh shelled peas, cook them in a pan of boiling water until they are just tender, 3 to 5 minutes, then drain and toss them with the chives, zest, and pepper. Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 40 min

This stew is great served with noodles.

Pairing chick-peas and Swiss chard is nothing new—Armenians have been doing it for generations. But with great tomatoes and a squeeze of lemon, this quick vegetable stew is as fresh as summer. If you can’t find Swiss chard, spinach is an authentic substitute.

'80S THE COSBY SHOW In the well-appointed Huxtable kitchen ("The Drum Major" first aired on February 4, 1988), Cliff explains to his family why it's essential to wait three days before eating his famous chili: "If you tasted this on the first day, you'd say, 'What can did this come out of?' If you tasted this on the second day, you'd say, 'Oh my goodness, somebody's grandmother got up off her chair and just took this to the mountain!' But on the third day you don't even have to taste it. You just walk by the pot and something says, 'Hey, come here!'" Although this chili can be eaten the same day it's made, it really does taste better if you wait another day or two. Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 6 1/2 hr (plus 1 to 2 days for flavors to develop)

Peas and chives really dress up this side dish.

"Pease porridge in the pot nine days old" fairly well summarizes the technique of stew preparation in Shakespeare's day. A thick soup would have been left cooking for days at a time, with new vegetables, stock, and bits of leftover meat continually added. This Italian version contains rich duck meat, a delicious and unusual addition to pea soup.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.<P> This recipe originally accompanied epi:recipeLink="101050"Rack of Lamb with Spinach Pine-Nut Crust and Minted Pea Sauce</epi:recipeLink>.