Fennel

This is made with homemade pasta at the inn. Our easy alternative uses cooked lasagne noodles cut into squares. From the Inn at Perry Cabin, St. Michaels, Maryland. Watch how to make your own pasta for ravioli with our hands-on streaming video demonstration.

Ideal for any spring occasion.

Baking the potato adds an interesting depth of flavor to the salad and lends a mouth-pleasing texture.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

The fresh flavors and crisp textures in this salsa complement the tender sea bass.

This hearty stew is great served over egg noodles. Bitter greens with a creamy Gorgonzola dressing would be a good side salad. Have sliced bananas and strawberries drizzled with honey and balsamic vinegar for an elegant dessert.

New herbed chicken broth is used in this soup; adding the cheese-garlic bread makes it a filling entrée. Serve with a salad of chopped tomato and herbed olives tossed in bottled or fresh balsamic vinaigrette with chopped fresh marjoram. End with slices of pound cake spread with bottled lemon curd and surrounded by tangerine sections.

Elisa Mazzaferro-Rosenberg of Fort Collins, Colorado, writes: "I love to entertain, but between coming home late — I just completed my Ph.D. in small animal clinical sciences — and feeding my husband, Adam, and myself plus our little family of five cats and two dogs, I haven't had the time to have friends over much."

Serve a salad and some wine alongside, and you're ready for company.

Serve this delicate salad as a first course or alongside grilled chicken. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 20 min

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 2 hr

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

At the restaurant, this spectacular starter also has a tomato confit vinaigrette. Here, we've substituted chopped seeded peeled tomatoes to simplify the recipe.

This recipe was created to accompany Roasted Monkfish with Fennel-Saffron Compote

A great accompaniment to baked fish or sausage calzones.

Roasting tones down the sharpness of the fennel and enhances the sweetness of the pears in this salad. The pears also combine with balsamic vinegar to make a delicious dressing without much added fat.