Tomato

Freeze some of this sauce now and treat yourself to a burst of summer one cold, wintry day.

Add chopped jalapeños for some extra zip.

Broiling the eggplant gives it a delicious deep roasted flavor.

A spicy arugula and tomato salad accompaniment makes this a perfect light summer entrée that could easily serve as a one-dish meal, or a piatto unico as they are known in Italy. The trick is to cook the chops slowly over even, meduim heat, so that they cook through without burning the bread-crumb crust.

Serve these hearty meatballs over noodles or mashed potatoes.

Both easy and inexpensive, tuna-noodle casserole stretched proteins and carbohydrates to the limits and fed at least a generation of American kids very well. Canned tuna will never go away, but fresh tuna has joined it as a culinary staple, and it stars in this deconstructed version of the classic. All the elements that make tuna casserole so appealing and comforting are here, just slightly rearranged. And there’s no need to serve this on a cafeteria tray: It’s good enough for your best china.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 45 min

The test kitchen used wonton wrappers instead of homemade pasta to simplify this.

"On a trip to San Francisco, I had a terrific bowl of cioppino at Rose Pistola, star chef Reed Hearon's Italian restaurant," says Gail Haines of Westerly, Rhode Island.

We found that using finely stone-ground cornmeal yielded a denser, slightly heavier fritter than regular stone-ground cornmeal. Though both tasted the same, we preferred the texture of the fritter made with regular cornmeal.

Jamie Oliver calls this "another great pan-baked recipe that is perfect for coping with lots of people without a huge deal of effort." Oliver uses plaice, a popular flatfish in England favored over flounder, but lemon sole is a good substitute. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 1 hr

Yellow tomatoes — which are typically sweeter than red ones — flavor a sunny Golden State version of the chilled summer soup. Begin preparing this recipe one day before you plan to serve it.

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

When cooking with tomatoes in September, buy them ahead of time and let them ripen on your counter.

As the story goes, the Maya served this dish to the Spaniards, calling it papadzules, which means "food for the lords."

Serve with Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.

This light and lovely main course comes from executive chef Jeff Tunks at the acclaimed DC Coast in Washington, D.C.