Tomato

Consider this delicious dish as a vegetarian main course, too.

A colorful, fresh-tasting dish that comes together in minutes. Serve this with a mixed green salad and some bread.

I find that littlenecks or tiny cockles are the best shellfish for this dish, because they are delicate. Tarragon complements them, as does parsley or dill.

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

Named for the pan in which it is traditionally made, this stew is cooked over high heat in chicken broth and bacon drippings, which are then reduced to a thick sauce

This recipe originally accompanied Roast Beef, Basil, and Spicy Tomato Chutney Lavash Sandwiches.

There is this great bustling taverna in one of the northern Athenian suburbs near where we live, and this is the house special, so much so that the chef refused to give me a recipe for it. So, I deconstructed it myself only to re-create it pretty much intact. The tomatoes, cream, and ouzo make a great sauce. You could easily make a quantity and serve it over pasta. It would look and taste good with squid-ink linguine.

Offer this simple, hearty dish with a green salad, crusty garlic bread and a light red wine, like Beaujolais.

Anne Rowland of Cohasset, Massachusetts, writes: "The Quincy Ships Brewing Company, south of Boston, is one of our favorite places. We especially love their citrus salsa, which they serve with chips." The restaurant has closed, but this spicy salsa is as good as ever.

A delicious alternative to gefilte fish. Have the fishmonger fillet the whitefish.

The somen noodles called for in this recipe are a very thin Japanese wheat noodle. They are available in the Asian section of many supermarkets, at Southeast Asian markets and at specialty foods stores.

Cioppino is San Francisco's answer to bouillabaisse and, like that famous Provencal seafood soup, is made with a variety of the freshest fish possible. In San Francisco the mixture included Dungeness crab, which adds a unique flavor, but any regional crab will do. If crab is not available, substitute another shellfish. No clams? Try mussels. The point is to treat the following recipe as a guide and use whatever looks best in the market the day you make the soup.

Introduced to India by Portuguese settlers, this spicy stew can also be made with pork, beef or lamb. Serve over steamed basmati rice.