Bon Appétit

Pistou—France's pesto—gives these simply poached eggs tons of flavor.

The best flavors of fruitcake baked into a tart that’s a balance of sweet, tangy, and buttery.

A cross between fudge and pecan praline, this soft, nutty, and somewhat crumbly southern delight is the ideal holiday treat.

Rich and crunchy, these almonds are prepared like Spain’s Marcona variety: cooked in oil and generously salted.

This deep, rich cake gets extra flavor from bittersweet chocolate, coffee, and crystallized ginger.

Brown butter makes broccolini almost decadent.

A great homemade gift. Panforte (an Italian fruit-and-nut confection) is the topping for these bittersweet chocolates.

This simple dish has a quiche-like filling and baguette slices for a crust.

Luscious and satisfying—a little goes a long way. Make the gratin up to one day ahead. Before serving, cut it into pieces and rewarm in the oven.

Vin Santo is an Italian dessert wine. If you can't find it, use sweet Marsala.

This simple salad, with its lemony dressing and bitter greens, is a nice match for the fried latkes.

You’ll need a 7 3/4-inch-diameter trifle dish that is at least 4 3/4 inches deep. The recipe makes an extra gingerbread cake; have it for breakfast the next morning. If you prefer to make 12 individual trifles, use all three gingerbread cakes and cut each in half horizontally. Using a pretty glass as a guide, cut out 4 cake rounds from each cut cake layer. Alternate 2 cake rounds with 2 to 3 layers of the mascarpone cream, a few candied kumquats, and some poached cranberries in each glass.

When it comes to gingerbread, I almost always find that the allspice and cloves overpower the ginger flavor. To remedy that imbalance, I created a cookie with a double dose of ginger (ground and crystallized) and a little bit of cinnamon. And although the traditional cut for gingerbread is fat, sturdy men, I thought the lightness of angel wings seemed more appropriate for these delicate cookies.

Speck, lightly smoked pork that is cured and air-dried, adds a richness to this dish. Look for Speck at Italian markets, specialty foods stores, or online at igourmet.com.

Every year, I make homemade fruitcakes for friends and family. I bake the dense pound cakes studded with dried fruits months in advance, then wrap them in muslin. These cookies are similar to my fruitcakes—only they’ll take you a lot less time. For a fun presentation, the cookies are baked in bonbon-size baking cups.

When I was growing up, everyone put out bowls of toasted pecans during the holidays. To this day, the heady perfume of toasting pecans brings me back to my childhood. To capture that memory in cookie form, I made a buttery-rich, highly addictive shortbread, then decorated it with toasted pecans.

The tiniest latkes on the menu, these are flavored with creamy cauliflower and spicy Aleppo pepper (a Syrian seasoning). Serve them with the aioli or just sprinkle them with za'atar.

A vegetarian spin on rillettes, the rich, creamy pàté traditionally made with duck or pork.

Chalupa is the Spanish word for "boat" and refers to the shape of the fried tortilla dough that serves as the base for these appetizers. In this version, the dough is baked in mini muffin cups and filled with chorizo, avocado, and salsa.