Oven Bake

This uses the same ingredients found in boudin blanc, the classic French white sausage. Start two days before serving.

At the restaurant Charlie Trotter bakes these small soufflés in thimble-shaped molds and sets them atop rounds of his own dried-fig brioche. Although he likes to use white Muscat grapes for the sauce, the recipe works well with any color or variety of grape. We used red seedless grapes, and they yielded a beautiful dark-pink sauce.

The tomato topping for these crostini is based on that of a "fettunta pomodoro" (a variation of bruschetta made with whole-wheat peasant bread) sampled at Florence's Cantinetta Antinori, owned by the well-know winemaking family. To create visual variety for our presentation, we have made half of the crostini with the black olive paste on top and the rest with the red tomato mixture on top. Those who prefer a simpler recipe can sprinkle all of the bread slices with Parmesan before toasting (doubling the amount of cheese) and top all of the crostini with the tomato mixture and then the olive paste.

Serve with Garlic Mashed Potatoes. You don't know where the fish ends and the potatoes begin in this beautiful and satisfying dish Chef Desmond, of Island Cottage on Hare Island in Ireland, uses turbot that comes from the waters off nearby Clear Island. We call for halibut, which is more readily available here.

Chicken Tetrazzini was named after the Italian opera singer Luisa Tetrazzini, who was popular in the United States in the early 1900s. No one is sure when and where the dish was created, but it remains a favorite, especially during the holiday season, when leftover turkey is often substituted for chicken.

Fillets of sole will work equally well in the following recipe.

This recipe doubles easily.

Legend has it that a certain turn-of-the-century Boston restaurateur used to serve whatever tender, white-fleshed fish he could find at the market under a catchall name he invented: "scrod." (That way, he never had to update his menus.) The term, peculiar to New England, is now applied to young cod and haddock. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve polenta alongside this dish, which is also nice spooned over pasta or onto French rolls to make hero sandwiches.

In this interesting Tunisian specialty called farka, the semolina grains take a sweet turn. It is enjoyed as a breakfast dish or afternoon snack, rather than an after-dinner dessert.

A good cut of meat for this recipe is the butt portion of a bone-in, water-added ham. For optimum flavor, I like to prebake the ham, then simply slice away what I need from the bone.