Beverages

Ciabatta is a wonderfully chewy classic Italian bread that is being rediscovered by specialty bakers around the country. Look for a rather wide, flat, flour-dusted bread, whether shaped into rolls or loaves. The rolls we used were 4- to 5-inch rectangles, but one or two ciabatta loaves would work equally well. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This is terrific brushed onto grilled chicken or ribs, or spread onto brisket or barbecued-pork sandwiches.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

At the Markham in New York, this cake is served with toasted almond ice cream.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This dessert is easy to make on a cleaned rack after grilling a main course.

This is also a great vegetarian entrée.

In this easy salad, salty prosciutto contrasts with peppery arugula and cooling mango. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less, but requires additional unattended time.

Ask your butcher to remove the large bone from the leg of lamb, leaving the shank bone intact. Begin preparing this main course a day ahead. Team it with carrots, French bread and some Cabernet Sauvignon. When your guests have finished the lamb, serve a mixed green salad. For dessert, offer purchased pear sorbet and biscotti and serve with cups of espresso.

We've learned from experience that, because goose gives off so much fat in roasting, it's necessary to use a deep (at least 2 inches) roasting pan (do not use a non-stick pan). We also recommend using a metal bulb baster — the hot goose fat may melt a plastic one.

Because they contain so little flour, these cookies have a chewy, brownie-like texture.

(POLLO ALLA MARENGO) On June 14, 1800, Napoléon Bonaparte defeated the Austrians at Marengo, a village in southeast Piedmont. The town has given its name to this chicken dish, which was cooked on the battlefield by Dunand, chef to Napoléon. It is still served throughout the area-as well as in France-and is often made with veal. Serve with lots of bread to soak up the juices; uncork a velvety red Barbaresco.

Creating her own versions of restaurant dishes is a hobby of Christina's. This is her interpretation of a pasta she had while dining out in San Francisco.

For a low-fat entrèe, be sure to remove all visible fat and membrane from the veal shanks. Tie them to retain a nice shape.

This is one of those recipes that has pretty much disappeared in the United States, but those who remember it rave about it. A fluden, which comes from fladni or fladen, "flat cake" in German, is just that, a flat, double-or often multilayered flaky pastry filled with poppy seeds, apples and raisins, or cheese. It was originally common to southern Germany and Alsace-Lorraine, later spreading east to Hungary, Romania, and other Eastern European countries. Often flavored with honey, it was eaten in the fall at Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot and is symbolic, like strudel, of an abundant yield. I have tasted apple two-layered fluden at Jewish bakeries and restaurants in Paris, Budapest, Tel Aviv, and Vienna, sometimes made with a butter crust, sometimes with an oil-based one. But only in Paris have I tasted the delicious fig rendition, a French fig bar, from Finkelsztajn's Bakery. (Figs, my father used to tell me, were often eaten in Germany as the new fruit on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.) This recipe is a perfect example of the constant flux of Jewish foods. Today, with the huge population of Tunisian Jews in Paris, it is no wonder that the Finkelsztajn family spike their fig filling with bou'ha, a Jewish Tunisian fig liqueur used for kiddush, the blessing over the wine on the Sabbath. You can, of course, use kirsch or any other fruit liqueur instead.