Egg

More confections than cookies, really, meringues accompany ice cream well and add a festive dimension to the table. They are best baked on a cool, dry day.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Tocqueville presents this elegant soufflé-like dessert with mint ice cream and mint syrup.

Serve warm croissants and an arugula and Belgian endive salad with lemon vinaigrette to accompany this dish. Baked apples with brandied whipped cream complete the meal.

Good as the centerpiece of a meatless meal.

Jennifer Martin of Portland, Oregon, writes: "I am not formally trained in cooking but grew up working in food service, from chopping vegetables at food festivals to catering parties for a little extra income. Today I own Epicure Custom Cooking, a gourmet takeout shop and catering company with a few tables for dining. Our specials change weekly and are geared toward what I like to cook and eat. I simply love the business, even with my 12-hour days. At home when I'm not working, I'm usually cooking just for myself, and I don't have a lot of time. I love a good breakfast — when I have Saturday and Sunday mornings off — so that's why I came up with the frittata."

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Piperade, a saucy tomato and pepper mixture from the Basque regions of France and Spain, is often paired with eggs.

Tortilla à la Basquaise au Thon et à la Tapenade Use a deep 12-inch-diameter nonstick skillet to make this Spanish-style frittata.

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 40 min

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Oeufs en Meurette Sauce meurette is one of the grand classics of French country cooking, a dark concentrated essence of red wine, stock, and vegetables. You would expect it to be paired with the equally powerful flavors of meat or poultry, but no — meurette is unique in accompanying fish, or poached eggs, as here. For extra flavor, I like to poach the eggs in the wine, which is then used for the sauce; they emerge an odd purple hue, but this is later concealed by the glossy brown sauce. For poaching, it's well worth looking for farm-fresh eggs as they hold their shape better than store-bought eggs. Oeufs en meurette is a favorite restaurant dish, not least because it can be prepared ahead and assembled to order. However, most regrettably, it is not a dish to make in a hurry. All the elements can be prepared in advance, but the full glory of oeufs en meurette is ruined by trying to cut corners. Wine for Cooking For six months in the year, we live in northern Burgundy, where the local pinot noirs are inexpensive and appropriately light for this dish. Equally good for meurette would be a pinot from the northern end of Oregon's Willamette Valley. Avoid the "blockbuster" type of heavy pinots that come from the hotter climes of California and Australia. Wine to Drink To do justice to the richly flavored sauce, let's move up to something grander. A premier cru red from one of the villages in Burgundy's Côte de Beaune would do nicely, as would one of the more refined pinots from California's Carneros district.