Bell Pepper

A sophisticated main course.

Here's a simple do-ahead salad that travels very well. It's also great as a side dish for grilled chicken or beef.

The juices from the clams combine with spicy Asian flavors to make a great pasta sauce.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A little bit of feta cheese goes a long way in the tangy marinade for this dish.

This meatless salad combines couscous with roasted eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper and leeks. Cooked sausage may be added to make it heartier. Serve with rolls or baguette slices and iced tea or white wine.

A spectacular one-dish meal that gets its rich flavor from homemade crab stock. The stock is simple to make and does not require a lot of time. Potato helps thicken the soup; butternut squash adds color.

Top these tostadas with guacamole.

This dish harks back to West Africa, where black-eyed peas, according to some culinary historians, were eaten prior to European arrival. Certainly for many African-Americans, black-eyed peas were, and are still, the staff of life. They turn up with rice in Hoppin' John, the traditional New Year's dish that has spread from South Carolina to the rest of the South; and they are often served at other times of the year as a main dish or vegetable. This is a basic recipe. The black-eyed peas may also be cooked with a ham bone, a precooked ham hock, or with olive oil instead of bacon fat. This last sacrifices the traditional smoky taste to contemporary concerns about cholesterol, but whatever way black-eyed peas are served, they're delicious. Black-eyed peas can even be pickled, as in this recipe, which also goes by the name of Texas caviar. The dish can be prepared with either cooked dried black-eyed peas, canned ones, or, if you are really lucky and live in an area where they can be obtained, with fresh ones. May be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Chef Stratta prepares this satisfying sandwich for The Terrace Dining Room, Phoenix, Arizona.

A rich and satisfying soup with great roasted tomato flavor. Put it into a wide-mouth thermos to o keep it cold for a picnic; it's also nice hot or at room temperature.