Cheese

(Topfenstrudel) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Rick Rodgers's book Kaffeehaus: The Best Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. Rodgers also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Austrian cooking, click here. Not every café has a full-time baker. At many, it's just Mama in the kitchen and often Mama doesn't feel like (or doesn't have enough counter space for) hand-pulling strudel dough. This classic recipe layers store-bought filo dough with a Topfen filling in a pan to make a deep-dish dessert. Thanks to Gerda Hofer for this recipe.

Crumbly and melting, easy and irresistible, at the catering company, we keep the dough for this shortbread on hand in the freezer for in-house treats and for extra hors d'oeuvres or snacks for a party that balloons at the last minute. I first tasted this shortbread when my friend Gail Monaghan passed it around in a silver basket before a dinner party at her house. I took one bite and said, "OK, where's the pen? Hand over the recipe (there was a "please" implied): this is amazing and I need to put this in my book." She very angelically wrote it out nicely, and here it is.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from David Bouley, Mario Lohninger, and Melissa Clark's book East of Paris: The New Cuisines of Austria and the Danube. Lohninger also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Lohninger and Austrian cooking, click here. Spätzle are tiny dumplings that you make by passing a thin batter through a colander (or a spätzle maker) into a pot of boiling water. You can serve them simply boiled and drained, topped with melted butter and poppy seeds, or fried with onions and cheese as we do here. This is a rich mountain-style skiers' dish that will really keep you going.

Onions, cheese, and yogurt pies abound in the north of Greece, especially in shepherds' communities where dairy products are daily staples. This recipe is culled from that tradition, but instead of preparing a whole sheet pan with homemade phyllo, I have reworked it to make it accessible and more in tune with the meze style of eating.

This festive arrangement was inspired by the popular holiday wreaths decorated with fruits. They take their name from Luca Della Robbia, the 15th-century Florentine sculptor known for crafting lifelike garlands of leaves and fruits.

Fuyu persimmons look like orange tomatoes and have a melon-like texture. Many farmers' markets and supermarkets carry them from October through December.

These popovers are like individual Yorkshire puddings. To make a dozen large popovers, just double the recipe and use two pans.

This delicate salad, combining crisp celery and tender fresh porcini, grew out of the memories of two food editors — Zanne Stewart and Alexis Touchet — of similar ones they had enjoyed at restaurants in Italy. (Surprisingly, they were in different regions and traveling 20 years apart.)

This recipe makes much more dressing than you'll need for the salad, but it's so delicious you'll be glad to have extra in the refrigerator.

Heat the pizza stone and prepare the eggplant and other pizza toppings in this recipe while the pizza dough is rising.

A slightly firm, mellow triple-crème, Mt. Tam cheese softens into this stew but doesn't melt. We like to add a little extra Sherry just before serving.

This crab dish is as much of a treat as digging in to a good book: It's adapted from a scene in the novel The Hours and featured in The Book Club Cookbook (Tarcher/Putnam), which pairs recipes with great reads. The casserole offers lean protein and doses of vitamin A and folate. Plus, Self substituted soymilk for cream and replaced butter with olive oil, giving this storybook recipe a healthy ending.

Although this dish is lower in fat due to the skim milk and reduced-fat cheese, you'll love it so much you may never resort to the fluorescent-orange boxed stuff again!

Healthy bonus: Vitamin A and lycopene from the red peppers

Healthy bonus: Vitamin C and beta-carotene from the squash.

Healthy bonus: Bone-building magnesium and calcium from arugula