Fish

Complete the entrée with roasted red-skinned potatoes and boiled green beans. Serve pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

The following is chef Robert Freitag's variation of a recipe by Joyce Goldstein, chef-owner of Square One, in San Francisco, until it closed in 1996. The chef likes to use king salmon when making this dish.

This dish is a characteristic Moroccan Jewish preparation. North Africans, Jews and non-Jews alike, are particularly skilled at cooking fish because the long coastline yields so much. Dried chickpeas, a staple starch in the Mediterranean, traveled with the Jews when they emigrated.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 1 hr

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 15 min

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 30 min

This is fantastic with coleslaw and warm biscuits. What to drink: A not-too-oaky domestic Chardonnay or a white Burgundy, such as one from France's St.-Véran region.

Serve with: Grilled portobello mushrooms and a rice salad with sliced radishes. Dessert: Scoops of coconut, pineapple, and passion-fruit sorbets drizzled with rum.

Here's an all-new tuna-noodle casserole; just add a salad of arugula and sliced oranges. Dessert might be big spice cookies sandwiched with vanilla ice cream.

This sophisticated appetizer from Aqua in San Francisco is nice for a special occasion.

If you can't find pancetta, you can substitute regular bacon.

Chef Ludovic LeFebvre writes: "I'm looking forward to the opening of my restaurant, Ludo, this fall. It's going to be different from the elaborate French cuisine I've done in the past: People are interested in lighter and healthier foods now, and I want my cooking to reflect that. For me, that means using the best ingredients in simple ways. "Before coming to America, I apprenticed with some of France's best chefs, like Marc Meneau and Alain Passard. I was lucky to have such great teachers, but after two years of working 17-hour days, it was time for a change. Moving to Los Angeles definitely altered my work habits. My days in the kitchen are shorter, and there's more opportunity to enjoy cooking at home. " Sophisticated flavors; simple techniques. Serve with crusty bread.

Truite à la Tomate This trout recipe could be page 1 of [fishmonger Neige] Perez's Workbook for Cooking Fish 101. There are no fish bones to fillet, no tomatoes to peel, and no saucepans to clean. Cooked together in a single roasting pan, the capers, olives, onions, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, white wine, and trout fillets conspire to create a wonderful, unmistakably Mediterranean ensemble sure to entice even Marseillais who were scaling and gutting fish — or so they say — before they could walk.

Marsha also uses this versatile sauce (based on the Spanish sauce called romesco) as a pasta sauce, as a dip and on garlic toasts as an hors d'oeuvre.

Pick up some crunchy coleslaw and corn bread to go with the fish. Bourbon-spiked sweetened peaches with vanilla ice cream are a nice dessert.

Make garlic-rubbed baguette toasts for mopping up the sauce. What to drink: Brut Champagne or a dry, aromatic white wine, like Viognier.