Herbs & Spices

Guacamole con Tomatillos Use Haas avocados if available; their buttery creaminess makes for the best guacamole.

Roasted eggplant spreads and salads come in many variations throughout Greece and are usually embellished with local flavor. In the North, yogurt is often added to the eggplants, for example, throughout the Cyclades, it is the ubiquitous caper and tomato that season this delicious dish.

This delicate cut of meat is ideally sautéed (a quick cook in butter or oil) until lightly browned. Don't overcook!

For this warm-weather dish, a salsa cruda à la Grec — or uncooked Greek-style sauce — is combined with hot pasta and served at once. Be sure to use the ripest, juiciest tomatoes you can find, preferably from a farmers' market or your own backyard.

The easy tomato chutney is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's cookbook From Curries to Kebabs. Make the chutney and combine it with the green beans about four hours before serving, which allows plenty of time for the beans to soak up the flavors.

The lemon juice gives these potatoes an appealing fresh taste.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. In this recipe hot pasta is tossed with an uncooked sauce of oil, herbs, a little vinegar, mozzarella, and raw garlic. The pasta absorbs some of the vinegar and oil and slightly melts the mozzarella. We call for bocconcini — bite-size pieces of mozzarella — but regular fresh mozzarella cut into 1/2-inch cubes would work just as well. Tip: When incorporating raw garlic into a dish such as this, buy the freshest garlic you can find. The cloves should be dry and tightly packed together, and they should feel firm. Old garlic may impart a bitter, strong flavor — overwhelming the other components.

When dinner is just for two, why not splurge on veal chops? Accompany this sophisticated entrée with roasted potatoes and sautéed or steamed green beans.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve couscous and buttered carrots with this main course. Purchase fresh rhubarb tartlets for a seasonal finale.

Halved cherry tomatoes and diced green chilies make a chunky relish for the tri-tip.

Ask the butcher to "french" the racks of lamb, which involves cutting away the meat from the ends of the rack to expose the bones. Serve with: California Cabernet • asparagus sprinkled with chives and toasted pine nuts • crusty baguette • blueberry crumble with cream

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.