Tomato

This one is Italy, pure and simple. Which is precisely what Italian cuisine is all about: Get yourself fresh, pure ingredients in season, plus some fine, real condiments and seasonings, and put it all together without a lot of fuss, and ecco! A simply superb meal, as healthy as they come and as good as eating gets. It's also beautiful on the plate. Note that scampi does not, in fact, mean shrimp, as many people think, but rather refers to the popular lemon, garlic, and oil preparation for shrimp in so many red-sauce Italian joints.

Serve this Deep South specialty with Cream Biscuits .

Editor's note: Use this recipe to make Black Rice with Squid . -Sofrito is a basic preparation of tomatoes, garlic, oil, and onions that forms the base of many traditional Spanish dishes.
-The sauce will keep for 5 days in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer.

-Gazpacho can be made ahead and frozen. Defrost in the fridge overnight.
-Mayonnaise is an unusual ingredient, but we like the creaminess it adds to the soup.
-For 2 you will need 4 tomatoes, 1 small cucumber, and 1 small red bell pepper. For 6, you will need 12 tomatoes, 1 cucumber and 1 red pepper.

Talk about a lean bean! Adding about 1/2 cup of filling high-fiber chickpeas to your daily diet can cut your consumption of fatty foods, a study in the journal Appetite finds.

The novelist Julia Alvarez grew up in the Dominican Republic; her husband, Bill Eichner, is the son of tenant farmers in Nebraska. Dinner at the couple's Vermont home is a study in how far-flung flavors have enriched the simple sturdy fare of America. Dr. Eichner spent hours coaxing Alcarez's mother, her aunts, and her cousins (not to mention, Ana, the family cook) into giving him the broad outlines of their family's dishes—sweet-and-sour carrots, spicy Caribbean chicken, red beans and rice, and bread pudding. He tested the recipes on his parents, Ruth and John, who now live a couple of minutes away. Ruth, herself an accomplished cook, really liked the recipe for sweet-and-sour carrots.

Here's a quiche recipe that goes wheat free without skimping on flavor. We call for broccoli and Cheddar cheese, but you can trade out the broccoli for asparagus tips or halved cherry tomatoes and the Cheddar for Gruyère, Swiss, or Comté.

These pizzas are inspired by a traditional dish served in Middle Eastern restaurants. They are an ideal way to introduce a new protein and flavor to your children, who are bound to eat them if you call them pizzas.

Rasam is an immensely popular South Indian soup. The word rasam, in the Tamil language, means "essence," or "juice," and has come to mean a particular type of soup that includes the tartness of tamarind or tomatoes. The ingredients used in rasam vary, but it is basically a light, spicy soup. The spiciness can be adjusted to your taste. At times I add vegetables to make this soup a complete meal.

Rice grits are a by-product of milling Carolina Gold rice. Find them at ansonmills.com or grind your own. To learn how, go to bonappetit.com/go/ricegrits.

"At home I don't even want to use a knife and fork," says Nick Johnson of 43 North in Madison, WI. This sandwich, with store-bought rotisserie chicken, obliges.

When it comes to nutrition, cherries don't bomb. They're rich in anthocyanins, which can jump-start your immune system and mop up free radicals.

A saganaki is a traditional two-handled skillet in which Greeks serve aromatic one-pot dishes, typically topped with cheese. This recipe is a play on the classic shrimp and feta saganaki, to which I have added millet for a deliciously satisfying meal, finished with a dash of ouzo to infuse the shrimp with its distinctive anise flavor. A Dutch oven doubles beautifully as a serving vessel, or transfer the cooked millet to a shallow serving bowl and top the ouzo-infused shrimp.

Serve this terrine as an elegant starter to a summer meal.

To add a pungent touch of crunchiness to this classic Italian salad, after grilling the bread, rub it with garlic before tossing it with juicy tomatoes.

Infuse lemony, garlicky chicken with even more flavor by basting it with rosemary branches dipped in olive oil.

This ultra-refreshing tomato water makes great use of an abundance of tomatoes and works well as a virgin summer cooler, too.

This soup is equally delicious served hot or chilled.