Tomato

The warm goat cheese toasts make delicious croutons for the salad, but they would also be an easy hors d'oeuvre.

Marietta's tomato sauce — made this simple way — is the best I've ever tasted. Roasting the tomatoes has a magical effect and intensifies the flavors. Though especially delicious in summer, this recipe is also just the thing when you can't find perfect fresh tomatoes. The sauce brings out the best even in a winter tomato.

A version of the Tuscan specialty, fagioli all'ucccelletto.

At the restaurant, this vinaigrette is also used as a marinade for grilled chicken.

This dish, which pairs the sunny flavors of Provence with the comfort of mashed potatoes, makes a nice accompaniment to grilled meat, poultry, or fish.

My mother had no interest in cooking, but did what she could to get a nutritious dinner on the table with the least possible effort. The concept of a "recipe" was virtually unknown to her. Most nights, dinner was composed of exactly one item from each of the four food groups, for example: a baked potato, boiled peas, broiled chicken, and ice cream. No two ingredients touched each other until they got to our plates. We always had plenty of shrimp in the house (my father was a seafood importer), so my mother took advantage of this food supply by keeping bowls of boiled shrimp with ketchup and horseradish in the refrigerator. Then, on special nights, my mother would give it all she had and make what we called a "dish." We celebrated her efforts at combining ingredients, but the results were never worth the wait.

Paired with homemade salsa, these old-fashioned fried green tomatoes get a nineties update.

In this recipe we call for a 3- by 1 1/2-inch stainless-steel pastry ring. It is available at some specialty cookware shops.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. The coconut milk can be found in the Asian foods section of most supermarkets.

A lightened version of a first course that traditionally precedes choucroute garnie.

This recipe is from Cafe Annie in Houston, TX.

"My grandmother, who was a successful restaurateur from C″rdoba, Spain, hesitantly relinquished her gazpacho recipe to me," says Lawrence Saez of San Francisco, CA. This nourishing cold soup is ideal for a hot summer day and is best enjoyed with a glass of Manzanilla Sherry.