Oven Bake

Sour cream replaces mayonnaise as the base for the tartar sauce here. Serve this fish with corn on the cob and chilled slices of melon on the side.

Pair this cornmeal-coated fish with Garden Coleslaw (page 75) and Green Beans and Corn (page 236) for a healthy southern meal.

A crust of whole-wheat crumbs and snipped fresh parsley with just a few drops of hot-pepper sauce kicks up the flavor of mild fish.

This is finger food at its finest! Invite some friends over for a meal of these oven-fries, stovetop pork chops, and Balsamic-Marinated Vegetables (page 78).

You’ll attract an audience when you take these yummy potatoes out of the oven. The star of the meal, they go well with almost anything. Try them with grilled flank steak and zucchini.

Fresh lemon juice, capers, basil, and olive oil provide your palate with a taste from the Greek Isles.

Roasting veggies over high heat retains those delightful concentrated flavors.

Instead of making the traditional recipe for this southern holiday favorite, give our version a try. It tastes just as good but is much lower in sodium and contains no saturated fat.

Get hooked on this crunchy, low-salt snack mix and use it to replace high-sodium potato chips.

Lower in sodium than commercially baked chips, these crunchy snacks are very easy to make, especially if you have a mandolin or a food processor to slice the veggies quickly and uniformly.

These smoky flavored olives are always the first thing to disappear off an antipasti platter or hors d’oeuvres spread. The brightness of the orange zest enhances the earthy flavors of the olives; you can use freshly squeezed orange juice if you don’t have zest. I love to serve these straight from the oven, still warm.

Smoked sea salts add a burst of flavor to raw and cooked foods when used as finishing or condiment salts. The options and flavors you can create are limitless. Anything from the aromatics list (opposite) will impart magical flavor to pure sea salt. Take it a step further and add other flavorings by tossing them into the salt before smoking.

This lovely vegetable curry uses traditional Indian spices and coconut milk. It is best made in a clay pot in a wood-fired oven or cooker. If you don’t have or don’t care for coconut milk, replace it with whole-milk yogurt. The finished dish will be less sweet but still very good. Serve it with rice to accompany chicken or fish.

This recipe was inspired by the flavors and aromas of Provence. The combination of herbes de Provence, picholine olives, and rosé wine transports me there each time I make this dish! The honey and prunes add just the right amount of sweetness. The chicken is cooked on the bone for more flavor. This dish can also feature duck beautifully. Of course, it tastes even better when served with a glass of the same dry rosé.

This phyllo pie is absolutely beautiful! I serve it often for brunch. It’s a version of the Greek spanakopita, but with mushrooms and a more complex flavor. You can make this recipe into filled triangles for appetizers or small individual 4-inch tortes for a showy presentation. The bread crumbs between the layers of phyllo add a wonderful crunch.

This colorful tart uses leftover cooked risotto for the crust, in this case risotto milanese, the classic that is infused with saffron. Any leftover risotto you have can be frozen and saved for this purpose. You can cube pancetta and roast in the oven until rendered of fat and slightly crisp, then add that to the filling of the tart. Smoked poultry such as chicken or duck is great as well.

This is the perfect tart to celebrate summer. It showcases the ripest heirloom tomatoes, fresh corn, and basil. You can use any tomatoes, but I like to use a mixture of colors. The corn kernels add crunch and a burst of flavor. The tang of the goat cheese pulls all the tastes together.

A pissaladière is a crisp, flaky pizza-like pastry popular in the south of France. This version is made with prepared puff pastry, then topped with the traditional olives and anchovies. Here it is made as one rectangular tart, though you can make individual ones as well. The onions are roasted in the oven until soft, jammy, and a bit smoky. If you don’t have oven-roasted tomatoes in your pantry, sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil can be substituted. My favorite element is the grated dried goat cheese at the end.

This is a simple yet elegant tart from Fran Gage. The roasted garlic custard makes a wonderful savory flan on its own, and the crust is perfect for other savory tarts (the recipe makes enough dough for 2 tarts; freeze the extra dough to use later). For even more complex flavor, roast the mushrooms as well as the garlic in the wood-fired oven.