Wine

Here's an easy granita (a grown up snow cone). If you like, top it off just before serving with a diced melon salad made from cubes of cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon that have been tossed with a bit of sugar and thinly sliced fresh mint leaves.

This surprisingly rich-tasting custard has much less fat than the classic version made with egg yolks. In another twist, we call for vin santo instead of the conventional choice, Marsala.

Sofrito is a sautéed vegetable mixture used as a seasoning in Spain, Italy and Latin America. This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This duck recipe is unusually light and delicate.

Lemon juice is an integral part of this classic dish. Choose the smallest clams possible, and make sure not to overcook them.

This gets its distinctive pink color from the addition of red wine and radicchio.

Remove the skin from the game hens before roasting them to make this delicious main course lower in fat. Uncork a bottle of Chardonnay, and offer steamed yellow and green zucchini alongside.

For a cozy supper, accompany this quickly prepared dish with pumpernickel bread and hot mustard. Finish with a European-style dessert of cheese and fruit.

The 1970s saw perhaps the biggest change in cooking in this century. That's when a group of talented young chefs in France came up with "nouvelle cuisine," emphasizing fresh ingredients, elegant presentation, and interesting and unusual combinations of foods and flavors. American chefs quickly imported it and made it into something uniquely their own. For our take on this landmark in contemporary cooking, we've shaped purchased puff pastry into individual tartlet, filled them with pistachio frangipane and sliced pears, and topped it all off with a sweet-wine glaze.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.