Food Processor

Deliciously sweet, savory, and salty.

Impress your guests with these individual flourless chocolate cakes. The lack of flour makes the cakes very moist—and causes them to sink a bit in the middle.

Like an eastern European take on ravioli, this embodiment of Polish comfort food is right at home in a lively tomato sauce with dill and caraway seeds.

We've never seen a spin on the ubiquitous combination of beets, cheese, and nuts as original as Smith's—it's an amazing take on familiar flavors. The beets are nestled in a pool of almond butter and crowned with a glorious Gorgonzola bombolone (an Italian-style puff of fried dough).

This is a wonderfully easy cake with flavors for which Piemonte is known. The best hazelnuts in Piemonte are called tonda gentile delle Langhe—the “gentle round one of the Langhe”—and with a bit of chocolate, you have the match made famous in Torino, gianduja. I love this torte for its versatility as well. I serve it simply with powdered sugar or whipped cream, or you can flank it with a scoop of chocolate ice cream or give it a drizzle of warm chocolate sauce. In Piemonte, I’ve had the torte with zabaglione—and if you turn to page 156, you’ll find a perfect partner in Zabaglione al Caffe` Nero.

This pastry recipe was one of those rare revelations that send shock waves through our test kitchens: How utterly brilliant to make extra dough, freeze it, and then just grate it directly into the pans when you need it! Rowe makes these adorable little tarts with damson plums, but we've found that prune plums work just as well. Although the pastry and compote make enough for twice this many tarts, they keep beautifully and they are so good you will be glad to have extra on hand.

This recipe was created by chef Lachlan Mackinnon Patterson of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colorado. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program. Start this recipe a day before you plan to serve it. Both the pear jam and the panna cotta are best if chilled overnight.

To make curls, soften a chocolate bar briefly in the microwave and run a vegetable peeler along one long side.

The cornmeal-crusted shrimp are a crunchy contrast to the creamy risotto.

Leftover caramel will keep for a week in the fridge; rewarm it and serve over ice cream.

Because they're firm and tart, Pippin or Jonathan apples would also be good here.

Serve this with a side of steamed basmati rice or Savory Semolina . Be sure to let guests know that there are whole cloves in the finished dish.

The lamb needs to marinate overnight.

Here's a mellow way to flavor this creamy and comforting Spanish custard dessert.

This simple, slightly crunchy cake needs only a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Here's an autumnal twist on pesto—with walnuts standing in for pine nuts and with a mix of herbs in place of summery basil. It's great on pasta or chicken.

These classic candies (called sweetmeats by the British) look sinful but are little more than dried apricots, figs, and plums dusted with nuts, cocoa, or sugar.