Cheese

Frico, or “little trifles” in Italian, are very thin and crisp. When sprinkling the cheese mixture in the skillet, don’t worry if there are spaces; the cheese will melt into a lacy whole. In Italy, frico are traditionally made with Montasio cheese, but other cheeses, such as Cheddar, Asiago, and Parmesan, produce excellent results.

Look for pumpkinseed oil in gourmet shops or health-food stores.

Wasabi peas are a popular cocktail snack. In this recipe, they are ground and used to encrust goat cheese buttons, providing an innovative alternative to bread crumbs. For best results, slice the goat cheese with a piece of thread.

You will need to make the stock at least 1 day before you make the soup.

This soup derives its body and rich flavor from pureed broccoli stems and florets.

We used a combination of French breakfast, white icicle, and pink beauty radishes, but you can use any variety you’d like. When the weather is hot, sprinkle radishes with crushed ice before serving to keep them crisp.

The red skins of the pears are a colorful accent to these simple tea sandwiches. Use the Roquefort butter in other combinations, such as with watercress or thinly sliced tomato.

To make perfectly round sandwiches, cut each of the layers separately with the same biscuit cutter. Ask your butcher to slice the prosciutto more thickly than usual so it can be cut easily without tearing; you will need 1 round for each sandwich.

Serve this quick appetizer with a hearty brown bread.

These crackers use powder made from dried mushrooms ground with a mortar and pestle or in a spice grinder.

To stuff the squash blossoms easily, spoon the filling into a pastry bag fitted with a coupler; pipe it directly into each blossom.

Cheese drizzled with honey is a traditional Mediterranean appetizer; when mixed with fruit and nuts, it makes a tantalizing dessert.