Garlic

"As my kids have gotten older, their taste buds have become more sophisticated, and now they're willing to try dishes they wouldn't have touched just a few years ago," says Ken Haedrich, cookbook author. "So I've started serving this blend of mashed roots for Thanksgiving. It brings a bit of diversity to the table, and I also happen to love rutabagas and carrots. There was some dissension at first, especially from my youngest, Sam, whose fondness for mashed potatoes is the stuff of family legend. But now he dives right into this with the rest of us."

At many places in Italy, roasted peppers are dressed with bagna cauda, the classic warm anchovy and garlic sauce, but our cooks especially enjoyed it at La Contea, a restaurant in Neive, a village in the Piedmont. In this variation, potato slices have been added.

We loved these tomatoes after they were cooked for 6 hours. We served them on crusty bread with a little olive oil and thought they'd also work well as a side dish. But to toss with pasta, we wanted a more intense flavor, so we cooked them an additional 2 hours. They were perfect.

Leaping off the backs of onion-soup-mix boxes and showing up at cocktail parties everywhere, Lipton’s sour cream-and-onion dip took the country by storm. Convenient and quick, the dip also tasted great on potato chips, without which, in the fifties anyway, it wasn’t a party. These days it isn’t a party without little toasts topped by something Mediterranean-hence this zesty update.

This delicate savory version of the frothy dessert sauce is a lovely accompaniment to almost every kind of fish. Market tip: Farmed bay scallops are the most sustainable choice; if not available, choose wild-caught Atlantic sea scallops.

Here's a centerpiece dish that really lives up to the name. Uncork a Cabernet Sauvignon, red Bordeaux or red Super-Tuscan.

Horseradish, which is found on the traditional seder plate, is used here with terrific results.

Braised pork shoulder, spicy Italian sausage, and pancetta enrich the tomato sauce. Dried crushed red pepper kicks up the heat.

Serve with grilled chicken or fish. Also great with light goat cheese and French bread as an appetizer.

We've substituted the florets of regular broccoli for broccoli rabe, since they are more readily available. Use rabe if you can find it at your market; it will lend a stronger, more authentic flavor to the dish.

This recipe is needed to prepare Minted Lamb and Sugar Snap Pea Salad .

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 4 1/4 hr (includes making stock and rouille)

Cook and refrigerate the rice ahead of time. This meal needs only a bottle of Chardonnay.

This recipe makes more charmoula — a Moroccan herb and spice paste — than you'll need. You can use the leftover to rub on chicken or salmon before grilling. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 1 hr

"At the restaurant Mimosa, the food, service, and ambiance transform a night in Los Angeles into an evening in Paris," says Michele Winkler of Sherman Oaks, California. "There, we had a delectable roast pork that was succulent on the inside, with a marvelous crust. We would love to prepare it at home." You can order the inexpensive "Boston" roast called for in this recipe from your butcher. In late-18th-century New England, some pork cuts were packed into casks or barrels, known as "butts," for storage and shipment. The way the pork shoulder was cut in the Boston area became known in some regions as "Boston butt," a moniker still used today almost everywhere in the United States, except Boston.