Mushroom

Cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, and lots of fresh mint accent the salad. Offer chilled beer or a fruity white wine alongside.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Rick Rodgers, cookbook author and teacher, says, "When planning my holiday menu, I'm always sure to include a green vegetable for its bright color and clean flavor, and this year that vegetable is going to be broccoli. But it's not enough to serve it plain or too simply, because that's not what a big-time food fest like Thanksgiving is all about. So I decided to add a luxury ingredient—porcini mushrooms. Now that makes an ordinary vegetable extraordinary."

A refined version of a New Orleans classic. Ask the butcher to remove the backbone and quarter the duck.

Le Cirque's elegant take on roast chicken.

An easy and innovative first-course salad.

Making risotto is often thought to be an ordeal of stirring, but it really only takes about 20 minutes. In actuality, it's an easy dish, especially when it's the main course.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Crown of Shrimp with Truffle Sauce .

Active time: 35 min Start to finish: 35 min This recipe makes good use of the tail-end portion of a tenderloin.

Be sure to refrigerate the oil, and to use it within three weeks of the date it was made.

These bruschette from the cookbook Simple to Spectacular by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman (Broadway Books), look both simple and beautiful. Each is topped with an array of mushrooms—shiitake, cremini, and chanterelle —that is set off by fresh tarragon. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 45 min

Try this rich sauce over pasta or over the <a></a> Parmesan Polenta Squares

Italian risotto, traditionally served as an appetizer, makes a great vegetarian meal when served with a salad. In this recipe, butter and cream have been replaced with a flavorful mushroom broth. Porcini mushrooms and Arborio rice are available at Italian markets, specialty food stores and some supermarkets.

You can make this dish with white truffles as well. Canned white truffles are more pungent than the black ones and provide an exciting gastronomic treat when added to the sauce.