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We love the look of fluted mushrooms in this recipe. Fluting will add about 25 minutes to your preparation time.

If you substitute regular bread crumbs for the panko, the coating will be heavier and the texture denser. In this recipe, the peas are soaked but not precooked before grinding, much like in a falafel.

Zuppa di Cozze Come la Fanno a Bosa Like other coastal towns on Sardinia, Bosa also has an excellent maritime cuisine. An example is this excellent mussels soup. Two ingredients unique to it are the grated sheep's milk cheese that cooks along with the mussels, deepening their flavor, and the bread crumbs—some Sardinian cooks use couscous instead—that add texture and density to the mussel juices.

Insalata di Sedano, Avocado, e Peperone con Olive Nere I find the flavors and texture of this salad to be particularly agreeable immediately following a seafood course.

Editor's note: This recipe is from Brini Maxwell's Guide to Gracious Living. For Maxwell's tips on throwing a summer pool party, click here. I like to serve these at afternoon get-togethers in the summer. If I could subsist on them eggclusively, I just might!

The Spanish eat salt cod often and, given the excellence of their cod, it's no wonder — the dried fish is snowy white, delicate, and, once rehydrated, tender enough to eat raw. Though you can't get the same thing here, the salt cod from the Spanish specialty store La Tienda is very good (they sell lomo — the center cut — which we prefer over the chewy, skinny end pieces), and its turnover is high, so there's no concern that the fish has been sitting on the shelves too long.

Food editor Ruth Cousineau learned this technique in Seville; it ensures the eggplant maintains its shape and flavor perfectly.

Having broth as a tapa is an old custom that's becoming popular again in both Spain and the U.S. Food editor Ruth Cousineau set out to make just the broth, but the resulting short rib meat was so delicious (even after cooking in broth all that time) that she didn't want to waste it, so she came up with a use for it in a short rib terrine. This recipe is traditionally made with oxtails, but we substituted short ribs and beef shanks because they're easier to get in most supermarkets. If you'd like to try it with oxtails instead of ribs and shanks, use 6 pounds of oxtails (preferably from grass-fed beef, such as Niman Ranch).

This authentic soup is essentially an ancient doctor's curative that combines the healing magic of chicken broth, the circulation-enhancing qualities of tree fungus and lily buds, and the antiseptic properties of vinegar. The heat isn't from chiles — it's actually from freshly ground white pepper. Bruce Cost prefers the flavor of Pearl River Bridge Golden Superior brand soy sauce for this dish and for the Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage and Dried Scallops .

These mussels are a snap to prepare, and make a hearty meal when paired with a loaf of crusty bread to mop up the rich tomato broth. Be sure to buy your mussels the day you make this dish, as they don't keep well at home.

In Spain, boquerones can be a variety of small fish, pickled or not. In the U.S., however, the term always refers to anchovies that have been pickled in vinegar (which whitens them). They have a flavor similar to pickled herring, which complements the sweetness of the roasted peppers.

If you only have sweet Spanish smoked paprika on hand, you can mix 1 1/2 teaspoons of it with 1/8 teaspoon cayenne as a substitute for hot Spanish smoked paprika.

A steaming plate of al dente spaghetti with homemade sauce and a sprinkle of cheese is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Gnocchi à la Parisienne Parisienne gnocchi are made from pâte à choux, a versatile dough made by cooking flour and water together until the flour cooks, after which eggs are stirred in. It can then be piped into various shapes and baked for profiteroles and éclairs for dessert, or savory preparations such as gougères, or gently poached in water as gnocchi. Parisienne gnocchi are tasty, satisfying morsels that, like Italian gnocchi or any pasta, can be paired with all kinds of ingredients and transformed into countless dishes. They're excellent simply sautéed in butter. They can be additionally flavored with fines herbes, mustard, and cheese. At Bouchon, we don't serve much pasta or rice, so we use gnocchi as an interesting base for a number of our vegetarian dishes. They're not a classic bistro food, but the technique is a French one, dating back to before Escoffier. This recipe will make about 240 gnocchi, double what you'll need for the Gnocchi with Mushrooms and Butternut Squash . Once they've been poached, gnocchi can be frozen for a month to six weeks.

A touch of cream Sherry amplifies the sweetness of the nuts and the squash.