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Sopa de Camarones con Chile Pasilla Fried pasilla chile strips add an alluring crunch and intense caramelized flavor.

Called panadas, these little pastries make wonderful hors d'oeuvres.

This silky puree can be made one day ahead. What to drink: That's easy — offer guests Irish ale throughout the meal.

Mocha custards are the "coffee" part of this whimsical "coffee and doughnuts" dessert.

This recipe for breiks comes from Kitty Morse, the celebrated expert on North African cuisine. She serves them with lemon and harissa paste, available at Middle Eastern Markets.

Purchased wonton wrappers stand in for fresh pasta in this easy recipe.

The Hotel Le Maquis and its restaurant, L'Arbousier, are the labor of love of one remarkable woman, Catherine Salini. She bought the land many decades ago and built this charming inn very close to where she grew up in Porticcio. The rooms are decorated with antiques (personally selected and purchased by Salini), and the walls are hung with paintings by local artists. It's a true pleasure to dine on L'Arbousier's terrace just above the beach, with its wonderful views of the bay. Here you can taste the famous sardines stuffed with Swiss chard and brocciu (a local cheese), prepared by chef Gérard Lorenzoni Salini, Catherine's son. Another favorite dish is this lobster fricassee, which evokes the sunny splendor of this island treasure.

Giant beans in some form or another are never absent from Greek meze menus. The key to making this dish taste as good as possible is to use high-quality roasted sweet peppers preserved in extra virgin olive oil. I usually make my own oil, and have them on hand. All you need to do is roast the peppers whole under the broiler, let them cool, peel them, and store them in a container in the fridge covered with good olive oil. You can pour a few tablespoons of the pepper-infused oil into the baking dish for added flavor. As for the beans themselves, the trick is to get the texture right. Giant beans need first to be soaked, then boiled, and finally baked. Once done, they should be soft, almost buttery, without being baked to the point that they fall apart.

Savory tarts and quiches are traditional in Alsace cooking. The tart and the<epi:recipelink id="102385">Salade Vigneronne epi:recipelinkcan be enjoyed as separate courses, or together.</epi:recipelink></epi:recipelink>

The classic — and amazingly easy — French sauce made with butter and wine gets a glamorous makeover with Champagne. Feel free to use less-expensive sparkling wine for cooking, but keep the blanc de blancs flowing as an accompaniment.

Made with yogurt instead of cream, this pureed soup is deceptively light. The green apple peels, thinly sliced and fried, make a delicious garnish.

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 25 min

Champagne is the perfect accompaniment for this delicate appetizer.

A popular salad on the island of Pantelleria.

This is one of the few recipes that works better in a microwave than a conventional oven. The mild-flavored squash gets its name from the fact that the interior, when cooked, separates into a glorious golden tangle of long spaghetti-like strands. That intriguing texture goes well with a Moroccan-inspired combination of supermarket spices. The larger the spaghetti squash, the thicker and more flavorful the strands.