Bon Appétit

Serve with bowls of diced tomato, sliced romaine lettuce, and purchased eggplant salad to spoon atop burgers in pitas. Finish with fresh apricots, grapes, and cookies.

"About a year ago, I discovered a new restaurant in town called Babalu's," writes Richard Shipman of St. Louis, Missouri. "It serves terrific Caribbean food, including a flavorful chili-coated salmon."

This recipe is an accompaniment for <epi:recipelink id="108054">Chicken, Potato, and Carrot Enchiladas</epi:recipelink>.

Make the cheesecake up to two days before serving (it must chill at least four hours).

Country tart meets city topping; the streusel is revved up with nutty-tasting brown butter — a popular flavoring in this year's desserts.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Warm Peach Shortcakes with Bourbon-Brown Sugar Cream.

Serve with rice or boiled new potatoes.

The tea adds an elegant complexity to the sauce for the pears, dried apricots, and cherries. Using dried tart cherries instead of Bing cherries helps balance the sweetness.

Uncork a bottle of hearty Chianti to go with the great Italian flavors in this new twist on a traditional tomato-sauced pizza.

Guacamole con Tomatillos Use Haas avocados if available; their buttery creaminess makes for the best guacamole.

(Tartelettes Feuilletées à la Rhubarbe et au Ricotta) At La Bastide Odéon, these are served with almond ice cream. Begin making the dessert one day ahead so that the rhubarb can drain overnight.

A stunning vegetarian platter.

For this warm-weather dish, a salsa cruda à la Grec — or uncooked Greek-style sauce — is combined with hot pasta and served at once. Be sure to use the ripest, juiciest tomatoes you can find, preferably from a farmers' market or your own backyard.

The easy tomato chutney is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's cookbook From Curries to Kebabs. Make the chutney and combine it with the green beans about four hours before serving, which allows plenty of time for the beans to soak up the flavors.

It's important to splurge on well-marbled choice or prime strip steaks for this recipe. Lighter eaters might want to share one of these substantial cuts.

Hybrids can be substituted in this recipe.

The trio of peppers adds nice color to this flavor-packed salad.