Bell Pepper

My mother and father were both good cooks, and both of them had definite opinions about how things should be done in the kitchen. But this dish was my father's—his alone—so my mother never said a word about it. I like to call it the "tripe of my father," aita being the Basque word for "father." It is a rustic family-style dish that satisfies the appetite and nourishes the soul. As you cook honeycomb tripe, it will throw off a lot of liquid, which eliminates the need for stock and flavors the sauce. Like most braises, this tastes even better the next day.

This C-food salad supplies the full RDA of infection-fighting vitamin C, which also helps you absorb iron from the octopus.

Just as diced roasted red peppers add a distinctive vegetal sweetness to any dish they appear in, these, left in large chunks for maximum boldness, really complement the meat and its stuffing.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Diane Kochilas's book Meze: Small Plates to Savor and Share from the Mediterranean Table. Kochilas also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Kochilas and Greek cuisine, click here. 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.

Dotted with bits of vegetables and seafood or meat, savory pancakes are both a popular side dish on the Korean dinner table and a beloved street-food snack. To make them more elegant, we’ve kept these crisp, colorful pancakes on the small side so they can be easily picked up with chopsticks and eaten in a few bites.

Bell peppers and cumin add sweetness and spice to this tangy tomato soup, but it's the pimentón that really pulls all the flavors together.

Meaty slices of grilled steak and chunks of charred green pepper sit on a silky-soft base of braised leeks.

The Abruzzese of Italy love hot peppers and delight in food that has a bit of a kick. In this rich pork stew, called spezzantino dimaiale alla'abruzzese, red bell peppers add sweetness and balance the heat. Some versions of this recipe use chopped rosemary instead of fennel seed.

Tender veal shanks get great depth of flavor from lecsó, a kind of Hungarian sofrito of sautéed onions, frying peppers, and tomatoes, to which paprika and, in this case, stock are added. (Grimes found that Cubanelle peppers are the best substitute for the long, yellowish-green peppers found throughout Hungary.) Finished with sour cream, the sauce yields more than you need, but you'll be happy to have leftovers to serve over noodles, chicken, or pork.

Up until the late 1950s, crawfish was eaten only by the fishermen who caught the crustaceans in the Atchafalaya Basin. Now, crawfish is king and is much sought after by both visitors and locals alike. This étouffée is a classic Cajun-style dish.

This no-cook quickie dinner is less than 18 percent fat. Dig in!

To balance the red-wine vinegar and capers in this blend of smoky eggplant and red peppers, anchovies perfume the relish with a deep, savory note. Though this is a natural accompaniment to the zucchini latkes, it also makes a lively option for the potato ones.

In Turkish cookery there's a distinctive group of dishes known as güveç, which take their name from the earthenware pot in which they are cooked—in the same way that the tagine does in Morocco. In rural Anatolia the cooking pots may be sealed and buried in the ashes of a fire to cook slowly overnight—or, only slightly less romantically, in the local baker's oven. If you don't have a clay pot, a heavy-based cast-iron casserole dish will serve almost as well. Güveç dishes encompass all sorts of meat or poultry cooked with legumes, vegetables and fruits. My addition of star anise is not remotely Turkish, but it adds a wonderful layer of aniseed flavor. This güveç is spicy with a lingering sweetness, so serve it with a light salad or braised wild greens. A dollop of yogurt would also be delicious. Sucuk is a spicy Turkish sausage and can be found in Turkish or Middle Eastern butchers and some specialist delis.

Try to buy ripe tomatoes or let them ripen in a paper bag with an apple for two days.

All the flavors of the cold Spanish soup—in a chunky salsa. The secret ingredient here is smoked paprika, which is now available in the spice section of many supermarkets. That variety is slightly sweet, but a hot version (available at specialty foods stores) can be used instead, if you want more heat.

This recipe originally accompanied Ratatouille .

This recipe calls for a thin, freshly made tomato sauce. Using this sauce will produce the best flavor and texture, but in a pinch you could substitute any plain canned sauce.

A perfect introduction to the allure of chiles, this Italian classic balances the cherry peppers' piquancy with roasted bell peppers, lemon, and parsley. It's a bright, summery dish that you'll hanker for all year long.