Goat Cheese

A lovely start to this spring supper would be mugs of green pea soup sprinkled with chives. Accompany the pizza with an arugula, radicchio and endive salad dressed with balsamic vinaigrette. Offer gelato for dessert.

Chef Laurent Manrique is a big fan of Laura Chenel goat cheese in Sonoma, which is available at many cheese shops across the country.

Serve Champagne to add an elegant, light touch to this terrific brunch menu.

This is a terrific make-ahead appetizer. The steak must be coated with the spice rub and chilled overnight before grilling, then the empanadas can be assembled completely one day before baking.

The creation of chef Monique Barbeau of Fullers at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Towers. Serve the terrine as an appetizer with toasted bread, or as a cheese course accompanied with a glass of Port.

Spicy crushed red pepper, rosemary and garlic enhance this main course. Uncork an Italian Barbera to match the menu's hearty flavors. For dessert, offer a compote of blueberries and sliced nectarines with crème fraîche (available at many supermarkets) or lightly whipped cream.

Food writer Janet Fletcher says, "During my childhood, the only salad on the Thanksgiving buffet was an old-fashioned Waldorf with chopped apples, celery, walnuts and mayonnaise. Frankly, I don’t miss it. This contemporary salad has the walnuts and the crunch, but is much fresher and far more inviting."

At the end of the century, vegetarian cooking gained wide acceptance-and became sophisticated. Wraps (basically burritos) were a hot fast food; everything from Thai chicken to ahi tuna got "wrapped" in flour tortillas or flatbread. The two trends pair up in this terrific dish. To make these even more like burritos, add one 15- to 16-ounce can of drained black beans to the filling.

Alice Waters, who opened Chez Panisse in 1971, took salads to new heights with unusual, farm-fresh greens; she also popularized the use of goat cheese, which was being made by Laura Chenel not far from the Berkeley restaurant. Those ingredients come together in this delicious salad.

Ciro Verde of Da Ciro restaurant in New York makes great thin, crispy-crust pizzas. One Saturday at i Trulli restaurant Ciro gave us a pizzamaking lesson. He told us how he had learned to make pizza in Naples and gave us pointers on how best to use a wood-burning oven and how to improve our technique. A highlight of this session was Ciro's recipe for this tasty pie stuffed with robiola cheese and drizzled with truffle oil, which he claims to have invented. First, the dough is flattened with a rolling pin to elminate air pockets. Then the dough is pierced with a docker, an instrument that punctures the dough and helps to prevent it from puffing up too much in the oven. The flattened disk of dough is baked without any topping. When it is partially done, it is removed from the oven, split in half, and spread with cheese, then baked a second time until brown. Just before serving, the pie is drizzled with truffle oil. Since it is so rich, we like it best cut into wedges as an appetizer. Robiola is creamy cow's milk cheese. Soft fresh goat cheese is a good substitute. If you don't have truffle oil, which is available at many gourmet shops, the pizza will taste great anyway.

Components of this salad can be prepared one day ahead, then tossed together at the last minute. Offer white wine spritzers and iced tea with lunch. Colorful ornamental kale can be found at some supermarkets and specialty foods stores.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. This peperonata would also be delicious tossed with pasta and the small balls of mozzarella called bocconcini—and as a condiment on sandwiches.

It used to be that beets were sent to the market without the greens, which had been discarded. Now both are sold, often separately. Your best bet is to buy beets that have the greens intact; that way, you can partner this unique sweet and savory pasta with the perfect side dish: roasted fresh beets.