Lemon

This dish is the result of a kind of friendly competition I had with my friend Jeremy Marshall of Aquagrill restaurant in downtown Manhattan. We wanted to develop crusts for salmon: His is falafel, mine is hummus. The lemon oil will be best if you start it a day ahead, so there's time for the flavors to mature.

Our dry brine is like a concentrated rub; massage citrus zest and peppercorns onto the skin and let it cure for a few hours before the bird hits the oven.

This side dish is equally good with steak, broiled fish, or seared lamb chops.

This zabaione (zabaglione) and lemongrass ice cream dessert is adapted from Chef Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. It is his unique take on a lemon tart, served upside down and smashed. According to Chef Bottura, "this dessert pokes fun at our daily striving for perfection and pristine beauty. I love the dynamics of a lemon tart but hate all the fuss—cream decorations and stubborn crusts. To get around all that nonsense, we purposefully crushed our tart. Of course, it isn’t just a one-liner but full of flavored experience from the most fragile crust to the peaks of tart, sour, sweet, cured, and candied lemon on the plate." This recipe makes 2 large tarts: You can make 2 and freeze 1 (keeping all elements separate in the freezer and assembling just before serving) or you can halve the ingredients.

This bright, creamy yogurt sauce is lightly flecked with herbs and is great for everything from drizzling over savory bowls of grains to spooning on top of fried rice, breakfast hash, or Buckwheat Crepes. Double the recipe for a larger group or to keep a little jar of the sauce in the refrigerator. It's season-less, really. Morning Notes: Depending on the kind of yogurt you use and how you prefer the consistency of this sauce, feel free to add a spoonful (or two) of cold water to thin it out.

In Milan, osso buco is traditionally served on a bed of creamy saffron risotto and topped with a pungent, colorful topping of garlic, lemon zest, parsley, and anchovies known as gremolata.

Egg whites are shaken into this gin-based sour, where they take on an airy, velvety texture.

This simple recipe for roasted salmon packs gobs of flavor for little effort. The natural oils in the fish intensify the seasonings. This recipe also can be used for smaller fillets or salmon steaks. You'll just need to watch it as it cooks and adjust the time accordingly. Editor's note: This recipe makes 4 servings, plus more for leftovers. Please see "Deconstructed Sushi" and "Monster Salad" below for tips on how to enjoy, pack, and serve the leftovers.

This bright, vegetarian sauce features lemon three ways: juice, zest, and preserved lemon peel.

Love a ham sandwich with mustard on rye? Those familiar flavors are reimagined in this easily achievable dish.

We love using preserved lemons in the BA kitchen, and Philip Krajeck's recipe makes the best we've ever tasted. They take 10 minutes to prep and need only two weeks to cure. Sure, you can buy preserved lemons at specialty stores, but when the end result is this good, we say make your own.

This dish is only as good as the crab it's made with; buy the best you can get.

Sherry is an "It" cocktail ingredient, with enough heft to build a drink around but still relatively low in alcohol.

Greetings, comrade. This quasirevolutionary sorbetto is so bone-chillingly good that there'll never need to be another cold war. It's one of the flavors we were developing for our "Dictators of Cool" collection, which included our old favorites Adolf Hitler (The Great Licktator), Colonel Gaddafi (Cone El Gaddafi), and David Cameron (Fake 99, after a British ice cream cone).

I was at Palena, my favorite restaurant in Washington, at the end of a meal, when the dessert's taste and texture made me gasp. It was a shallow lemon custard, not just silky but crystal clear in its flavor: a blast of just lemon, cream, and sugar in one bite. Pastry chef Aggie Chin explained that it's her take on a posset, a traditional English dessert in which the cream softly sets with nothing but the help of the acid from the lemon juice. I knew I'd try this at home. It makes the perfect topping for the cookie-crumble crust I like to make, and the perfect base for the fruit I like best with lemons: berries. This can be easily doubled when you'd like to make dessert for two nights in a row, or for you and a friend to share.

Though modern spins on this recipe classic often contain anchovies or anchovy paste, the original did not. Its delicate anchovy flavor came from Worcestershire sauce. To ensure that things move smoothly, have all ingredients measured and ready to go at the outset.

Move over, ice pops: There's a new dessert making waves this summer. A blend of just four ingredients, these frozen pops are irresistibly creamy, with a sweet and tangy taste. Opt for our lemony take on this kid-friendly dessert, or substitute in Key limes, grapefruit, or orange for your own citrus twist.

Lemon dressings often incorporate other flavors, such as herbs, garlic, and anchovy, but sometimes a simple lemon vinaigrette is all you want.

Mayonnaise is a breeze to make when the blender is enlisted to do most of the work. For more about mayonnaise and other salad dressings, see our Homemade Salad Dressing Primer. Note that raw eggs are not recommended for infants, pregnant women, the elderly, or those with a compromised immune system. To avoid the risk of salmonella infection, use pasteurized eggs instead.