Lemon

This is a tasty sauce that goes great with broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, and fish.

For good charcoal grilling, brush sauce over the meat during the last 10 or 15 minutes of grilling time. Turn often to prevent burning.

Salmoriglio, a traditional sauce for seafood, is nothing more than a dressing of olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, peperoncino, and fresh parsley. There’s nothing to it—except remembering to make it ahead, so the garlic and pepper infuse the oil.

Lemon is such an everyday flavoring that we forget how unique it can make a dish.

Brussels sprouts are a love/hate vegetable. Let this recipe surprise you—even the dubious will fall in love with sprouts. But it’s the experience of tasting the vegetable in an unexpected form—all the leaves separated, tossed in the skillet until tender and sweet—that really makes the difference. They are wonderful as is, but the Lemon Sauce that follows provides a tangy counterpoint to the delicately caramelized green-gold leaves.

Poaching is not a common preparation here in the U.S., but in season all over Italy you will be served zucchini cooked this way, simply seasoned with salt and olive oil. It is a perfect method when excellent zucchini are abundant—convenient to do the cooking ahead. Let the zucchini cool and you can serve them many delicious ways—as an appetizer, a side dish, or the centerpiece of a summer salad. (See below for some good ideas.) You can expand this recipe as much as you want for large parties.

Raw spinach salad can be delicious, but, in my opinion, a brief cooking—really just a dip in boiling water—brings out the vegetable’s best qualities. Use really young, tender spinach for this salad. It’s easy to find baby spinach in plastic packs these days, but whenever you can—especially in springtime—buy clusters of tender leaves with tiny reddish stems joined at the roots, as they were plucked from the earth. Trim only the hairy tip of the roots, and cook the leaves and stems still together. Make sure you wash them several times, since dirt lodges between the stems.

PAT One of the things I truly love about Gina is that she is so creative when it comes to beverages. This lemonade is as sparkling, stimulating, and sexy as my darling wife. The seltzer water gives this refresher a great bubbly taste. Gina uses raspberries, but you can substitute any fruit you love and you’ll still be singing, “Oh, happy day!”

PAT: Y’all know I’ve got to be smoking something for every summer holiday. No hickory chips for this bird: apple chips soaked in water and spread over hot charcoal will create a sweet, smoky flavor that’s just right. This citrus marinade works well with the apple chips, and will keep the bird nice and moist.

GINA There’s something about the smell and taste of fresh lemon that livens a dish right up. I remember my great-great-grandmother always rolled lemons on the counter before slicing them, to get the full flavor and extract all the juices, so I do it, too. I’m having a moment just thinking about watching her. Lemon squares are easy to prepare, and give you an Old South flavor that takes you right back in time. And the confectioners’ sugar at the end doesn’t hurt one bit.

Italians don’t use preserved lemons—they’re more of a Moroccan thing. But more lemons come out of Sicily than anywhere else, and the intense, concentrated flavor of preserved lemon peel is perfect in dishes such as Grilled Mackerel with Crispy Potatoes and Caper and Preserved Lemon Sauce (page 181). You’ll need a large sterilized jar with a lid for this recipe.

Mackerel is a rich fish with fabulous texture and depth of flavor. Though it’s not traditional, preserved lemon adds a piquant, salty touch to a rustic pounded sauce. To make sure the potatoes are crispy when you serve the dish, grill the fish first and fry the potatoes right before serving. Parboiling the potatoes makes it easy to get them crispy, while ensuring they’re cooked through.

There’s nothing fancy about a whole, roasted fish—it’s just good. While the fish cooks, the herbs and lemon perfume the flesh, and the fish turns out moist and succulent with crisp skin. It doesn’t get much better. If you can’t find black bass, branzino, snapper, or rockfish would also work. This recipe is for one whole fish, but it’s just as easy to double the recipe if you’re having friends to dinner. Roast off a couple of fish, add a couple of other dishes, and let everyone share.

Fluke—often called “summer flounder” on the East Coast or hirame in Japan—is an extremely light and delicate fish. Because of its mild flavor, I like to pair it with this citrus relish, complementing, but not overpowering, the fish’s characteristics. For the baby leaves, you can use arugula, Italian parsley, microgreens, or whatever you can find and like. Feel free to vary the citrus in the relish as well, experimenting with grapefruit, blood oranges, or sweet Cara Cara oranges in the winter. Because fluke cooks so quickly, have your relish ready before you begin the fish. To make sure you get a nice crispy exterior on the fillets, use two sauté pans if necessary. Crowding the pan will cause the fish to steam instead of sear.

This riff on veal piccata is not a complicated dish, but it does have a few steps to it and requires some planning to allow the sweetbreads time to soak overnight. Poaching the sweetbreads in milk and aromatics before sautéing them ensures they’ll turn out sweet and meltingly tender. I prefer veal sweetbreads, though you can use lamb. Either one is usually sold in one-pound packs, with two large lobes per pack. If you don’t see them out on display—they’re usually not—ask the butcher if there are any in back, and make sure they are impeccably fresh. The delicate richness of the dish means that nothing more than boiled potatoes are needed as an accompaniment.

This lovely salad can slide from late winter into early spring when bouquets of radishes proliferate in the market. Some people find endive too harsh, but here the flavor is mellowed a bit and the leaves are given extra snap by a saltwater soak. This is a study in textures, with the silky endive accented by the crunch of the nuts, all lightly bound with a tart but delicate Meyer lemon dressing. Because of the egg yolk, the vinaigrette won’t last for more than two days in the fridge, but you’ll find lots of uses for any leftover dressing. Try tossing it with boiled Piccolo potatoes or use it on your favorite greens.

Maloreddus are delicate, saffron-infused pasta with a lovely golden hue and a hint of warmth from the saffron. They are especially good paired with fish or seafood, and lend themselves well to sweet and sour combinations, like this dish featuring a light, fresh tomato sauce accented with lemon and briny olives. You can find maloreddus in Italian specialty stores or through online sources.

This is a great dish to bridge the end of winter with the beginning of spring. The bite of the garlic and chile is balanced by the mild flavor of spring’s first onions. Long, oblong, and pretty, spring onions are the first indication to me that fresh garbanzos and nettles are on the way, signaling the end of butternut squash and other winter vegetables. If you can’t find cuttlefish, you may use fresh calamari instead, though the cavatelli is a nice balance for the size and texture of the cuttlefish.