Sausage

The bold flavors of Spain's famous paella-sausage, seafood and saffron-meet the luscious, creamy texture of Italy's risotto in this beautiful rice dish. Pour a chilled dry white wine during dinner, and offer flan for dessert.

Serve this zesty pasta with a salad of tossed winter greens sprinkled with shaved Parmesan or Asiago cheese, and a basket of seeded country Italian bread. Finish with orange sorbet and chocolate biscotti.

(Pasta con Ragù di Vitello, Salsicce e Porcini) Ragù is a beloved part of Tuscan cooking. Every person has his or her own recipe, but the basics are constant: It is a hearty sauce made with meat (beef, pork, veal, duck, even boar) and vegetables like carrots, tomatoes and onions, all cooked in wine and broth. And ragù is most often served over pasta. This recipe includes dried porcini mushrooms, which give the sauce a real taste of the Tuscan countryside.

Baked yams and steamed spinach make colorful accompaniments. Ice cream alongside hot apple turnovers tops off the meal.

The classic cold soup, as interpreted by Ouro Branco restaurant, Vila Viçosa, Portugal.

Make this at least one day and up to two days ahead for best flavor. This is a much simplified version of the classic smoked meat and bean cassoulet.

Sourdough bread complements the Italian flavors in this stuffing from Bruce Aidells.

Here is an Asian twist on stuffed mushrooms. Chinese plum sauce and sesame oil make the satisfying, intensely flavored glaze. Small portobellos can be substituted for the shiitakes, if you like.

In addition to the herb mayonnaise and blue cheese coleslaw, sliced tomatoes would be perfect alongside.

I hadn't expected to find an entry on meat loaf in Alan Davidson's magisterial Oxford Companion to Food (1999). Indeed, I only looked it up there so I could say that meat loaf was a great and ubiquitous dish that everyone snubbed. Meat loaf, I intended to say, is a kind of joke.... Alan Davidson let me down. He had plenty to say about meat loaf..."a dish whose visibility is considerably higher in real life, especially in N. America and Britain, than in cookery books."

Just about every book we've ever seen on southwest cooking includes a recipe for one of the spicy cornbreads of the region. Once you've tasted one, you'll know why — they are really delicious. This version is more of a pudding than a bread because it is quite moist and cheesy in texture. It makes a wonderful side dish to replace potatoes or rice, or it is quite satisfying eaten as a light entrée or lunch with a salad of fresh young greens.

My friend and colleague Ric Lands learned a similar recipe, using squash from my book New Southern Cooking. He and his family so enjoy this zucchini version that they make it every Thanksgiving, as do I. It can also serve as a rich main course for a light supper.

This custard makes a perfect one-dish brunch, lunch, or supper, especially when paired with a green salad. Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

My recipe was adapted from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I've changed the meats (a lot) and the seasonings (a bit). I've also tinkered with cooking times and sequence.