Strawberry

Here we take two of the best treats from days gone by and combine them in one dessert. The cookies are also superb on their own.

This luscious pound cake is not as rich as the traditional version. Note that the cake batter will come only half way up the sides of the pan.

A berry dessert that's a great finish to the spiced chicken breast meal.

Perhaps the ultimate springtime dessert — classic strawberry shortcakes are spruced up with white chocolate mousse.

(Panna Cotta con Salsa di Fragole al Vin Santo) As tiramisù became the Italian restaurant dessert of the 1980s, so did panna cotta take over in the 1990s. The original recipe for "cooked cream" comes from Piedmont, but Tuscans have appropriated it. Their version of the eggless custard is often topped with honey and pine nuts, since the Tuscan city of Pisa is Europe's largest producer of pinoli. This recipe incorporates those ingredients into the custard, then tops it off with a delicious strawberry sauce laced with Vin Santo, the cherished dessert wine of the region. Begin making this one day ahead.

Perfect for celebrations, the elegant torte has a filling of strawberries and chocolate ganache, which is also used as the frosting.

Lemon verbena is a perfumy herb with a strong lemon flavor and a lemon-lime aroma. Its shiny green leaves can be added to salads, chicken and fish dishes, and desserts, as well as tea. For this pound cake, if you can't find lemon verbena at your specialty produce market or nursery, use freshly grated lemon zest in its place.

Any leftover compote is great served over vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.

It's so easy to make these processor-quick biscuits ahead if you like. Then reheat, split and fill them with ice cream and berries just before serving.

Cheesecake and Champagne are a great finale. Begin making the dessert a day ahead.

(FRAGOLE ED UVE CON MENTA E VINIGLIA) This colorful salad is accented with mint, a favorite ingredient in native cooking.

Hazelnuts are teamed with strawberries and rhubarb in this rustic tart. Vanilla ice cream is a must for serving.

"There are three recipes I like for strawberry jam," says Caroline Bates. "My mother’s long-cooked one may be too much trouble for some people; the sun-cooked version is impractical for city dwellers ('First, find a sunny rooftop....'). But this soft strawberry jam (also my mother’s) is simpler and good, too." Its flavor depends on the berries' being fully sweet, completely ripe yet firm, and with not a trace of white near the stem. Such berries have less pectin than underripe ones, so the jam will be loose. Just spoon it out of a jar and dribble it on biscuits.

Fresh fruit marinated in Scotch and sugar is a lovely topper for the purchased cake.

In this recipe, the elderflower concentrate gives the ice cream a delicate, fruity flavor, but 1 teaspoon vanilla stirred into 1/4 cup additional milk makes a delicious substitute.

The coconut tuiles (cookies) that go into this layered dessert (left) are delicate, so the recipe provides for quite a few extras to allow for breakage. Tuiles are also terrific with ice cream. The syrup gets an interesting (and delicious) kick from nontraditional dessert ingredients like black peppercorns and a jalapeño chili.

In a fresh interpretation of the classic Italian dessert, we've replaced the traditional chocolate and coffee with berries and fruit liqueur. For a garnish, we like the looks of fresh berries, but we used frozen berries in the filling to keep it moist. They're also more uniform in flavor--and less expensive.

Crème fraîche gives this exceptional ice cream irresistible tang and a silky texture.

This pretty dessert calls for purchased macaroons; that's why it's so easy to prepare.