Thyme

Serve with: Potato and green bean salad.

In this classic French dish, a veal roast is sliced and layered with a combination of soubise (onion) and duxelles (mushroom) stuffings, then put back together in the shape of the roast. Traditionally, it's covered with more stuffing and heavily coated with a Mornay sauce (which glazes the roast as it's heated in the oven). In our updated version, we keep the soubise and duxelles separate and arrange them side by side — black contrasting with white — on each veal slice, so the stuffings are visible. We use only a very thin coating of Mornay to glaze the dish, and serve the rest on the side.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

I love the nutty, sweet, and spicy flavors of parsnips. Their unpopularity is a mystery to me—it seems many people don't realize how delicious they can be. This dish brings out their best qualities.

Serve this with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc.

Don't let these cool — they're best served straight from the oven.

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.

Brining ensures moist, succulent meat, and this recipe from Bruce Aidells, chef and founder of Aidells Sausage Company, could not be easier or more low-tech. The special equipment required? Two 30-gallon plastic bags and one very large (16-quart) bowl that will fit in the fridge. You'll want to get started a day ahead, because the turkey is brined for 18 to 20 hours. Stuffing this turkey is not recommended; the brine remaining in the meat may soak into the stuffing during roasting.

A nod to what could arguably be the dish of the eighties, blackened redfish. The technique works equally well with halibut.

Accompany this colorful dish with rice pilaf and baby peas with pearl onions. The kicker: spice bars and orange slices.

Pair this with a crisp French Chablis, the Chardonnay-based white from Burgundy.

Hazelnuts and prosciutto are combined in a seasoned butter that coats the turkey as it roasts, and also flavors the gravy.

BORDEAUX The juniper berries are an earthy contrast to the sweet prunes — a prized regional product — in this dish. Serve roasted sliced potatoes and sautéed mushrooms alongside. What to drink: Red Bordeaux or a varietal blend of Cabernet and Merlot.

Kim Massman of Santa Monica, California, writes: "Help me, please. Since dining at The Federalist in the XV Beacon Hotel in Boston, I haven't been able to get the macaroni and cheese out of my mind. It was made with pasta, ham, and a creamy cheese sauce." The ham lends a salty flavor to this dish. Wait until the sauce is combined with the pasta and ham before seasoning with salt.

For ease of preparation, ask for the full round, not the short cut or partial leg, and have the butcher butterfly it for you.

"I recently had lunch at Café Boulud here in New York," says Shelli Rafkin of New York, New York. "My entrée, blanquette de veau, had the most incredible sauce I've ever tasted. The whole dish, in fact, was sensational." In this variation on the classic stew, the veal and the vegetables are cooked separately and combined at the end, when they're topped with a rich white sauce.

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

For a light meal, all you need is some crusty French bread and a garden salad to go with this comforting soup.

Generally this dish is served in Andalusia as part of a mixed fish fry, but it's wonderful on its own. The marinade makes the fish flavorful and succulent.