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The most common summer squashes are green zucchini, the light green flying-saucer-shaped patty pan, and the gooseneck-shaped yellow crookneck. More obscure varieties with different flavors and textures can be found at farmers’ markets. One of my favorites is Costata Romanesco, a ribbed, mottled-green, zucchini-shaped squash. It has a sweet flavor and a texture that doesn’t break down while cooking. Choose small, firm squash with bright skin. Larger ones tend to be watery and seedy. Wash the squashes or rub them clean with a damp cloth. Trim off and discard both the blossom and stem ends. Once cut, squash can be stored in the refrigerator under a damp towel for several hours. The blossoms of summer squash are good to eat as well. Trim off their stems and shake them well to rid them of any bugs they may be harboring. Chop the blossoms, sauté them, and add to an omelet, a pasta sauce, or a risotto. Or cook them whole, stuffed with cheese perhaps, and poached, baked, or dipped in a simple batter and fried.

This is a very simple preparation to satisfy that wintertime craving for deep tomato flavor. Exact proportions are unimportant.

Nothing compares with a vine-ripened, fragrant, colorful tomato. Farmers’ markets (and your own backyard!) are the best places to go for tomatoes. Most of the supermarket varieties sold year-round have been bred for structure and not flavor. They can be shipped around the world, but they won’t make a tasty meal. There are many, many tomatoes to choose from. Little cherry tomatoes ripen quickly and are the first to market. They come in many colors; the golden and red ones are the most flavorful. Plum tomatoes are good for sauce. And then come all the other types, many of them called “heirloom tomatoes” to remind us that they are tomatoes our forebears planted in the days before produce was shipped globally. There are yellow, golden, orange, green, purple, striped, and, yes, red tomatoes to choose from. They come in as many sizes as there are colors. Choose deeply colored tomatoes that are neither soft nor too firm. Tomatoes will continue to ripen off the vine, and do so best out of direct sunlight. Don’t put your tomatoes in the refrigerator; the cold really steals their flavor. Wash the tomatoes and cut out a cone at the stem end to remove the core. If the skin is thick, tomatoes may be better peeled. To peel, plunge them into rapidly boiling water and remove them once the skin is loosened, which will take between 15 seconds and a minute or so (check the tomatoes oft en to know when to pull them out). Cool the tomatoes quickly in ice-cold water and slip off the skins. To seed a tomato, cut it in half horizontally and gently squeeze each half, coaxing the seeds out of each little cavity with your fingers. The juice can be strained to use in cooking, or to drink. Cooking tomatoes this way concentrates and intensifies their flavor. Each one is like a spoonful of sweet sauce.

Shelling peas (or English peas), snap peas, and snow peas are the three most common varieties. Shelling peas are shelled, and only the peas within are eaten. Snap peas and snow peas are eaten pod and all. The tender shoots or tips of the pea vines are good to eat as well. All peas taste best when harvested while young and tender. They are the sweetest at this stage, as the sugars have not yet transformed to starch. Shelling peas have a very short season; they are only around while the cool weather of spring is here. Snap peas and snow peas can tolerate a bit of heat and will last into the early summer. Select peas that are vibrant and firm, with shiny pods. When very fresh the pods will actually squeak as they are rubbed together. Smaller peas of any variety will be tastier than larger ones. The edible-pod varieties, especially snow peas, are best when the peas are tiny, almost undeveloped. As they mature and become too stringy to eat whole, sugar snap peas can be shucked like shelling peas. To prepare snap and snow peas, snap back each end and pull it down the side of the pod to remove any strings. Pea shoots need only to be picked over for any yellow leaves and then rinsed and drained before being sautéed or steamed.

Baking potatoes, boiling potatoes, new potatoes, and fingerling potatoes—there are many kinds of each to choose from, some yellow, some blue or red. The red-skinned potatoes oft en called boiling potatoes have dense, white, waxy flesh that holds its shape when boiled. They won’t do very well for baking and make terrible mashed potatoes, turning gluey when mashed. Baking potatoes usually have light brown skins with white flesh that is dry and fluff y when cooked. These are best for baking and for French fries. Kennebecs and russets are common varieties. The tastiest, most versatile potatoes are the yellow-fleshed varieties such as Yellow Finn, German Butterball, and Yukon Gold. The flesh of these potatoes has a texture between that of a baker and a boiler. They have enough waxy starch to hold together when boiled, but not so much that they can’t be mashed—and best of all they are full of flavor, much more so than any white-fleshed variety. New potatoes are those that are dug while the plants are still green in the fields and have thin shaggy skins. They are a real treat. Fingerlings are smaller potatoes shaped, as you might guess, like long thin fingers. Some delicious varieties to try are Russian Banana, German, and Ruby Crescent. Select potatoes that are firm and free of discolored spots. Don’t buy potatoes that have green on the skin. This is caused by exposure to light and may indicate the presence of solanine, which is toxic. The green may be peeled away, but it is better to avoid having to do so. Store potatoes in a bag or cupboard away from any light. New potatoes and fingerlings never need to be peeled; just wash them well before cooking. Other potatoes should be peeled, depending on the recipe and your wishes. Once peeled, potatoes should be kept submerged in water to keep them from turning brown. I like this best when the potatoes are sliced quite thin (a mandoline makes this easy): that way the potato slices are less likely to curl up and burn on the edges. Yukon Gold and other waxy, yellow-fleshed potatoes keep their texture in a gratin; floury potatoes like russets fall apart.

There is a spectacular array of varieties and colors of sweet peppers and chiles, all from the same genus. For the most part, sweet peppers are larger and fleshier than spicy chiles. All peppers start out green and then change colors as they ripen; the palette extends from green to purple to red with all the shades of yellow and orange in between. The most common sweet pepper is the bell pepper, but there are many others: Hungarian wax peppers, which are small and pale yellow; lipstick peppers, also small, in brilliant shades of red-orange; larger, less fleshy gypsy peppers; tiny red cherry peppers; long pointy Corno di Toro peppers; and fat fleshy pimientos, to name just a few. All these peppers are sweet, but they have many nuances in flavor as well and are especially suited to the Mediterranean cooking of the South of France, Italy, and Spain. Select peppers that have ripened beyond the immature green stage. A green pepper has not had the chance to develop its full flavor and is much harder to digest. Peppers are tasty whether raw or cooked, roasted or peeled. There are even more varieties of chile peppers. They vary in flavor and spiciness as well as size and color. Chiles are eaten immature and green, fully mature, and dried. Choose shiny, bright, fresh peppers and chiles. Avoid any that have spots or blisters on their skin. Peppers and chiles are prepared the same way, regardless of size: either roast them whole to remove the skins and remove the cap, internal veins, and seeds (the veins and seeds are the spiciest part of a chile); or cut them up without cooking them fi rst, removing the cap and stem, carving off the tough internal veins, and shaking out all the seeds. When using dried chiles, split them open and discard the seeds and stems. Th ey can be toasted briefl y in a hot oven or pan and then rehydrated in water for a sauce or can be added directly to a stew. Sautéed peppers are good on pizzas and pastas, in omelets, or on croutons. If you like, mix hot and sweet peppers.

I love endive cooked this way. It is so succulent and really does melt in your mouth. Serve it with all kinds of roasted meats and poached or baked fish.

This is one of my favorite greens. It has an assertive flavor that is bitter, nutty, sweet, and green. The stems have a great texture that’s both juicy and chewy. It calls out for garlic and strong flavorings such as hot pepper, anchovies, and vinegar.

Leafy greens include chard, kale, broccoli rabe, collards, spinach, as well as the tops of beets and turnips. There are many varieties of each of these, rainbow chard, Swiss chard, red Russian kale, laciniato kale, and Bloomsdale spinach just to name a few. Select greens that are vibrant, perky, and fresh looking. Avoid buying them in bags already washed and prepared. Whatever time is saved with these convenience items is completely off set by the greater flavor and freshness of locally harvested greens. Except for chard, the stems of leafy greens should be stripped off and discarded. To do this, hold on to the stem and then grasp the bottom of the leaf and pull it towards the leaf tip while pulling away on the stem with the other hand. The leaves may also be cut from the stem with a small sharp paring knife. The wide ribs of chard leaves can be saved and cooked; they do have a longer cooking time than the leaves, and they need to be separated and cooked apart or ahead. Wash all greens well in abundant water and drain. Chicories are the family that includes radicchio, escarole, Belgian endive, and frisée. These greens are pleasantly bitter—and not always green: radicchio is usually red, and Belgian endive is a pale, pale yellow green. The hearts of leafy varieties such as escarole and curly endive are almost white. All chicories make delightful salads, and some are sturdy enough to braise and grill. They all should have brightly colored, fresh outer leaves. The headed varieties such as Belgian endive and some varieties of radicchio should be firm and tightly closed. To prepare chicories for salads, tear off and discard the outer dark leaves, which can be tough and bitter. Separate the leaves and wash and dry them well. Belgian endive will brown very quickly and should be trimmed and cut just before being used. To prepare chicories for braising and grilling, the tightly headed varieties can be cut in half or in wedges.

This is a gratin made with a thin white sauce (béchamel), rather than one layered with milk, or with cream and broth. I use this method to cook other vegetables, such as cauliflower, wilted greens, or asparagus.

Fennel is among the most versatile of vegetables: it’s good whether it’s eaten raw in salads, or cooked in any number of ways, and I use it as an aromatic vegetable, often instead of celery, in mirepoix (diced carrot, onion, and celery) and other preparations. Cultivated fennel forms a compact, pale white bulb that is topped with fibrous green stalks and feathery leaves. The flavor is reminiscent of anise or licorice. Look for firm, undamaged bulbs that have no signs of drying or shrinking. The fronds should be fresh and vibrant. To prepare fennel, trim away the darker fibrous stalks and bottom end, and remove any outer layers that are tough or blemished. Fennel should be cut close to the time it is needed, as it will oxidize and brown over time. Cover cut fennel with a damp cloth to protect it. Many recipes ask you to remove the core, but I don’t find it necessary; on the contrary, I like the taste of the core and find it quite tender. The feathery dark green fennel leaves can be stripped from the stalks and chopped to use as a flavorful garnish. Wild fennel is an uncultivated variety of fennel that does not produce a bulb. Its leaves, flowers, pollen, and seeds are all very flavorful and useful in stuffings, marinades, garnishes, and sauces. If it grows in your region, forage for it in the wild.