Spring

This dish takes a bit more prep time than your average throw-everything-in-a-pot slow cooker recipe, but it’s well worth it. This luscious ragù can be served as a side for grilled steak or lamb, as a topping for pasta or rice, or as an entrée with a green salad and crunchy bread.

If you have ever eaten from a taco truck, you will know why carne asada (grilled beef ) tacos are the ultimate Mexican street food. Charred crispy beef is wrapped in a warm and chewy corn tortilla and drizzled with your choice of fresh tomato or tomatillo sauce. It is easy to make and even easier to serve because you can have your guests make their own.

Yes, we know that real risotto uses arborio rice, but we also know that it has to be stirred constantly for 40 minutes and that’s not a good way to impress your date. Arborio rice releases more starch as it cooks than other types of rice, making risotto very creamy. This version is still really creamy, but can be prepped ahead of time and finished in less than 15 minutes.

I know that a 4-pound chicken is more than you need for two people, but if the point is to impress your date, you don’t want to serve a scrawny little chicken. This dinner is delicious and easy to prepare, so if you are a novice, this is a fine place to start. Working with a whole chicken for the first time can be an intimidating experience, but actually there’s nothing to it. The fresh parsley and rosemary turn these all-time favorite standards—chicken and potatoes—into a sophisticated dinner.

Crepes are one of my favorite French desserts, so of course I had to come up with a way to also have them for breakfast. This strawberry filling is light and not too sweet, making it the perfect way to start your day. Crepes can be kept in the refrigerator for several days, so save any extras and eat them with jam, fresh fruit, or chocolate sauce.

When I see the first gorgeous baskets of strawberries at the markets, I know that spring has truly arrived and winter is a thing of the past. Since their season lasts throughout summer, you’ll find that this sauce goes perfectly well with any of the summer fruit and berry ice creams, sorbets, or frozen yogurts in this book.

Serve the delicate, rosy crystals of this granita with a pour of sparkling wine, making a rather sophisticated slushie. Or perfume it with a few drops of fragrant rosewater sprinkled over to transform it into something curiously exotic and a bit elusive.

If you’ve ever gone shopping at the Fairway Market on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, you’ve found that the simple act of buying a good basket of strawberries has become a full-contact sport. Never in my life have I left a market with so many bumps and bruises! Next time I go, I’m wearing football gear to protect myself from the combative shoppers who wield their carts like modern-day jousting vehicles, ready to take on any and all oncoming produce shoppers who might happen to be heading toward the basket of berries they’ve set their sights on. If you think this is just an East Coast phenomenon, you should visit the Berkeley Bowl, in California, where people who’ve just parked their Volvos with fading “Make Love, Not War” bumper stickers are more than happy to hike up their drawstring pants and trample you with their Birkenstocks while homing in on their berries. But no matter where you live, I recommend that you take the trouble and assume all risks to find good strawberries with which to make this intensely flavored sorbet at home, where you’re safe and sound.

One of the funniest (albeit most excruciating) things I’ve ever seen was a videotaped appearance of a cookbook author making a rhubarb pie on a live morning television show. Just as the cameras began rolling, the cocky, self-assured host looked at his guest and blurted out, “I hate rhubarb. I mean, I really hate it.” The poor dear continued to make her rhubarb pie, but it was easy to see that his constant grousing was taking its toll on her as she baked, bantered, and defended her delicious-looking pie for a few painful on-air minutes. If it were me, I would have taken a different approach. With the cameras rolling, I would have ordered him out of the studio and pulled another person into the kitchen who looked forward to the first rhubarb in the spring with the same anticipation that I do. Look for stalks that are bright red, which will make the most enticingly colored sorbet. The flavor of the gently stewed ruhubarb with fresh strawberries will remind you why this combination is so beloved by almost everyone, including me.

There’s a curious custom in Gascony, a region in the southwest of France known for its full-bodied red wines (its famous neighbor is Bordeaux). When they’ve just about finished their soup, the locals tip a little bit of the red wine from their glass into their soup bowl, mingling the wine with the last few spoonfuls of the broth. I later discovered that this custom is equally good with a goblet of sorbet when I was scrambling to figure out a way to make this rosy nectarine sorbet a bit more special for an impromptu dinner party. I simply scooped sorbet into my guests’ wine glasses at the table and let them pour in as little (or as much) red wine as they wished. It was a big success. If you have time to think ahead, prepare a big bowl of sweet, juicy berries and sliced nectarines, and let your guests add some fruit to their sorbet too.

This frozen yogurt is a snap to put together, especially welcome in the summer which is when you may want to limit your time in a warm kitchen. But don’t let its ease of preparation fool you; this vibrantly colored frozen yogurt provides the biggest blast of strawberry flavor imaginable.

This sauce bridges two seasons—it marries the citrus fruit of winter and spring’s rhubarb. Its delicate color and bright flavor makes it the ideal accompaniment to Ricotta Cheesecake with Orange and Aniseed (page 55).

I was in line at an outdoor market in Paris and une dame d’un certain âge in front of me was getting a lesson on preparing rhubarb from la vendeuse, who insisted that rhubarb absolutely, positively had to be peeled before cooking. Having prepared quite a bit of rhubarb, often in a professional capacity, I figured I could add my deux centimes, so I spoke up, telling them that I’d never done that and that it really wasn’t necessary. Immediately, the line of French housewives erupted, insisting that yes, you simply must peel rhubarb. Seeing as I was outnumbered, I decided to not argue the point. Safely back at home, I’ll admit with confidence that I’ve never found the need to peel rhubarb for a recipe, but I have experimented with using it in unconventional ways and found that it has a remarkable affinity for pineapple and raspberries, a mix that makes a delicious fruit cobbler—which no one should have any quibbles with.

This is probably one of the most common paletas—maybe because the flavor is so kid- and adult-friendly. Strawberry paletas have been my brother’s favorite since he was a kid. The best strawberries in Mexico are from Irapuato; they’re a kind of wild strawberry that sweetens the air, and people travel from all over to get big baskets of them. If you are lucky enough to have access to wild strawberries, which are smaller than those that you find at grocery stores but have intensely concentrated sweet flavor, please use them to make these paletas. They are so good and also quite delicate, so they squish easily—perfect for our purposes.

A refreshing and versatile sauce, this pairs nicely with ice cream, cake, fruit, and chocolate desserts. Make a couple of batches and divide into several small freezer storage bags and store frozen for up to 6 months.

This is a must-have in the Catalano home. The flavor of this sorbet is intense, and the color is gorgeous. This versatile dessert is a light, refreshing way to end any meal. Melted, it makes a delicious complement to vanilla ice cream or scrumptious sauce for chocolate cake.

Here you have the Queen of Tarts: fresh figs and apricot jam are a wonderful counterpart to the sweet and tangy taste of the seasonal berries and kiwi.

The crumbly cinnamon and almond topping gives this blueberry pie a sweet and crunchy crown. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a scrumptious dessert that will make you nostalgic for the good old days. Although you’ll need only 1 crust for this pie, I’d advise against cutting the piecrust recipe in half since it will make it difficult to handle. Instead, freeze the extra pie dough. You’ll be halfway done the next time your urge for pie comes up. Make this pie vegan by using butter substitute in the topping and crust.

I get raves when I make this cheesecake, and I’m sure you will, too.

The texture of this cake is that of angel food cake, but made with whole grains, it has more substance than the white version.