Quick & Easy

Just serve any of these dishes with a salad and some bread and you've got an easy, complete meal. You can find good-quality prepared pesto in the refrigerator section of your supermarket.

Round this out with warm pita bread, rice and carrot pilaf, and some plain yogurt. Mint tea and pistachio baklava are a great finish. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

(Apricot Almond Cake) Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Kalmi Shaak Following Bengali tradition, Chitrita Banerji's mother presented this vegetable dish as a first course — delicate yet spicy, it gets the appetite going. But you could serve it as a side dish with the mung beans and the eggplant fritters. The original recipe called for mustard oil, but because it's so hard to find an FDA-approved brand — many bottles are labeled "for massage only," though Indians find that they're fine to cook with — we have substituted vegetable oil.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 30 min

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This simple union of two splendid regional specialties is eaten throughout Emilia-Romagna.

An especially easy baking powder version of the traditional yeast-leavened cornmeal and molasses bread. We've used buttermilk instead of water to give the loaf moistness and tang.

Serve this with chicken salad.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Perfect as a topper for steaks, burgers, pork chops, hot dogs and fries. For even more flavor, try brushing the tangy ketchup onto the meat during grilling. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.