Raw

This lively guacamole can also be served as a dip with tortilla chips. If you want to make it a day ahead, be sure to press plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole to prevent browning.

Cut the avocados just before serving to keep them from discoloring.

Smoked sea salts add a burst of flavor to raw and cooked foods when used as finishing or condiment salts. The options and flavors you can create are limitless. Anything from the aromatics list (opposite) will impart magical flavor to pure sea salt. Take it a step further and add other flavorings by tossing them into the salt before smoking.

This is a bare-bones recipe for the simple all-purpose vinaigrette, which you will vary as you wish; you’ll find suggestions at the end of this recipe. Its beauty lies solely in the quality of your ingredients. Note that you will so often see proportions of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil, but that can make a very acid, very vinegary vinaigrette. I use the proportions of a very dry martini, since you can always add more vinegar or lemon but you can’t take it out.

I love dishes with catchy retro names. The Green Goddess salad was invented in the 1920s by the chef of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, who made it in honor of British actor George Arliss. The actor was a guest at the hotel while starring in a local production of William Archer’s The Green Goddess. The basic components of this classic California dressing are anchovies, mayonnaise, garlic, tarragon, parsley, and chives. I add watercress to the puréed herbs, which turns the dressing a deep emerald green and adds a clean, peppery flavor. Thick and rich, the dressing coats the romaine leaves the same way a Caesar salad dressing does. Once you have this dressing in your repertoire, you’ll find yourself using it for all sorts of things. Try a dollop over grilled fish, or spread it on bread instead of mayonnaise when making a sandwich.

As soon we were old enough to fly alone, my sister and I would travel back east for a few weeks every summer to visit our grandmother in Connecticut. Our late-summer arrival always coincided with the peak of her beefsteak tomato crop. Every evening, we’d venture out to the backyard to pick tomatoes for that night’s salad. Still warm from the sun, those juicy red slices, sprinkled with salt, left an indelible impression on me. My next life-changing tomato experience was at Al Forno, in Providence, Rhode Island. The owners, George Germon and Johanne Killeen, would drive 35 miles to a tiny town called Little Compton to pick up crates and crates of big red beefsteak tomatoes from their favorite farmer. Slicing the tomatoes to order, they served them with red onion, salt, basil, oil, and vinegar. Again, so simple, yet one of the best things I’d ever tasted. I didn’t discover heirloom tomatoes until a few years later, when I got a job at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Amazed by the odd shapes and variety of colors, from white to orange to almost black, I sampled every variety I could get my hands on. At Lucques, our regular customers start asking for this heirloom salad in early June. It’s been on the menu every year since we opened and seems to signal that summer is finally here.

Whenever I serve something really rich, like Soy-Braised Lamb Shanks (page 168), I like to have something tart and bracing to go with it. The tangy-hot blend of apples and chiles goes well with just about any red meat, and the combination of creamy and crunchy is unbeatable.

This simple blend of high-quality butter and fresh fines herbes goes with everything. You can even use it to butter good bread. I especially like it on vegetables and fish.

Not only is this salad refreshing, it also contains many ingredients valued for their cleansing properties. Its fresh flavor is especially enticing to me in the spring, but it’s welcome all year round; in fact, I recommend this salad frequently throughout the book. I often make it when I want a refreshing contrast to a hearty, spicy, or bold dish.

When you need to add color and crunch to a dinner plate, this fruit-filled slaw is a pleasing option. I like using Granny Smith apples in this recipe, but use any crisp apple you have on hand. Make this salad before starting your meal’s centerpiece; it benefits from having time to let the flavors blend and the cabbage soften.