Red Wine

This recipe is an accompaniment for Rack of Lamb and Roasted Cabbage with Cauliflower and Date Purées .

Chef: Patrick O'Connell, The Inn at Little Washington, Washington, Virginia. Claim to fame: Named best chef in the Mid-Atlantic region by the James Beard Foundation. How he defines natural: "Natural means meat and poultry raised without antibiotics and hormones, and locally grown vegetables."

Sweet early strawberries in their prime and a good bottle of fruit-forward red wine — you just can't go wrong with the simple combination of these two stellar ingredients.

Erin Franzman of New York City, writes: "After reading that duck was part of the Aztec diet, I put it in this simple, hearty tortilla soup for an unexpected, rich twist." Corn tortillas add both body and crunch to this filling dish. Try sliced avocado on top for a splash of cool, vibrant flavor.

You'll need to start marinating the meat at least a day ahead. It can be cooked up to 2 days in advance of serving.

Concord-grape wine — a traditional part of the Passover feast — gives this delightful spongecake a fruity, almost floral note.

It's been decades since this dish was considered ethnic. Now we just think of it as down-home American food of the best kind. The moist, tender meat takes on a deep tomatoey flavor that suggests it's been slowly cooking for days rather than for less than 2 hours.

Nouvelle cuisine, for all its annoying pretension and fussiness, did return acidity to the table. Instead of leaning on cream sauce, cooks excited the senses with the interplay of sweet and sour. When first introduced, it seemed edgy and refreshing; now it seems timeless.

In this spin on New Orleans's classic appetizer of barbecue shrimp, chipotle chiles stand in for cayenne and black pepper, truly transforming the dish with a beguiling play of spice, a hint of smoke, and a gorgeous brick-red color. Here, we serve the shrimp as a main course — but in the spirit of the original, we've kept this a meal to eat with your hands. Peeling the shrimp, slurping their shells, and scooping up the hot, buttery sauce with crusty bread makes for nothing less than a feast. Best of all, it's ready in a flash.

The wine and OJ supply antioxidants. (Amounts for a pitcher, about 20 drinks for 8 guests, are in parentheses.)

The bright, tender fruit of Fuyu persimmons mellows the intensity of cranberries while lending this sauce a beautiful jewel-like hue. Using Fuyus, which can be eaten hard or soft, removes the guesswork of finding ripe fruit.

The Lenz Winery, one of the oldest on Long Island, has had the same winemaker, Eric Fry, since 1989. Fry's mantra is "Ripe fruit!" — and hows in the Lenz Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine has an amazing concentration of flavors, an intense raspberry and black-cherry nose, and smooth tannins that provide a long finish. In short, it's a perfect partner for Fry's deeply flavored venison stew. In this satisfying harvest dish, venison is browned, then oven-braised in wine. Fry puts any leftovers on a roll for lunch.

Bedell Cellars, along with nearby Corey Creek Vineyards, is owned by New Line Cinema CEO Michael Lynne, who has spared no expense in fine-tuning — not to mention set designing: Art from his private collection, including works by Cindy Sherman, Sam Taylor-Wood, Uta Barth, and Sarah Morris, decorates the tasting room. Bedell has been known since 1988 for producing the best Merlot on Long Island: Less California and more Bordeaux in style (softer tannins, nuanced fruit), the Merlot is a delicious match with duck.

This recipe was inspired by a dish that Italian chef Alessandro Giuntoli made when he was at Osteria del Circo, in New York City.