Sauce

Why use frozen berries in the summer, when local fruit is at its peak? Because we love fresh local berries so much when whole or, in the case of strawberries, when sliced as well, puréeing them seems almost a sacrilege. If, however, you've got a surplus of fresh berries, go ahead and purée them.

Spread this punchy chile-herb sauce on grilled flatbread or drizzle it over grilled seafood.

Once I have grilled a piece of meat, I want to capture the flavors of the delicious juices that emerge on the cutting board when I slice it and then build upon them, so I make what I call a board dressing. I often add some olive oil, or some of the rendered fat trimmings from the baste, or perhaps a little balsamic vinegar, to the juices.

Use this orange-tinted sauce on sandwiches with salmon or cucumbers.

Serve this chunky, all-purpose tomato sauce with fish, chicken, pasta, or disks of polenta (shown here).

This is a robust dressing that is good with strongly flavored greens like escarole or spinach. It’s also very good on grilled foods and vegetables like potatoes, or as a dressing for chicken and pasta salad. Because the garlic thickens the dressing and gives it body, less oil is needed than for a conventional vinaigrette.

This simple recipe is not only great for bread-dipping, but can also be used to liven up the flavors in other dishes—as your cooking oil, or in salad dressing, or as a pasta topping, or just drizzled over grilled fish or meat.

This basic white sauce is what gives many pasta dishes, like lasagna, a rich creamy texture. It’s not hard to make and you’ll find lots of uses for it.

Every cook should have a good marinara sauce in his or her repertoire, and I think this one is just about perfect. Though not as quick to throw together as some of the other tomato sauces I depend on (see page 164 for a really quick, basic sugo), the time you invest in making it will be repaid with a full-flavored, robust sauce that can be used in dozens of different ways. The sauce freezes very well, so why not make a double batch to freeze (after cooling completely) in 2-cup portions? Frozen sauce may be stored for up to 3 months.

This sauce tastes great over pasta, fish, or grilled chicken—and is packed with beneficial lycopene from the cooked tomatoes.

Salmon seasoned with orange, lemon, and lime contrasts beautifully with a fresh-pea puree. Green peas—actually legumes, not vegetables—are high in protein and vitamin K, which boosts bone health.

You can make this sauce with thawed frozen peas instead of fresh, in which case they don’t need to be blanched.

This rich pumpkin-seed sauce, based on traditional Mexican moles, is made with green herbs, and is just as satisfying as cheese- or cream-based sauces but contains far less saturated fat and fewer calories. Serve the dish with rice for an authentic accompaniment.