Mushroom

Watch how to fillet fish and sharpen your slicing and chopping skills with our technique videos.

Even though Aux Delices des Bois left Tribeca, Thierry and I still love Zutto, the sushi bar that was near our warehouse. It dates back to when Tribeca's cast-iron canopies cast their shadows on silent streets at night. Its metal loading dock held two tables, the precursor to the neighborhood's current profusion of loading-dock cafes. One evening the sushi chef, Albert Tse, made us this special dish, using a fish from each of the seven seas. Kind of like a Japanese version of the ancient French dish Coquilles St-Jacques, it combines fin fish and aromatic oyster mushrooms with the scallops and sharpens the flavor with rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and seaweed. If scallop shells aren't handy, use any ovenproof baking dish.

Pierogies are large dumplings filled with meat, cheese or vegetables, and they are very popular in Poland. A precooked version is available frozen in many supermarkets.

One of the best-loved pastas in the Italian city of Trieste is the whole wheat spaghetti known as bigoli, which is often topped with anitra in sugo, an intensely flavored sauce made with duck. This recipe, from the excellent restaurant Hosteria Bellavista, also includes chicken livers, porcini mushrooms and pancetta (Italian bacon). Porcini mushrooms and bigoli are available at Italian markets and specialty foods stores.

Traditional potato latkes are spiced up with hot paprika and enhanced with earthy porcini mushrooms. They are especially good with roasted meats, poultry, or fish. This recipe will serve four to five as a side dish.

Vegetable broth is rich and delicious when made correctly. The peels add color and vitamins, and the mushrooms lend great flavor. There are many varieties of veggie broth in cans too. Try both homemade and canned. You also can substitute canned chicken broth for the Fresh Vegetable Broth in any recipe.

These little quesadillas are made with masa rather than packaged tortillas.

A stunning vegetarian platter.

It's important to splurge on well-marbled choice or prime strip steaks for this recipe. Lighter eaters might want to share one of these substantial cuts.

The mustard dressing is used both to marinate the lamb and to coat the salad. And don't let the anchovies in the dressing scare you off. They add depth of flavor, but not a fishy taste. Complete this dish with a chilled Beaujolais.

These are great with almost any kind of stuffing — corn bread, oyster, sausage, you name it. Pour Spanish wine throughout the meal: a chilled white Albariño or a red Rioja.

"Our family vacations in Albany, New York, wouldn’t be the same without one dinner at Nicole’s Italia in nearby Guilderland," says Stephanie Clauson, Wayne, New Jersey. "I’d love to get the recipe for the spinach salad.'

Serve with: Tossed green salad. Dessert: Chocolate sorbet with biscotti.

Here's something good for vegetarians, too. Just use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and bake in a dish.

Bonnie Wilkens Metully of Cincinnati, Ohio, writes: "Having two very active teenagers means I've also had to learn how to put together an interesting dinner even on busy nights. I get inspiration from my favorite bedtime reading, an immense collection of cookbooks and food magazines. I also do a quick grocery run every day — usually because I've just read about a dish that I simply must try — but also because having a well-stocked refrigerator is the key to easier cooking."