Poultry

Sabrina Henderson of Gardena, California, writes: "My love of cooking dates back to my junior-high home economics class. After that I took home ec every year I could. My last teacher in high school was the best. He was a former chef who taught us how to make classics like lasagna and chicken cordon bleu. I still prepare those dishes for company."

For this recipe we used what the butcher calls the first cut or brisket cut of the veal breast — it's the thicker, upper portion.

Traditional recipes for mole poblano call for several varieties of dried chilies, which, outside the Southwest, are available only at specialty foods stores or by mail order; as well as sesame seeds and/or pumpkin seeds and/or peanuts; roasted tomatoes; and chocolate; among other things. A mole can sound like a peculiar combination of ingredients, but at its best it is every bit as subtle and well balanced as the most evolved French sauce. Our quick version uses only ingredients available at the supermarket, and broiled, not fried, chicken, which makes the dish easier to prepare, lighter, and most important, still delicious---if not exactly authentic.

In Italian cooking, meat (usually breast of veal) that is flattened and then rolled around a filling is known as braciola. The recipe below applies this preparation to turkey breast - an American touch - using a distinctly Italian stuffing.

This recipe uses a combination of direct and indirect heat, which can be accomplished using a charcoal or gas grill. If you have a gas grill, you can easily use it to roast the peppers.

In the kitchen of Piedmont's splendid country restaurants it is usually a woman who rules. Invariably, she has been schooled not by chefs, but by her mother, and her professional accomplishments are founded on the region's home cooking, a cuisine that, for finesse and variety, is unsurpassed in Italy, or even in Europe. One of the most gifted of these women is Ilvia Boggione of the restaurant Vicoletto in Alba. Among her specialties is this deft rendition of a classic game bird that is sometimes served with tajarin — thin homemade noodles. To call it sauce may be misleading, however, particularly if one's idea of a pasta sauce is something juicy and all-enveloping. There is nothing runny or sauce-like about this one. Quail is cooked until its meat slips succulently off the bone, and small bite-size pieces of it are nestled among the pasta strands. A more accurate description of the dish would be pasta with quail. Suggested pasta: Homemade noodles make the only satisfactory pairing for this sauce, particularly thick, square shaped tonnarelli or the broad pappardelle or fettuccine. In Piedmont (as noted above) they use tajarin, a thin noodle that in restaurants is made almost exclusively from a large number of egg yolks.

For optimum browning, roast this dish in the upper third of your oven.

Garden-fresh Thyme Pesto is the star of this elegant entrée, but you can also use purchased or homemade basil pesto.

Don't be intimidated by the amount of hot pepper sauce in the marinade; the chicken will pick up only some of the heat.

"Gelson's market here in Los Angeles has a fantastic variety of prepared foods in the deli," says Susan Baker of Los Angeles, California. "My mother, who doesn't have a Gelson's where she lives in Tacoma, would make a trip to Southern California just for their lemon chicken pasta. I'd love to surprise her with the recipe." This dish is best served either chilled or at room temperature. If you'd like to make your own pasta, our technique video will show you how.

This three-in-one dish (chicken, rice, and soup) originated in Hainan, a tropical island off China's southern coast, and has become a culinary staple in Malaysian culture.