Seafood

Briny-sweet crab and piquant chiles shine on subtly flavored white bread.

Little Gem, a lettuce that both looks and tastes like a cross between baby romaine and a small head of butter lettuce, can be found at farmers' markets. If unavailable, substitute hearts of romaine.

Grilled squid—yaki ina—is a fixture of street fairs, shrine festivals, and pushcart vendors. Its phenomenal soy sauce fragrance makes it almost impossible to pass by without wanting one.

Use this as a finisher atop a grilled steak or to enrich pasta dishes.

(Enchiladas de Cangrejo con Mole Verde) Now that lump crabmeat is more readily available, a great way to enjoy it is with the aromatic spiciness of green mole. This is a rich dish and will go well with a side salad. Of course, you can also use any other kind of enchilada sauce that you like.

This dish has fresh, clean flavors, and is best eaten with fresh crusty bread and a glass of chilled white wine.

The deep, sweet flavor of white miso gives salmon an umami-packed supercharge. Look for containers of refrigerated miso and bottles of mirin in better supermarkets or at Asian markets.

The kicky flavors of ginger, garlic, and garam masala play off the richness of salmon in this stunning main course. It's served with raita, a cooling cucumber-yogurt sauce.

This recipe comes from Rosita Missoni's Sardinian fish merchant, who recommends using a large flat white fish such as turbot, fluke, or halibut. You can substitute a firm-fleshed round fish such as branzino or black sea bass. Serve the fish flaked off the bone with the potatoes and a simple arugula and tomato salad.

Tai Missoni got this recipe from the Milan restaurant Osteria La Risacca when he asked the owner what he ate at lunch. Adding white wine to the boiled potatoes keeps them moist.

Ask my Catalan friend Pep and my Catalan-wannabe friend Ted which of the three of us makes the best paella, and prepare to hear much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then you'll hear many excuses about exactly how and why I, neither having the privilege of a) growing up in Spain (Pep) nor b) having written a newspaper story about paella after interviewing the Spanish cooking authority Penelope Casas (Ted), managed to mop the floor with both of them in a paella cook-off when I lived in Boston several years ago. What can I say? The crowd was the judge, and the choice was clear. Of course, paella is a renowned dish for groups: In Spain, cooks will put a gargantuan paella pan over a huge fire to feed dozens. But with the right pan (I love my trusty steel crepe pan), it's easy enough to make for one, too.

I first sampled a version of this light and lively salad as a meal at chef Yves Camdeborde's Le Comptoir in Paris's 6th arrondissement. Yves and I participated in the New York marathon in 2006, and I am sure that the strength gained from this protein-rich salad helped me make it to the finish line! This dish has it all: color (the red bits are lobster roe), crunch, and a light touch imparted by a dressing of yogurt and mustard.

Editor's note: Chef, nutritionist, and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro shared this recipe from her cookbook, Latin Grilling. It's the first course in a festive Cuban party menu she created for Epicurious. Here I have taken a Cuban classic, camarones al ajillo (shrimp in garlic sauce), and adapted it for backyard entertaining. I was also inspired by the crowd-pleasing mounds of cold poached shrimp with sides of cocktail sauce you see at buffets. So I grilled jumbo shrimp, piled them on a platter, and served them with mojo, the addictively delicious citrus-garlic sauce that has become synonymous with Cuban cooking.

The dish was the Queen Mother's favorite and one we always put on the menu when she came to stay. It was also served at the wedding breakfast of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips in 1973.

Before making this dish, call your fish market. Octopus is available at some markets, but it may need to be ordered several days ahead.

The anchovy butter would also be terrific on grilled meats or steamed green beans.

This dish only looks indulgent: A serving has a mere 7 grams of saturated fat, and the pasta and peas help deliver 40 percent of your daily intake of folate, a nutrient that aids the body in forming red blood cells.