Seafood

Baking the crust first keeps it from getting soggy beneath the toppings.

When cooking shrimp in boiling water, 2 minutes does the job. Overcooking toughens them.

Give your pan-seared salmon fillets a lemony pop with mustard-herb butter.

Beurre blanc—the classic French butter sauce—is a cinch to prepare and has a tendency to make just about anything taste better. This take on it uses the scallops' juices to add complexity.

While there's no substitute for eating a bowl of mussels on France's Atlantic coast, you'll be surprised at how easy it is to re-create this briny, aromatic dish at home.

This dish takes the best of traditional choucroute garni—smoked pork married to sauerkraut that's had its bite removed by being simmered in wine with bay and juniper—and lightens it up, pairing it with another Alsatian favorite, trout, and transforming a stick-to-the-ribs dish into something fit for a first course. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how the slight acidity of the kraut and the smokiness of the bacon play up, rather than dominate, the fish's clean flavor.

You don't need to get fancy with bouillabaisse. This version of the French fisherman's stew liberates you from having to buy up the entire fish counter—just choose any two or three of the fish and shellfish options listed below.

Simple to prepare but impressive when served, this is spring elegance at its best. The salad is shown with purple watercress, a beautiful, rare variety you might find at farmers' markets. Green watercress works great, too.

The whole beet—greens and all—is used in this clever, elegant main. Gremolata—a mixture of chopped herbs, garlic, and citrus peel—is the classic topping for osso buco. This garlic-free variation gives bright, fresh flavor to the halibut.

With sustainability in mind, we taste-tested a variety of domestic caviars. Trout roe had the pop and brininess we were looking for—and it was especially pretty.

The secret ingredient in this dish is a surprisingly modest one: grapefruit. Its tartness balances the unashamed, almost swaggering richness of scallops bathed in a butter sauce.

There's enough garlic butter here to drench every morsel of lobster meat—you'll want to serve crusty bread on the side to soak it all up.

Miso soup and quick-roasted mushrooms give Pacific cod a meaty umami boost.

Don't worry if the fat seems a bit high—it's mostly the heart-healthy kind from the fish.

A super-quick take on aioli, this garlicky sauce keeps the fish incredibly moist.

The French version of pesto, pistou is often stirred into soupe au pistou, Provence's vegetable and bean soup. In this dish, the vegetable soup ingredients and pistou are blended together into a flavorful puree that's topped with shrimp. To serve as a main course, add a side of orzo tossed with good-quality olive oil, salt, plenty of pepper, and some grated Asiago cheese.

Russian blinis traditionally call for yeast, but our mini-pancake version is blissfully easy. Use as much or as little caviar as you like, depending on how indulgent you're feeling.

The ciabatta slices make for man-sized crostini, perfect for a Super Bowl party. If you can, always cut the bread into bite-sized chunks for more manageable portions.