Shellfish

Usually clam sauce is loaded with cream and butter. Here, only a touch is needed in a lighter version of an old favorite.

This hearty stew was inspired by the flavors of Spain and Portugal. Because it can be made ahead, it's a perfect dish to enjoy after a day of skiing or other winter play. Offer the stew with some crusty bread and a chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Follow with the curly endive salad. For dessert, serve a seasonal fruit tart from your favorite bakery.

Serve these pastries as the first course of a special-occasion supper — maybe with a bottle of chilled Champagne.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Pair this dish with white rice pilaf made with chopped dried apples.

From coast to coast, diners in the eighties showed an insatiable appetite for crab cakes. Some chefs deep-fried them; others spiced them with Old Bay Seasoning. But the best crab cakes, like the ones here, let the sweet flavor of the crab predominate.

Quick, light, delicious—a spring supper in thirty minutes, including chopping and peeling. I added a little pasta to the pan stew to give it substance. You want the scallop and pea flavors to dominate, so make sure the pasta shells are thin not thick. (Names, sizes, and thickness vary from brand to brand.)And you want shells, because they will catch the juices. You can, of course, omit the pasta if you prefer.

Make the components of this salad early in the day, then toss in the shrimp just before serving. (Buy cooked shrimp, if you like, to save a little time.) Offer cold Mexican beers and Margaritas alongside.

It’s unclear just who the Louis of Crab Louis salad fame was; perhaps he was affiliated with the Olympic Club in Seattle, where opera star Enrico Caruso, who visited there in 1904, is said to have fallen in love with the crab salad. San Francisco also claims the dish, which reached its zenith there in the teens, as a specialty at Solari’s restaurant and at the St. Francis Hotel.

It's very important to use small oysters — such as Kumamoto or Prince Edward Island — in this soup. The oysters themselves (not the shell) should be no more than 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. When we tested the recipe with larger ones, the flavor was much too briny.

Laura Trevino of Washington, D.C., writes: "This hearty chowder is the perfect thing for a chilly evening. Serve it with dark beer and crusty bread or oyster crackers."

This impressive main course is ideal for a healthful dinner party. Serve it with crusty country style bread to soak up the flavorful juices.

"My husband and I were married at the Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in Stateline, Nevada," writes Janie Cloutier of South Lake Tahoe, California, "and we celebrate our wedding anniversary at the restaurant there every year. The crab cakes are superb." These crab cakes are loaded with fresh crabmeat, which gives them a delicate texture.

Offer this main course with plenty of crusty bread to soak up the delicious saffron broth. A crisp Sauvignon Blanc is good here, too.

This soup can be pureed by pressing it through a strainer or a food mill. It can also be pureed in a blender and then strained.

If you’d like to serve a sauce alongside, strain 1/4 cup of the cooled pickling liquid, and whisk it with 1 cup of mayonnaise. For ease, the shrimp are left unpeeled; if you peel them before cooking, leave the tails on.

We have given no-boil lasagne noodles as an alternative to fresh because regular dried lasagne noodles often have curly edges and are too thick. Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 3 1/2 hr

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 40 min