Shellfish

If crawfish are hard to find, shrimp make a good stand-in.

Dallas chef Kent Rathbun created this recipe for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program. It makes an elegant first course for Thanksgiving dinner.

Sherry lends a nutty note to a big-flavored and colorful sauce.

Part of what makes this luxurious dish so delicious is that the spinach, artichokes, and oysters have a similar texture and the same soft, gentle flavors.

Joseph Gomes, chef at Bombay Talkie in New York City, sprinkles this dish with classic Indian seasonings.

The chive butter is a breeze to make, and it works overtime: First it's used to baste the shrimp, later it becomes the sauce.

Now that imported caviar is no longer available, the domestic stuff is all the rage. Paired with lemon oil (sold at many markets), it's the ultimate garnish.

This layered salad is definitely stacked: Michael Taus, executive chef and owner of Zealous restaurant in Chicago, has piled in all the vitamins C and B12 you need for the day, as well as 50 percent of your daily requirement for vitamin A.

Fork to the bottom of your bowl and you'll put away six servings of veggies! You can thank Michael Dunn, chef at Yankee Pier Santana Row in San Jose, California.

Instead of pairing shrimp with sausage, we've taken this spicy gumbo in a more sophisticated direction by adding duck meat.

Clams and pork are a classic Portuguese combination. The briny sweetness of the bivalves and a tomato sauce studded with zesty chorizo bring out the richness of the chops.

Bacon and scallops always pair beautifully, but it's the mixture of sugar and spice that transforms these easy-to-make hors d'oeuvres.

No need to trouble yourself about presentation with these tapas-style hors d'oeuvres. Simply toss steamed mussels in a vinaigrette with piquillo peppers, toasted almonds, and serrano ham, then nestle them back into their shells. They're lovely on the plate—and easy to eat.

The addictive topping, a potent mix of pork belly, mushrooms, and Chinese rock sugar, takes some time to cook, but you'll love the result.

Meaty, sweet squid steaks offer a seafood variation of chicken francese.

Earthy mushrooms are the base for a soup that also benefits from the saltwater essence of plump oysters.

While 17th-century English diners had never heard of the word "appetizer," they certainly understood the idea of foods served in several large courses for formal or court dinners. For modern diners, however, this lovely 17th-century mussel recipe makes a perfect first course. After months of eating a sea diet of dried peas, oats, and salt meats, the passengers on the Mayflower were delighted to find mussels when they first made landing on Cape Cod. They were abundant and easily gathered. This recipe is adapted from Thomas Dawson, The Second Part of the Good Huswives Jewell, 1597.