Zucchini

My mother had no interest in cooking, but did what she could to get a nutritious dinner on the table with the least possible effort. The concept of a "recipe" was virtually unknown to her. Most nights, dinner was composed of exactly one item from each of the four food groups, for example: a baked potato, boiled peas, broiled chicken, and ice cream. No two ingredients touched each other until they got to our plates. We always had plenty of shrimp in the house (my father was a seafood importer), so my mother took advantage of this food supply by keeping bowls of boiled shrimp with ketchup and horseradish in the refrigerator. Then, on special nights, my mother would give it all she had and make what we called a "dish." We celebrated her efforts at combining ingredients, but the results were never worth the wait.

In this recipe we call for a 3- by 1 1/2-inch stainless-steel pastry ring. It is available at some specialty cookware shops.

"My favorite lamb dish in recent memory was a lamb shank at Bistro 110 here in Chicago," writes Valerie Young of Chicago, Illinois. "The waiter told me that it was seasoned with cumin, coriander, and curry, then braised for a very long time." The secret to this recipe? The lamb marinates overnight in a fragrant oil-and-spice mixture. If you don't have a spice grinder or coffee grinder, use a mallet to crush the seeds in a resealable plastic bag.

For this fabulous salad we used red onions, beets, zucchini, eggplant, and bell peppers, but any mix of summer vegetables would work. The salad gets served with grilled bread and is nice with a white wine, like Sauvignon Blanc.

A handsomely arranged combination salad can be the solution for what to serve at an informal spur-of-the-moment meal. The trick is to toss all of the elements separately in vinaigrette, letting some marinate for 10 to 20 minutes if they need to take on flavor. Then when you arrange your work of art, each part of it is perfectly seasoned. Here is a hearty meatless combination.

Bonnie Wilkens Metully of Cincinnati, Ohio, writes: "As much as my husband and I love to go out to eat, it's just more fun, intimate, and cozy to cook and entertain at home. I've taught a lot of our friends just how easy it is to prepare restaurant-quality dishes themselves. Who taught me? My older sister, who's a professional chef. She showed me the importance of getting everything prepped beforehand and seeking out the freshest ingredients." This terrific dish also works well as an appetizer if it's cut into bite-size pieces.

I leave the roots on the leeks until after cooking, so they don't fall apart. Just wash and trim beforehand.

Couscous is frequently thought of as a grain, but it's actually a pasta. This is more apparent in rounds of toasted Israeli couscous, which are larger and chewier than the familiar Moroccan kind. Try this dish with chicken or fish.

When a generous garnish of pesto gets stirred in, the soup turns a vibrant green and becomes perfumed with the intense and sweet aroma of basil mixed with garlic.

Preparing the zucchini for this dish won't heat up your kitchen — simply salting thin slices is enough to tenderize them. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 30 min

Only native Californians like two wine-making friends of mine in Salinas can regularly throw together a vegetable chili such as this utilizing their almost year-round abundance of fresh vegetables and herbs. For those of us with seasonal gardens, various substitutions often have to be made (canned tomatoes, dried herbs, and the like), but such is the availability almost everywhere today of certain fresh produce even in the coldest months that no imaginative cook should have much trouble concocting a very tasty vegetable and bean chili according to this basic recipe. One advantage, by the way, of using a 28-ounce can of tomatoes with their juices instead of the fresh is that most likely you won't have to add any water to keep the chili slightly soupy.

Here's a new take on calabacitas, a traditional Mexican side dish with zucchini, onions and peppers.

At Vong in New York the lobster is rolled in paper-thin strips of daikon radish. Zucchini, which is much easier to find, is used here; its more flexible and easier to cut.