Green Bean

Add rice or soft oriental noodles, and this becomes a quick supper. Look for wasabi powder and sesame oil in the Asian foods section of the supermarket.

While staying at the Hotel Villa Flori, which overlooks Italy's Lake Como, I had an outstanding pasta with a chunky pesto sauce," says Patty Owens of Walnut Creek, California. "Is there any chance the chef would share the recipe?" This pesto sauce includes walnuts, a variation on the classic recipe. To give the dish a creamy quality, add some of the pasta cooking water to the sauce.

Lemongrass lends a delicate flavor to this simple roast chicken from Market. Begin marinating the chicken one day ahead.

Offer this hearty and satisfying salad with grilled lamb or tuna.

A pretty and refreshing composed salad that can be made using only one skillet.

The success of this dish depends entirely on the quality of your ingredients. Now's the time to use your best olive oil, freshly ground pepper, and a generous amount of a flavorful sea salt.

This salad's delicious dressing is popular with my children as a dip for vegetables (I make a bottle of it to keep in the refrigerator). The salad is great for lunch boxes, or as a side dish served warm or cold. Use three-color pasta, if possible. Preparation: 10 minutes/Cooking: 12 minutes Nutritional information: Rich source of beta-carotene, fiber, and folic acid

An easy-to-make salad, perfect for a picnic. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe was created to accompany Broiled Salmon with Curried Eggplant Cutney . Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Preserved tuna, packed in extra-virgin olive oil, is paired with white beans in Tuscany, a speedy dish to assemble if you've got beans on hand. Canned beans work well and simplify this preparation — open a few cans and chop an onion. Quality tuna makes a big difference in the success of this dish. Leftover grilled or poached tuna can be used instead of canned, but it should be marinated in extra-virgin olive oil. All choices will work better than insipid tuna packed in water. Scallions can be used in the spring, red onions for the rest of the year. Torquato, my farmer and muse, suggested combining green beans with tuna during his glorious green-bean season, a fantastic variation.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This salad was inspired by a classic Salade Niçoise with its fresh anchovies, potatoes and green beans, and one offered to me by Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse, who comes to France every year to avail herself of, among other things, the fine green beans of summer.