Pearl Onion

Colcannon (Mashed Potatoes with Kale ) and steamed asparagus tossed with lemon juice strike the right note alongside this braised beef dish. Rhubarb pie from the bakery is our choice for dessert.

Neither peas nor potatoes are indigenous to North America. Peas were introduced in the seventeenth century and flourished over time. While sweet potatoes were popular with the settlers, white potatoes took getting used to; they had to cross the Atlantic twice (from South America to Europe, then from Ireland to the colonies) before they were widely grown.

Zia Maria is a simple but delightful restaurant in Alghero, a popular tourist resort on a part of Sardinia's west coast known as the Coral Riviera. The dining room is very basic; a large fireplace and some antique cooking equipment are the only things to distract you from the traditional Sardinian menu. But that's a good thing, because once you start in on pickled artichokes and mushrooms, wild boar in sweet-and-sour broth, or ricotta ravioli with tomato sauce, you'll appreciate having few distractions. Each dish, like these tangy onions from the restaurant's selection of antipasti, is cooked and presented in straightforward fashion.

Mary Risley, director of Tante Marie's cooking school, says, "I dreamed up this recipe years ago when I was trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner on a four-burner stove with only one oven. And I've found that this is really the only vegetable needed to go with the turkey and mashed potatoes. It has the creamed onions everyone wants, it has the corn the Pilgrims must have eaten, and it has the fresh vegetables my Northern California friends and family have come to expect."

Turnips stand in for the usual potatoes, giving this gratin a rich, hearty taste.

Creamy fresh cheese meets spinach in this Indian classic.

Pre-marinated pork tenderloins can be found in the supermarket meat section. To round out the meal, add a romaine salad dressed with Dijon vinaigrette and a basket of warm cranberry-corn muffins; finish with wedges of apple pie and sharp cheddar cheese.

Boeuf bourguignon may be made 1 day ahead. Cool, uncovered, then chill, covered (it tastes even better made ahead because it gives the flavors time to develop). If making ahead, it's easier to remove fat from surface after chilling.

You may have to ask your butcher to reserve the marrow bones for this luxurious main course , but the result is well worth the effort. Roasted potatoes and steamed spinach make perfect accompaniments. Begin preparing this a day ahead.

Stifado, a hearty Greek stew, can be made with almost any kind of meat, though beef is most common. Here we use lamb. It always involves either red wine or red-wine vinegar or both, herbs, and copious quantities of small whole onions.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

Ask your butcher to bone the veal for you. Start marinating it a day ahead.

(POLLO ALLA MARENGO) On June 14, 1800, Napoléon Bonaparte defeated the Austrians at Marengo, a village in southeast Piedmont. The town has given its name to this chicken dish, which was cooked on the battlefield by Dunand, chef to Napoléon. It is still served throughout the area-as well as in France-and is often made with veal. Serve with lots of bread to soak up the juices; uncork a velvety red Barbaresco.

Truite à la Tomate This trout recipe could be page 1 of [fishmonger Neige] Perez's Workbook for Cooking Fish 101. There are no fish bones to fillet, no tomatoes to peel, and no saucepans to clean. Cooked together in a single roasting pan, the capers, olives, onions, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, white wine, and trout fillets conspire to create a wonderful, unmistakably Mediterranean ensemble sure to entice even Marseillais who were scaling and gutting fish — or so they say — before they could walk.