Gourmet

This Italian take on shrimp and grits comes together in just 25 minutes for a creamy, comforting dinner.

Taking a cue from German potato salad, these Yukon Golds are smashed with a hot bacon dressing and then tossed with fresh dill. Steaming rather than boiling the potatoes keeps them fluffy.

Folding sweet jumbo lump crabmeat and chopped scallions into the classic batter of cornmeal and buttermilk dresses up these pups for a party. They're crisp, fluffy, and, truth be told, dangerously easy to eat, especially after a dip in a lemony homemade tartar sauce speckled with parsley, sweet pickles, and capers. For information about crabmeat.

Noodle kugels, or baked puddings, abound in Ashkenazic Jewish cookery, and this particular version makes an outstanding dessert or brunch dish. You'll find that the mild sweetness of coarsely grated Gala apples perks up the hearty richness.

Thanks to a few humble additions—sun-dried tomatoes, sweet smoked paprika, and leafy spinach—these saucy beans have real pizzazz. Best of all, the dish requires little more than a quick sauté and simmer.

Look no further for a go-to recipe when making vegetarian stews and gravies. The stock here gets its deep flavor and color from roasting the vegetables and then deglazing the pan with red wine.

Combining bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder intensifies the chocolaty essence of this cheesecake to the nth degree. Silken tofu brings a delicate creaminess to the filling while also taking the place of eggs by acting as a binding agent.

A trifle is not only one of the most elegant desserts around, it's also one of the most exuberant—which is why it is tempting to toss aside decorum and dive right into the bowl. The nontraditional version here is sturdy, made with robust gingerbread and mellow pumpkin mousse instead of the classic spongecake and custard.

A jumble of fruit and nuts cascading over tender frangipane creates quite a picture, and there is flavor to match. Although frangipane sounds fancy, it's a breeze to whiz up in a food processor—simply grind the almonds and sugar, then add the flour, butter, and eggs. The oven's heat concentrates the grapes' sweetness and perfume, and dusting the hot tart with confectioners sugar bestows a subtle shine.

An irresistible vegetarian main course can take a little extra love and time, but food editor Melissa Roberts would be the first person to tell you it's worth it. Fortunately, all the components of this shepherd's pie—from the heady vegetable stew with its red wine gravy to the crown of fluffy mashed potatoes and celery root—can be made ahead. Protein-rich seitan (pronounced "SAY-tan," it's sometimes labeled "wheat gluten") has long been used as a meat substitute by Asian cooks, who know how to coax the most out of its satisfyingly chewy texture. Seitan doesn't have a strong taste of its own, but it soaks up the flavors of whatever it's cooked with.

A rich filling is studded with walnuts and imbued with citrusy notes of orange, then packaged between a crust and a lattice top, both made from the cookie-like pastry dough known as pasta frolla in Italy.

When layered with tender, brandy-spiked pears and a fluffy maple-flavored frosting, spice cake sheds its old-fashioned modesty, becoming impressive enough for any Thanksgiving sideboard. While it will surely satisfy the cake fans at your holiday gathering, it just might tempt a few diehard pie lovers, as well.

There is something to be said for a big, sunny slice of lemon custard pie—and that is, "Oh, boy." Neither too sweet nor too sharp, particularly when served with plenty of freshly whipped cream, it provides a festive-yet-undecorated counterpoint to fancier desserts. The graham cracker crust, like the pie itself, is the embodiment of simplicity. It's also terrifically pantry-friendly.

Green beans and Brussels sprouts might seem like the Abbott and Costello of the vegetable world—lanky and straight versus roly-poly—but like so many odd couples, they go together beautifully. The key is to sautéthe vegetables so that they still have a little bite.

It's easy to understand why apple crumble pie (sometimes called French apple pie in diners and old cookbooks) is so immensely popular: It packs all the flavor and fragrance of a traditional apple pie underneath a carapace of nutty, buttery, cinnamony crumbs. Adding cranberries to the filling evokes a familiar fall color and provides pleasant tartness to balance the sweetness.

Yes, the paper-thin disks of raw beet will spill their pink color across the escarole and frisée dressed with a lusty vinaigrette, but don't fret—those splashes are part of this simple salad's charm.

Yogurt drinks are popular throughout India—some are flavored with sugar or fruit, while others, like this one, are more savory. "I give sample tastes of this all the time at the restaurant," says Susan Feniger, "and people are shocked by how refreshing it is."

It's pretty hard to upstage bacon, but if you get your hands on some heirloom Carolina Gold rice, the granddaddy of long-grain rices in the United States, that's what you might end up doing. Lee cooks it uncovered, which allows the water to evaporate and thus concentrates the richness of the chicken stock and tomato juice.

At the Citymeals-on-Wheels event, our food editors were astonished by the variety of flavors layered in these summer rolls. Within the confines of each wrapper, chef Alfred Portale combined sweet crabmeat, crunchy tobiko (flying-fish roe), and creamy avocado, then finished it with a citrusy yuzu sauce.

The glory of a chess pie is its rich custard filling (long ago also used to fill tartlets called cheesecakes, hence the name). The secret to the accompanying salsa is to panfry the pineapple until it's charred, bringing out the fruit's acidic, musky qualities. And as for the last-minute drizzle of caramel sauce—how bad could that be?