Gourmet

Nuggets of sausage give a little meatball action to this hearty, no-fuss soup chock-full of healthy escarole and lentils.

The beer and cheese combo gets saucy, turning toast and fried eggs into a truly luxurious meal all about extras: extra-stout beer, extra-sharp Cheddar, and extra good.

Everyone—not just whiskey fans and pyromaniacs—will love this steak and its rich, tangy sauce. The type of whiskey you use will leave its own imprint on the sauce: Bourbon will make for a sweeter sauce, while rye will add some nice yeasty notes. Scotch will take it in a smokier direction. Do be careful when flambéing: Because this recipe calls for a generous amount of whiskey, the flames may shoot quite high (it’s a necessary step to take the edge off the alcohol).

A Chinese-inspired five-spice blend amps up a simply broiled hanger steak.

These individual cakes, from Lantern pastry chef Monica Segovia-Welsh, are moist, tender, and not remotely fussy. If you don’t want to fool with the suggested accompaniments, serve the cakes with a dollop of whipped cream instead.

Crêpe Bundles with Caviar and Sour Cream Innovative and self-taught, Barry Wine redefined American haute cuisine at New York City's Quilted Giraffe in the 1980s. His iconic—and most copied—dish was the bite-size beggars’ purse, a chive-tied crêpe bundle filled with caviar and crème fraîche. We've turned it into a first course and added chives and brown butter to the crêpe batter.

In this nod to chef André Soltner, who opened New York City's Lutèce in 1961, we've streamlined his once modern take on duck à l’orange. Duck breasts, roasted and then broiled until golden-crisp on top, end up perfectly medium-rare. To cut the meat's richness, we add a splash of raspberry vinegar and fresh berries to the pan sauce.

Puttanesca is usually a pasta sauce, but here the addition of beans to the spicy blend of tomatoes, basil, and olives turns it into a versatile, satisfying side dish.

We were enchanted by Segovia-Welsh’s idea of cold ice cream flavored with "warming" spices such as those found in the fragrant Chinese blend called five-spice powder. It turns the honest little caramel pecan cakes into something suave.

Rack of lamb, a popular restaurant cut, is easy to cook at home. Smaller Australian or New Zealand racks are the perfect size to serve two. Roasting the meat over sliced potatoes enlivens them with savory juices.

Though we can appreciate the beauty of a panna cotta that's been turned out of its mold, the light-as-air texture of these, just set enough to melt in the mouth, will have you happy to eat them right from the cup. Yogurt gives the almond-infused cream a little tang, and peaches that have been macerated with lemon thyme just long enough to meld and soften seem to exist expressly for this dessert.

Generous handfuls of parsley and mint leaves are left whole, to hold their own alongside sweet ruffles of Bibb and thin slices of cucumber.

We can't get enough of this method for braising potatoes. In this variation, their tenderness is emphasized by an unctuous olive-oil glaze punctuated with fresh chives and tarragon.

An herb paste smeared onto these birds adds a concentrated taste of summer; this works nicely with the poussins, since they're small enough to cook through before the herbs can threaten to burn.

File this one under "secret weapon" and pull it out whenever you need a quick but impressive appetizer. Warming the olives in thyme- and-lemon-zest-infused oil awakens their flavor and transforms a goat-cheese medallion into a sumptuous warm spread for flatbread.

Using a fresh bay leaf brings the perfume of the herb garden to agrodolce onions that beg to be popped in the mouth whole.

Sliced thin and broiled, eggplant retains a slight chewiness but still melts in the mouth; a caper and mint vinaigrette brightens everything.

Think of it as a cracker version of rosemary-flecked flatbread. But these are the easiest crackers you'll ever make: Rather than cutting the dough into small pieces, you bake three large pieces, then break them into smaller ones to serve. The jagged edges invite nibbling.