Gourmet

You might expect to find smoked duck breast in a sultry, sensual main-course salad like this one, but here we use smoked turkey, which makes it a lot more affordable and a little bit more robust. Both good things.

This satisfying vegetarian combo—a black-eyed-pea salad with tomatoes; orzo tossed with olives, red onion, and cucumber; and salty crumbles of feta cheese—sings of the Aegean sun.

Who says main dishes have to be conventional? Here, prosciutto moves aside to put the cheese front and center, and an array of antipasto staples frame the crisp, gooey fried mozzarella. An aromatic anchovy vinaigrette ties it all together.

This smooth puréed soup manages the near—impossible feat of being velvety and creamy without any cream. Ribbons of zucchini add a final soupçon of elegance.

Don't throw those melon seeds away. It's a traditional Mexican technique to use the seeds as a thickener, and here they work their magic in a coulis, adding effortless panache to a straightforward and wonderfully light dessert.

If you've got the grill going anyway, toss your ears on before you butter them to get a quick char and even deeper flavor.

Honest isn't a word that comes up much when side dishes are being discussed, but that's exactly how these smashed potatoes and peas strike us. Serve them alongside the cornflake fried chicken for a southern-inspired supper for one.

Top round, a muscle from the leg, is starting to pop up in supermarkets around the country. (If your market doesn't carry it yet, ask your butcher.) This small, quick-cooking cut has the succulence you'd expect from lamb but is so convenient that you needn't wait for a special occasion or a large gathering to savor it.

Like the best cutlet you can imagine, with a crisp crust and the added hint of sweetness from the cornflakes, this chicken is quintessentially American.

Attention, dill: Please step away from the salmon. Here, the herb gets to show its versatility—and its Greek side.

A refined rethinking of a bagel-shop favorite provides a no—cook, imaginative way to appreciate the traditional flavor pairing.

Deconstructing the classic icebox cake, chef Adam Randall loosely layers chilled slices of yellow cake with tart lemon cream and then finishes the dish with a cloud of whipped cream and curls of candied lemon peel. This perfect summer dessert is so tasty that no one will ever guess its shortcuts: store-bought cake and sweetened condensed milk.

Chunks of chorizo balance the sweetness of spring onions, beans, and peas. A Sherry vinaigrette lends a slight Iberian edge.

The stems of Swiss chard get short shrift way too often; when they're beautiful rainbow chard, they deserve a dish all their own. Blanched to remove toughness, then grilled—yes, we like our chard charred—their earthiness is a natural complement to meaty fava beans.

Easy, sophisticated, and make-ahead friendly, this is just the cake for your Memorial Day gathering.

Fennel and tomatoes go silky when poached in olive oil, and when halibut follows suit, it picks up hints of the vegetables' flavor and becomes succulent and delicately nuanced.

Fudgy cookies go Latin with an infusion of dulce de leche, a sweet milk caramel similar to cajeta and arequipe. These cool treats are happily portable on their crisp shortbread crusts.

Surely you've had one too many supersweet sangrias whose fruit chunks overpower the (usually mediocre) wine. This version couldn't be more of a contrast, with a refreshing mintiness and subtly aromatic fruit that still allow the crispness of the white wine to come through.

Of course, you can always take a simple store-bought rotisserie chicken to a picnic, but this Indian spin is way more fun. We love the chickpea layer so much that we make it even when there's no picnic planned.