Saute

"To celebrate my birthday, my husband took me to Assaggio, one of my favorite restaurants here," writes Christy Wall of Portland, Oregon. "As I always do, I ordered the bow-tie pasta with wild mushrooms, butternut squash, spinach, garlic and olive oil."

By cooking the rice and toasting the walnuts ahead, you can take this dish from skillet to table in a very short time.

Serve with: Steaks, burgers, sausages, pork, duck, or salmon. Combine with: Sautéed greens (such as escarole). Use as: A topping for thin-crust pizza sprinkled with Gorgonzola.

When the weather turns chilly, a dinner of perfectly cooked duck, with crispy skin, rosy succulent meat, and a balanced fruity sauce, is something to dream about. This duck dish delivers all these things. It calls for whole ducks which can be found fresh or frozen in most supermarkets for a price per pound not much more than chicken. The breast and leg meat are removed from the carcass and marinated. The carcass is made into stock, strained, and boiled down into a rich sauce. When it's time to cook the duck, the legs are baked in the oven until fully cooked, tender, and crispy, and the breasts are sautéed on top of the stove until the skin crisps but the meat is still rosy. If you are not confident cutting up the duck yourself, buy a fresh duck from a butcher, who will cut it for you. Don't let the many steps scare you off. The result is well worth it, and you can do much of the work the day ahead. The day before, or the morning of serving day: Cut up the duck and marinate it; make the duck stock (3 hours); and strain the stock and boil it down to make the sauce (1 hour). **20 minutes before serving:**Begin cooking the duck breasts. 45 minutes before serving: Begin cooking the duck legs; reheat the sauce. 5 minutes before serving: Allow the duck to rest, then slice and serve.

This recipe was created to accompany <a></a>Turkey with Sherry Wine Vinegar Gravy .

Active time: 2 hr Start to finish: 3 1/2 hr (includes making stock)

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The fresh flavors of fennel and orange make this simple fish dish shine. You can serve it alone or with a helping of rice.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Ready in under ten minutes, this sauce turns basic pork chops into an entrée good enough for company. Partner it with sautéed cabbage and roasted potatoes.

A fusion dish from Phyllis Vaccarelli of Let's Get Cookin', in Westlake Village, California. The flavors are basically Italian, but before cooking, the shrimp are coated with a "velveting" mixture of cornstarch and egg white used in traditional Chinese cooking, which helps keep the shrimp tender. Serve a watercress salad with balsamic dressing alongside. For dessert, construct a sundae with vanilla ice cream, diced mangoes and crushed amaretti cookies.