Fruit

A fool is a classic British dessert made from pureed fruit folded into cream whipped to stiff peaks.

Brandy, cinnamon, and lemon zest combine to give this tart unbelievable aroma and wonderful flavor.

When I was a student in France, Rose Minkel was a fixture at Friday night dinners at my friend Nanou’s home. Called Mémé, an endearing term for “Grandmother,” she brought with her the recipes from her family’s native Metz, a city in the province of Lorraine with a long Jewish presence. Though the Jews had been in Metz for many generations (some say the first Jews settled there in 221 C.E.), up until the eighteenth century they lived a very different life from non-Jews in the town. They paid extra taxes on meat, wines and liqueurs, and other provisions. It was easy to spot a Jew on the street, because the men wore yellow hats to distinguish them from the black-hat-wearing gentiles. But over time they did assimilate, and already at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Jews of Metz began to speak French instead of Yiddish. One Rosh Hashanah recipe that I remember most fondly was this simple roast chicken with peeled apple quarters, cinnamon, sugar, and wine.

Brussels sprouts aren't the first ingredient anybody thinks of when they think of Italian food, but this salad takes a basic equation from the Italian kitchen—fresh vegetables, olive oil, and a little bit of Italian cheese—and makes the sprouts work in the context of the cuisine. It's also a healthier, fresher salad for the winter months.

Fresh sardines are widely available in California, but can be more difficult to find in the rest of the country. If fresh sardines are not available in your area, you can make a terrific spread with canned sardines.

Layers of tangy lemon curd, fresh berry compote, rich mascarpone whipped cream, and purchased gingersnaps come together beautifully in this dessert.

This Peruvian ceviche offers a plethora of interesting textures: the meaty chew of octopus, the refreshing bite of shrimp, and the marshmallowy smoothness of bay scallops. It's all bathed in the electric yellow glow of a sauce made with Peru's most common chile pepper, the aji amarillo. You can find jarred aji amarillo paste at South American markets. The pepper imparts a distinct fruity quality to this dish, and the addition of turmeric and ginger enhances this fruitiness while toning down the pepper's heat. The variety of seafood in the following preparation, along with its exciting color, is certain to be a favorite on your table.

Almond-flavored cookies make up the crust; broiled peaches are mixed with ice cream to create the delicious filling.

The compote would also be great with angel food cake or sorbet.

This recipe epitomizes what a great ceviche should be—crunchy, sweet, savory, tart, and rich all in one bite. Corvina, a type of sea bass, is the most widely used fish in South America for ceviche, and is very forgiving for the novice. Its firm, lean flesh holds up better to acid and is easy to either thinly slice or dice. The combination of sweet potato and raw marinated fish is common in Peru, although there the potato might be roasted whole, sliced, and served fanned at the edge of a plate of ceviche similar to this crunchy, tart version. As you eat the marinated fish, pull away bites of sweet potato from the edge of the dish and enjoy both components at once. Don't be swayed to leave out the sweet potato garnish—you must try both the tart, firm fish and the potato in the same bite to really understand and savor how they work together. Leftover sweet potatoes make a great side dish for spicy foods.

This simple cake can be sliced and served or toasted before serving. For the best texture, use a medium-fine polenta.

To make these at home, look for ice pop molds with narrow openings for inserting the sticks. They can be found in cookware stores and at amazon.com. The author makes these and other pops for New York-based People's Pops.

In Sicily, the long-ago homeland of immigrants who first brought cassata cake to America, the cake often has candied fruits, citrus liqueurs, and a glazing of marzipan.

This is a delicious, very delicate cake. It's served for dessert everywhere in Charleston, but I like it as a morning cake or afternoon snack. The recipe was named for a small but influential group of French Protestants who fled persecution by their Catholic countrymen and settled lands that became South Carolina more than a century before the Revolutionary War.