Dairy

A comfort-food treat that's great for brunch. This version takes less time than most because the noodles aren't precooked.

To make this easy appetizer even easier, substitute store-bought roasted red bell peppers for the home-roasted ones.

If you really want to make this pimento cheese the way my mother does, and you happen to own a hand-crank meat grinder, run the two cheeses once through the fine blade of the grinder into a mixing bowl. Mother simply used to grind the pimentos with the cheeses, but now she prefers to mash them with a heavy fork on a plate until they break up into tiny pieces. She uses homemade mayonnaise but also endorses Hellmann's (a.k.a. Best Foods).

(MINESTRA DI CAMPAGNA) Creativity with simple ingredients is one of the themes of Sicilian cooking. There's no better example than this bean and vegetable soup, which some say evolved from food that fifteenth-century galley cooks made for mariners. Serve an island dry red wine such as Corvo with this.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

To many people living in the middle of the country, celebration cakes must be chocolate cakes — especially German chocolate cakes. This one embellishes the tradition, using unsweetened chocolate instead of sweet chocolate, a luscious caramel-coconut filling between the layers and lots of creamy chocolate frosting. (By the way, German chocolate cakes have nothing to do with the immigrants who settled in the heartland; the name actually comes from the fact that the cakes were first made with Baker's brand German's sweet baking chocolate.)

There is hardly a wedding or garden party in the Lowcountry without these yeast biscuits. They are small, only about an inch in diameter, and they are split to hold slivers of salty country ham tempered with dollops of chutney or mustard. One ham provides enough meat for 200 to 250 biscuits. These doubly lightened breads — really yeast rolls — are also called "angel biscuits" and "bride's biscuits." Bill Neal has suggested that the "bride" is the inexperienced cook who needs the insurance policy of the double leavening.

In Sweden various combinations of matjes herring — a type of herring cured in a spiced sweet-and-sour brine — are eaten with the first tender white potatoes of the season. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A delicious take on lasagne, made with tube-shaped pasta instead of long noodles.

Hearty accompaniments would be grilled or broiled bell peppers and portobello mushrooms and a basket of crusty wheat rolls. In the Italian tradition, offer grapes, biscotti and espresso afterward. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Here's an opportunity to enjoy the best summer fruit. Serve this dessert with butter cookies from the bakery.

An Italian dish that's great with brunch, or as a light lunch or appetizer on its own.