Almond

Purchased vanilla ice cream, pumpkin, and four different spices make up the delicious pie filling.

Carena brings an almost Moroccan sensibility to this delicious play of sweet and savory, from the crisp-tender fennel to the orange essences and underlying traces of saffron and raisins.

The Seaman and Steel families are addicted to this homemade granola with dried blueberries and sweet dates. Serve it with a splash of milk or a spoonful of yogurt or ice cream, sprinkled on pancakes, or in a smoothie.

Instead of being pounded together, as they traditionally are, the best parts of the classic Catalan sauce are left intact here—yielding the same comforting flavor with a terrific assortment of textures.

This mix is everything you want with a drink—a little bit salty, but with a nice variety of textures and flavors.

Serve a platter of cookies alongside the pears and ice cream. The night before you make the cookies, place the dried cherries in a small bowl of crème de cassis. The soaking will infuse the fruit with the flavor of the black-currant liqueur.

Not your average sundae: Strawberry sorbet takes the place of ice cream; Prosecco sabayon (an airy, foamy custard) is the sauce; and sugared almonds add crunch.

You'll turn up your nose at plain old chocolate chip ice cream once you try this cool, stracciatella-flavored concoction—stracciatella being a vanilla-flavored cream with thin ribbons or chips of chocolate (which melt on the tongue) running through it. The stracciatella cream fills this semifreddo-like cake, which also shines with a toasted-almond cookie-crumb base, a toasted-almond topping, and a drizzle of espresso fudge sauce.

Warm goat cheese rounds are a lovely contrast to the cool salad. Halved cherries add a fresh, sweet flavor.

The ras-el-hanout spice blend adds complexity to this dessert.

The intense punch of Gorgonzola is right at home as it melts into soft, subtle polenta, while the almonds add a welcome crunch to this simple, seductive dish.

Savor healthy sweets

A little bit of olive oil makes this cake especially moist.

Eau-de-vie, or fruit brandy, an Alsatian specialty, is used to great effect in this dish, bringing out the subtle nuances in the pears. A custardy, brandied layer over the tender fruit, along with a nutty topping, gives this tart a complex yet homey air.

Ultra-thin and wonderfully crisp, these cookies pack plenty of flavor into a slim package. We like to pair them with the prunes in wine or the orange tapioca pudding, but they're also wonderful on their own or with a hot cup of coffee.

Reduced-fat ingredients create a light, creamy cake.

Toasted almonds contrast beautifully with sweet, tender raisins and earthy chard.

Because broccoli thrives in cooler weather, this is a terrific winter variation on the classic green beans almondine.

Here, a classic Spanish pairing gets reinvented as a bite-size cheese course. We're particularly enamored of the added textural contrast provided by the sliced almonds.