Apricot

Serve this succulent slaw as a side or condiment for grilled chicken or pork. Use slightly underripe fruits, which julienne better than soft, juicy ones.

A V-slicer or mandoline is the perfect tool for thinly slicing the fennel. The fresh apricots add a nice sweetness to the salad, but feel free to skip them if they're not available in your area.

These nifty combinations of finely diced fruit and all-fruit preserves create nearly instant sauces. Each combination makes enough for four to six 1/3- to 1/2-cup servings as a topping.

Fruit makes a great puree and a thirst-quenching smoothie, and is just plain fun to pick up for toddlers. You can always serve fruit raw, but the flavor intensifies if you bake it. This recipe applies to any firm fruit, such as apples and pears, and stone fruit, such as peaches, pears, plums and apricots. The can be frozen, although nutrients will be lost.

Apricots and almonds have an affinity for each other, as you'll discover in this marriage of the stone fruit and a cool semifreddo dotted with crushed almond praline.

Supermarket roast chicken can be easily dressed up, as in this lovely salad. Look for almond oil at some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores.

Quick-cooking bulgur can be found at some supermarkets and at natural foods stores.

"There is no typical tagine of Algeria—the country is too big, and the cooks are all too opinionated to agree on a typical dish," says Zadi. Still, this version epitomizes the spirit of Algerian cooking, with many flavors in perfect balance and no single ingredient overwhelming the others. And we found the savory, juicy meat (simmered with blood-orange preserves and apricots) and the spiced toasted pine nuts to be an absolutely delicious combination.

This recipe works with most fruit. For extra yum, add mini chocolate chips.

The chutney is macerated in vinegar and sugar, creating a syrupy sauce that also softens the fruit.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Crescent Dragonwagon's book Passionate Vegetarian. Dragonwagon also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. This is my favorite Thanksgiving stuffing — in fact, this is my only Thanksgiving stuffing. I've made it for at least twenty-five years, and it's always pleased me, friends, family, and inn guests. To my taste, it wouldn't be right with margarine or oil, just butter. But probably it wouldn't be bad with less fat or a different one. I make the vegetarian version with vegetable stock, for use in a pumpkin; when I cooked at the inn, where the majority of the guests were meat eaters, I also did a batch with turkey stock. I dedicate this recipe to the memory of Sondra Krecker, a friend from my earliest years in Eureka Springs. Every Thanksgiving as I make it I hear her telling me again, earnestly, "You have to toast it dry, bone dry, hard dry." You'll need to do a lot of tossing and tasting to get the seasonings just right. Stuffing can be made ahead of time, but don't stuff it into the pumpkin until you're ready to bake it.

In a twist on the classic Italian combination of peaches and Amaretto, Ferrigno pairs fresh apricots with a seriously over-the-top syrup, made with amaretti and the liqueur, that plays up the complexity of the sweet-and-tart fruit.

This gently sweet ricotta tart provides a creamy base to a rich compote of dried fruit, which includes figs, sour cherries, and apricots (we much prefer the tangy California kind over Turkish). It's much lighter than a cheesecake, but it hits all the right spots. The Miraglia family likes the tart chilled, but we also loved it at room temperature.

This fragrant dish has a wonderful blend of spices and goes well with steamed basmati rice.

Offering a good dose of calcium, zinc, and vitamins A and C, this Middle Eastern-inspired combination makes a healthy handheld breakfast or snack. Topped with honey, nuts, and yogurt as thick as ice cream, it might even pass for dessert.