Parsley

To avoid tearing the skin on the breast or thighs, turn the chickens over by picking them up from the ends of the drumsticks.

Ask your butcher for a whole leg, which will include part of the sirloin.

Who doesn't love a wedge? Ask your butcher to cut slab bacon into thick slices (about 1/4") to yield nice meaty pieces once they're crisped on the grill.

Egg salad and potato salad: Unite! We like how the still-soft yolks dress the salad, but you can cook the eggs a minute or two longer if you like them more set.

Bursting with the big, brash flavors of green olives, anchovies, and capers, this herbaceous pasta sauce isn't afraid to bite back.

This is a great one for midweek as it takes no more than 20 minutes from slicing the leeks to serving the finished dish, but it is good enough for weekends as well-filling, fresh and very tasty.

There's really no other word for these burgers except: YUM. The flavoring and the satisfaction of a meal you can wrap your hands around is unmatched.

Kids and grown-ups alike will love this upgrade on classic fish sticks. And with a cornmeal coating, they're naturally gluten-free. The creamy dipping sauce doubles as a dressing for the salad, so you don't have to mix up two different sauces to get dinner on the table.

Squeezing the liquid out of the zucchini is the secret to crisp fritters. (The potato helps, too.)

"Compound butters are a terrific blank canvas," O'Connell says. "You can mix in all sorts of flavors—anchovies, capers, any herb or spice."

Quick-cooking squid is perfect for a weeknight dinner. Look for it at a reputable fish monger or in your grocer's freezer section.

In this dish, the fleshy artichokes get browned and crispy tops and look like strange, beautiful roses. The acidity in the white wine cuts through the rich, dense veg and, along with the salty pops from the capers, highlights the artichokes' unique herbaceousness.

Fresh fava beans have been a mainstay of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean diets for centuries, and lately they have been enjoying popularity in the United States. Bright green and firm-fleshed with a sweet and mildly nutty flavor, they resemble lima beans but are really more like an overgrown split pea. Fava beans are a bit time-consuming, as they require double peeling: first the outer pod, and then the hull that protects this little spring gem. Once you're done, you will have more debris than edible beans, but it's worth it, as this recipe will demonstrate. The gentle butter poaching method for the shrimp yields tender, succulent meat that contrasts beautifully with the spring fava bean.

(Baha) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Paula Wolfert's book Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco. Wolfert also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. If you really love the taste of lamb, you will love this dish. It's a pity that we Americans know so little about steaming meats; just as steamed vegetables keep their original flavors, so do steamed chickens and lamb. If you don't have a steamer, use a couscousière or a colander with a tight-fitting lid that fits snugly over a kettle. Some people think that steamed lamb looks unattractive (though no one denies that it's incredibly good). If you feel this way you may brown the meat quickly in butter or oil at the end, or roast it at high heat until it browns. Steamed food should be eaten the moment it is ready, when it is at its peak: if left too long, it will dry out.

This is a true weekend-long project—and that's a good thing. Seasoning, cooking, and crisping the meat over the course of three days mean you don't have to spend hours in the kitchen the day you're hosting a big meal. In fact, the extra time your pork spends in the refrigerator only improves the taste. This is the perfect-for-a-party pork that gives you plenty of time to drink a beer and watch (or play) a game or two before grilling up crispy, tender slabs of pork shoulder for a crowd.

A vegan's delight, with a gentle bonus buzz from the matcha.