Ricotta

Fresh ricotta brings out the eggs' creaminess.

These individual desserts get their bright flavor from lemon juice, lemon peel, and a lemon curd topping.

There's pure asparagus flavor in each bite of this elegant tart.

This recipe, based on Elizabeth David's GNOCCHI DI RICOTTA in her book Italian Food, has become one of our most-often-requested house formulas. Requiring fresh, curdy ricotta, it yields succulent, tender dumplings that always beguile. But since fresh ricotta varies in texture, flavor, and moisture content, depending on the season, what the animals are eating, who is making it, and how long they drain it, we often need to tinker with the recipe, adding more Parmigiano-Reggiano for flavor, or butter for richness. If the cheese is particularly wet, we add a little more egg, or we hang it overnight in cheesecloth, refrigerated (or we do both). Very wet ricotta can weep 1/2 cup liquid per pound. Don't substitute machine-packed supermarket ricotta; flavor issues notwithstanding, mechanical packing churns and homogenizes the curds and water—you'll have trouble getting enough water back out. Tender fresh sheep's milk ricotta, if you can get it, makes delicious gnocchi and is worth the extra expense. Having offered ricotta gnocchi four or five evenings per week for more than a decade, we have a large repertory of accompaniments for, and variations on, this dish. We sometimes add freshly grated nutmeg, chopped lemon zest, or chopped sage stewed in butter to the batter before forming the gnocchi. Or we form thumbnail-sized gnocchi and poach them in chicken broth for a delicate soup course. One of the nicest variations is to fold flecks of barely cooked spinach into the batter. These Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi recall the Florentine mainstay, variously called ravioli verdi ("green ravioli"), ignudi ("naked" ravioli), or malfatti ("poorly fashioned," which they needn't be), and are sublime. Although these gnocchi are delicious and delicate enough to serve with just a cloak of melted butter, I list my favorite seasonal accompaniments at the end of the recipe to provoke you to think of serving ricotta gnocchi often, and year-round. Wine: Chehalem Willamette Valley Pinot Gris, 2000

Reduced-fat ingredients create a light, creamy cake.

Use beefsteak or heirloom tomatoes for this dish. Serve with crusty bread and a chilled Pinot Grigio or a Provençal-style rosé.

Served with a green salad, this would be a great quick supper.

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 Italian pie, also known as a torta rustica, is made with an olive-oil crust and can be served for dinner or breakfast the next day.

These tasty cornmeal cakes can be found grilled, baked, or fried in several Latin American countries. We love this Colombian version—the outside fries up crisp and golden, while the cheesy middle stays wonderfully moist. They can be eaten as a side dish or paired with hot chocolate for an afternoon snack.

This dessert honors two good friends of the tomato—basil and cheese. Garnishes of candied cherry tomatoes and fried basil make it extra-special.

The classic frittata offers an elegant solution for those times when you have only eggs and cheese in the fridge. Combined with some of spring's freshest flavors, it provides a healthy dose of fiber, omega-3s, and vitamins A and D.

Why you'll make it: Because it's the perfect summer pasta — few ingredients, easy prep, big flavors.

This can be tossed with a pound of pasta (serve warm or chilled), used as a topping for grilled chicken, or spread onto toasted slices of baguette or focaccia.

As in the classic recipe from Richard Olney's Simple French Food that inspired this one, two key innovations ensure a moist, incredibly succulent chicken. First, the birds are spatchcocked, meaning they're butterflied and spread flat so that both the white meat and the dark can be perfectly cooked; second, an herbed-ricotta filling is pushed under the skin, puffing slightly during cooking and extending the meat's flavor in a creamy direction. Actually, you'll notice how much we liked the filling — we call for extra to be baked in a separate dish so that everyone gets a helping. The filling becomes a cross between a popover and a soufflé in texture, with oregano and parsley supplying a suggestion of the Provençal countryside.

The classic cold soup seems almost restrained next to this lusty dish — gazpacho ingredients are grilled, then tossed with pasta and cheese (some of the vegetables are puréed to make a tangy sauce that lightly cloaks the whole). The sausages are cooked separately, so this recipe will come in handy when there are vegetarians around.