Strawberry

This fresh take on fruit salad combines spring's favorite sweet-and-sour duo, plus hazelnuts and mint to round things out.

"Strawberries and Sambuca are such a wonderful combination," says author Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez. "Add a little vanilla in there and you can't go wrong. And it's beautiful, too." We totally agree.

It's airy, light, and sweet, but this delicate cake gets pucker and punch from vinegar in both the icing and the filling.

Here's a good base recipe for using frozen berries to prepare a flavorful sauce. I find that frozen berries need to cook a little to make them less watery and to concentrate their flavor. Look for raspberries that come frozen in a bag. Feel the bag to make sure all of the individual berries are loose and not clumped together. Bags of frozen berries tend to taste better than those frozen in a block.

Who doesn¿t love the taste of chocolate and strawberries together? Try this Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Shake for more of the great combination.

You'll just love this Sumptuous Berry Shake, a CARNATION BREAKFAST ESSENTIALS® reader-submitted recipe from Marta R., New York, NY. Try it today!

Briny feta is pickled, then tossed with plump olives and strawberries for a bright, juicy salad. Since the feta needs five days to cure in the fridge, this is a great make-ahead dish. Use Greek feta if you want neat cubes; Bulgarian feta is divine, but it needs to be handled carefully as it's very soft and crumbly. Whip up this recipe for a picnic, or serve it after a day on the beach when salt and sun are still on everyone's mind. Glasses of Prosecco or Saison are a perfect accompaniment.

The only thing better than a favorite dessert is two faves in one— without twice the calories, of course.

On a really hot day, freeze fruit for an hour or two prior to serving—it acts like sweet ice cubes.

Twelve years ago, I made a simple bowl of "strawberries pazzo"—pazzo means "crazy" in Italian — for my friend Ann Spivack (this book's co-writer). The combination of strawberries, balsamic vinegar, and black pepper has been part of my repertoire for decades. Ann thanked me by baking me this pazzo cake. This dessert—while easy to make—is a cut above a standard strawberry shortcake. The cake batter is very forgiving and comes out well when baked on your grill or in your oven. Bake this in a standard 8-by-8-inch baking pan in your oven; if baking inside a covered grill, pour the batter into a cast-iron skillet, enameled cast-iron baking dish, or Dutch oven. The key to the herbed crème fraîche is a light touch with the fresh herbs. You don't want to overwhelm the cake. We used rosemary but small tender basil leaves are delicious too. We dressed up this cake for our Harvest Dinner by drizzling on a balsamic glaze, spooning Roasted Strawberries onto the plate, and finishing with an herbed crème fraîche. You can serve all three with the cake, any one of them, or forget all three of them and just serve the cake simply with a light dusting of confectioners' sugar.

For the record: Sherbets may contain some dairy, unlike sorbets, which do not.

Real fruit instead of sugary juices or mixes cuts the cals in this sparkling sip. Tastes better, too.

This is an impressive three-layered popsicle. Make sure each layer is completely frozen before adding the next, as it looks great when the layers are really well defined.

"I like the fact that just three or four main ingredients can make a smashing result," says van Boven about this sweet and crunchy salad.

If you don't have a punch bowl, do what van Boven does: "Use a big glass vase—it's nice and tall and doesn't take up too much space on your table."

"I like unsweetened whipped cream on top," van Boven says, "because the fruit is sweet enough on its own."

The key to a tender biscuit is to handle the dough as little as possible.