Easter

Growing up in the Italian region of Istria (now a part of Croatia), Bastianich remembers making these dolls every Easter. "The pinza bread would be made for the adults, but for the children, the loaves would be formed into the pupi dolls," she recalls. Now living in New York City, she continues the tradition with her grandchildren.

A roly-poly is a traditional British dessert similar to an American jelly roll. In this version, the scone-like pastry is spread with tangysweet raspberry and rhubarb jam, then baked.

Like many an accomplished hostess in the South, Miss Lewis was a dab hand at making yeast rolls and always generously anointed them with butter before putting them in the oven. Dinner rolls should be brought to the table hot, so if you make them early in the day, you will want to reheat them gently. (Leftovers are great for breakfast the next morning, split, buttered, and served with homemade strawberry or fig preserves.) Mashed potato is a traditional addition to a yeast dough like this one; it helps the rising and also contributes to its tenderness. These rolls have outstanding flavor and are so light and fluffy they almost levitate.

The cliché, in this case, turns out to be true: Biscuits benefit from TLC. Peacock recommends White Lily flour, one of the lightest available, along with lard for a flaky texture so fluffy and airy that the biscuits almost float off the plate. One bite may well move you to tears—either with memories of your southern grandmother, or with regret for not having had a southern grandmother.

The carrots' natural sweetness plays off the tang of the mustard. This effortless dish pairs particularly well with the rosemary pork chop.

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.

Remember those baked hams gussied up with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries? There's a reason they became so popular in the '50s — pineapple contributes sweetness and a little acid to salty ham. But here, with pineapple juice concentrated into a syrup and combined with thyme and Dijon mustard, the effect is homey, more subtle, and less overtly sweet.

Radishes are in their prime right now. If you can find the small French Breakfast or Easter Egg varieties, just trim them and keep them whole, rather than slicing them. Spring onions, immature onions harvested before their bulbs grow large, are available in farmers' markets at this time of year. If you can't find them, scallions make a fine substitute.

In this simple recipe, salty, smoked ham is paired with sweet mango and onion. The fruit and vegetables are cooked alongside the ham in the covered roasting pan, leaving them meltingly tender. To ensure even cooking, leave the ham out at room temperature for an hour before baking.

This recipe was created by Govind Armstrong, chef and co-owner of Table 8 restaurants in Los Angeles and Miami. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program. If lamb is not brought to room temperature before being placed in oven, roasting may take up to 45 minutes.

Classic taste, new look. The borders puff up beautifully to keep the filling in place.

Editor's note: The recipe below is excerpted from Katie Brown Entertains. To read more about Katie Brown and to get her tips on throwing a headache-free cocktail party, click here

MAGIRITSA Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Aglaia Kremezi's book The Foods of Greece. To read more about Kremezi and Greek Easter, click here. Magiritsa is made with the parts of the lamb not used for the spit-roasted Easter lamb, which is usually very small (about 20 pounds). In the classic recipe, all the innards — heart, lungs, and so forth — go into the pot, but they do not really contribute to the taste. The flavor of the stock comes from the boiled head and neck, and the soup gets its distinctive taste from scallions, fresh dill, and the egg-and-lemon mixture. There are lots of different magiritsa recipes. A friend described to me the one her family prepared in Halki, a small island that is part of the Dodecanese. In her family's version, no innards were used because, in Halki as in all the Dodecanese, they do not roast the lamb on the spit but instead stuff it with rice and the innards. So in Halki's magiritsa, many lambs' heads were boiled to make a very tasty stock, to which egg and lemon sauce is added at the end. The heads were not boned, but as they cooked for many hours, even their bones became soft. Each member of the family got one head and ate it with the broth. No scallions or dill were added to the magiritsa. My recipe for Easter soup was given to me by my cousin's wife, Katy Kremezi, whose mother came from Smyrna (Izmir) in Asia Minor.

KITRINA KOULOURIA ASTYPALITIKA Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Aglaia Kremezi's book The Foods of Greece. To read more about Kremezi and Greek Easter, click here. I first saw these biscuits on Holy Thursday in Astypalaia (an island of the Dodecanese). In a bakery there I saw pan after pan full of yellow biscuits about to be baked for the second time. I thought they were the baker's specialty and asked if I could buy some. To my astonishment I learned that they belonged to the women of the village, who had brought them there to be baked. I was offered one to taste, and tried to figure out what was giving them their strange flavor. I had never seen or tasted anything like those biscuits anywhere in Greece. The week before Easter it is customary throughout Greece to bake Easter biscuits, but the ones I was familiar with were sweet and contained many eggs. These were savory — I could taste pepper in them — but I could not figure out the rest of the flavors. When I asked, I was told their main flavoring was saffron. In the fall, after the first rains, the women of the island climb the rocky hills of Astypalaia in search of the crocus flowers from which they collect about 1/3 ounce of saffron threads — enough to color and flavor the dough made from 28 pounds of flour that they usually bake. Astypalaian women don't like commercial saffron, believing that the saffron gathered from their own hills is best. And, of course, they are right. As I learned later, these saffron biscuits are found only on this tiny island. In Athenaeus, bread with saffron is described as one of the foods served during ancient symposia, but in modern Greece — although we now cultivate and export a lot of the precious spice — we use hardly any saffron in our cooking. I believe that this recipe must be a very old one, and that is the reason it contains no sugar. The women of the island keep the tradition and bake a lot of these yellow biscuits every Easter. They send some to their relatives in Athens and keep the rest in large tin boxes to eat with fresh farmer's cheese or with their coffee for the rest of the year. Adjusting the recipe given to me by Virginia Manolaki for 8 cups of flour was quite an ordeal. Commercial saffron seems to be weaker than the Astypalaian variety, so I had to use more. Finally, I came up with the version that follows, which is very near the real thing. Serve the biscuits with fresh cheese or with coffee.

Editor's note: The recipe below is excerpted from Tyler Florence's Eat This Book. To read more about Tyler Florence and to get his tips on throwing a Super Bowl party, click here. Cod was once one of the most valuable commodities in the world — it was the sustainable protein for most of Europe for about five hundred years. Before refrigeration, most of Europe survived on salted, air-dried cod fillets (salt cod) and Portugal has been one of the largest producers for hundreds of years. When used in cooking, salt cod is first soaked to remove much of the salt. It is reconstructed in simmering milk enhanced with garlic and then used a million different ways: as a means of adding salt to food (similar to the way anchovies are used), folded into stews, or mixed with creamy, soft, cooked potatoes to form bacalao, the Portuguese national dish. This is my take on bacalao. I've spiked the potato mix with chopped parsley and cilantro, which gives it a very fresh, clean flavor, and then quickly fried small bits into crisp, golden fritters. Squeeze fresh lemon over the top and you've got a fantastic hors d'oeuvre that's original and very easy to make.

Using multicolored carrots makes this beautiful side dish even more vibrant.

IMPROV: Instead of tarragon, try dill; sub bacon for the ham.

Marsha and John Antonelli of Whittier, California, write: "We recently had lunch at Bistro Jeanty, in Yountville, California, where the ham, leek, and three-cheese quiche was so outstanding we went back twice. Could you persuade the chef to share this excellent recipe?" Extremely creamy and rich, this quiche could be served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You can make your own crust, but the premade kind will save some time.