White Wine

This sauce is traditionally served with fish, but we like it over steak and vegetables as well.

If you can't find Italian Moscato, substitute Essencia, the Muscat-based dessert wine made in California. Serve this rich custard with the raisin-studded cookies featured here.

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Though you may associate bocconcini with the tiny mozzarella balls sold at Italian markets and cheese shops, the word simply means "little bites" (the veal in this stew is cut into bite-size pieces). When purchasing dried porcini, look for packages containing large, flat, recognizable slices of the mushroom. Active time: 35 min Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr

Serve Champagne with this starter.

Sfratti means "sticks" in Italian, as well as "evicted," for at one time landlords were allowed to persuade unwanted and delinquent tenants to leave by force of a rod. A similar practice was employed to chase away Jews during all-too-frequent periods of expulsion. This nut-filled cookie, a popular Italian Rosh Hashannah treat, got its name from its resemblance to a stick, the Jewish sense of humor transforming an object of persecution into a sweet symbol.

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 45 min Servings: Serves 12 (as part of aïoli menu).

Melting the chocolate in the pear poaching liquid makes an instant sauce.

In central New York State where I grew up, summertime is speidie-time. Speidies are beef or chicken kabobs marinated in a locally produced spiedie sauce. Nobody makes their own; everybody buys it by the case to make it through the summer's grilling. Now that I live downstate, I've had to devise my own speidie sauce (really nothing more than a quite acidic vinaigrette), which I'm willing to share for the very first time.

This recipe takes its cues from Spain's classic fried pork and from an Italian favorite - the combination of pork and fennel.