Radicchio

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve this appetizer with crusty bread and enjoy.

Easy to prepare and impressive to serve, this dish is perfect for an impromptu week-night dinner party.

The chef's salad is a familiar yet fading star in the salad world. In delicatessens, diners, and airport snack bars everywhere, we find its faithful components: lifeless leaves of iceberg lettuce, suspiciously blue-hued slices of hard-boiled egg, wedges of pallid tomato, and rubbery chunks of cheese, ham, and turkey. To top it all off (or perhaps sitting alongside): gloppy, high-calorie dressing. But this still-beloved salad may have had a noble beginning. Though nobody has ever stepped forward to claim the title of the chef in "chef's salad," the dish has been attributed by some food historians to Louis Diat, chef of The Ritz-Carlton in New York City in the early 1940s. He paired watercress with halved hard-boiled eggs and julienne strips of smoked tongue, ham, and chicken. (The concept of the chef’s salad dates still earlier; one seventeenth-century English recipe for a "grand sallet" calls for lettuce, roast meat, and a slew of vegetables and fruits.) No matter how the salad has evolved, its underlying virtue remains unchanged. This is a no-cook meal that satisfies our cravings for greens and protein. And, in these dog days of summer-when cooking is sometimes the last thing we'd like to do-a main-course salad is especially appealing. In our updated take on the classic recipe, we used a selection of lettuces (early chef's salads were not always made with iceberg alone), and, in a twist on the norm, small but flavorful amounts of sugar-cured ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Feel free to improvise with ingredients depending on what looks good at your farmers market. Summer savory or dill can flavor the dressing in place of the mixed herbs, and many kinds of ham and cheese will work well.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This creamy dressing is also terrific over chilled steamed vegetables.

The radicchio is seasoned in the style of a Sicilian agrodolce ("acid-sweet") dish, which typically combines a vegetable with raisins, pine nuts, vinegar, and a sweetener.

In a traditional Seder meal, bitter herbs — sometimes including parsley — represent the bitter experience of slavery. Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 15 min

If you've never tried roasted cauliflower before, this dish will be a revelation.

At the Fifth Floor, this is prepared with quail. Game hens make an easy-to-find substitute.

Arborio is a short-grain Italian rice that is one of four varieties typically used for risotto in Italy-the other three are Baldo, Carnaroli and Vialone Nano. Arborio can be found at Italian markets here, and is becoming increasingly available at supermarkets.

A suitably named pasta salad that's loaded with flavorful ingredients. Try it with grilled veal chops or Cornish game hens.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Potato salad, grapes or fresh figs, and brownies round out this lunch. To make things even easier, use raw onions.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 20 min

These toasts are also delicious without the foie gras or with a slice of country pâté substituted for the foie gras.