Cooked onions, especially red onions, sweeten and caramelize and taste totally different from raw onions. This is great used as a spread on sandwiches or panini or served as a condiment with roasted meats and green salads. Some even like it on pasta.

The addition of yogurt sets this baba ghanoush apart and makes it Mangia's. As anyone who loves eggplant knows, this is a wonderful dip for wedges of pita or for vegetables. It is also very successful served as an accompaniment to lamb or chicken. We roast the eggplants over the gas burner on the stove top. If you'd rather not do that, you can roast them in the oven. We prefer the charred flavor that only comes when you use the open flame.

This is retro and wonderful, and nothing at all like the flavored gelatin molds with fruit that you ate as a child. A refreshing mix of fruit teas and fresh berries, it is as pretty as can be and delicious as part of a summer buffet. Just the conversation it generates makes it worth trying!

Besides being a great dip and spread,Hummus also makes a tasty stuffed pita sandwich, with the addition of cucumber, red onion, and tomato slices.

Fresh garlic is pungent and sharp. Roasted garlic is just the opposite sweet and mellow in flavor, silky in texture. Because it has a more subtle flavor, it becomes a lot more cooperative as an ingredient. We think it is a must in some of our sauces and salad dressing. We swirl it into soups as a finishing touch. It's even great smeared on bread.

This is perfectly wonderful with duck, or another poultry. You might also swirl it into a curried soup for an intriguing bit of additional flavor and body. You could also serve it with soft, ripe cheese, like Brie.

Inspired by Nancy's trip to Turkey, these tomatoes will taste even better if they've been grown in your own garden. In that event, use whatever color you have yellow or red.

We love croutons at Mangia and make several different kinds. These are the ones we use in our Caesar Salad. Snack on them, add them to soups, toss a few into other green salads. The concern with croutons is not how to use them, but how to keep them in store. They are addictive.

When making vinaigrette, always use quality olive oil and vinegar. Vary the vinegar here, if you like. Red wine vinegar has more intensity than white wine vinegar and is good matched with more assertive herbs, such as oregano. Sherry vinegar, derived from the fortified wine, is a little stronger in character than red or white wine vinegar. Sherry vinegar has a golden hue and burnished flavor that complements roasted peppers, especially. Champagne vinegar is finer, still, with a lighter body a...

If you grow your own basil at home, then you can whir up a batch of this whenever the spirit moves you. It is the flavor of summer, especially when served with home- or locally grown tomatoes.

This is a sweet sauce, with some tang from the apple vinegar and a little heat from the cayenne. Use it on pork, hamburgers, steak, barbecued beans, or shrimp. This is the sauce we use on our bestselling Barbecued Chicken with Toasted Fennel Seeds.

Ricardo grew up in a conservative household, in the middle of the last century, in Mexico, which didn't make it easy to learn his mother's cooking secrets and recipes. But, truly, persistence and chicanery paid off. This is one of Ricardo's mother's recipes. Someone asked about the whole peppercorns buried in the pork. Should you pick them out? Of course not! Eat them they will be soft and pungent.

This is an elegant combination for fall or winter, when you want the aromas of sweet fruit and rich duck cooking to fill your house. The chutney is an integral part of this dish, a must, lending just the right texture and tartness. Your butcher shop or any large specialty food store will bone duck breasts and trim them for you. Don't, for a minute, let that detail stand in the way of your making this. Wild rice or one of the suggestions below would make a fitting accompaniment.

You can use any combination of fresh herbs you wish here. The points to remember are (1) only the leaves should be used; (2) they should be well minced; (3) avoid using large quantities of the strong-flavored herbs, such as rosemary, sage, or thyme. Choose milder-flavored ones, like parsley, basil, or dill. You want the mayonnaise to be fragrant, not pungent.

Here is a great addition to a holiday table. Or use it on a more regular basis with roasted chicken or lamb. You can roast the grapes and the shallots at the same time, as long as you watch the individual cooking times; they are different.

Red and yellow bell peppers combine with harissa, a Tunisian hot chili sauce, to make a lively, rustic sauce that is especially good with meaty fish steaks, like tuna or swordfish. Or try it with chicken, zucchini, or string beans. If you don't have harissa, there is an easy solution: dried hot pepper flakes. In other words, heat is an integral part of this relish. Don't just leave it out.

This is for anchovy lovers-and we are, so we make a lot. Don't be tempted to halve the recipe: Mashing anchovies takes time and, anyway, there are any number of wonderful ways to use this. Besides salads, spoon it over boiled potatoes, roasted vegetables, steak or roast beef sandwiches, croutons (before you toast them), or reheated pizza.

This can be used in countless ways, and unlike Classic Pesto it can be made year-round because of the availability of parsley. We like this best on sandwiches and panini. The variation with tasty capers with turkey or pork, in particular.

Here is the most reliable the little black dress, if you will of special-occasion dishes. And this filet becomes even more interesting when served, as we suggest you do below, with Mustard Applesauce spooned alongside the tenderloin slices. If you don't have time to make the applesauce, a good mustard or horseradish cream works, too.

You can use tapenade in sandwiches, as a dip, or to dress grilled fish, spread on toast as an appetizer, or swirl into vegetable soup. The powerful flavors of Provence olives and garlic-plus oil- packed anchovies, give it its singular Mediterranean esprit.