Apricot

Offering a good dose of calcium, zinc, and vitamins A and C, this Middle Eastern-inspired combination makes a healthy handheld breakfast or snack. Topped with honey, nuts, and yogurt as thick as ice cream, it might even pass for dessert.

This recipe was created by chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.

Silky zabaglione, warm from cooking but also imbued with deep heat from the wine, cloaks the vanilla-scented fruit with a heady richness. Though it's normally made with Marsala, this more subtle version gives the season's first apricots a chance to shine.

Kutia This lightly sweetened pudding is the first of 12 traditional dishes served on Christmas Eve in Eastern Europe. Countries such as the Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania each have their own version, sometimes chilled, sometimes served as a warm porridge. (The dish used to be a tradition in Russia as well, but because of the communist Soviet Union's official atheism, it has become extinct there.) Our version is based on the baked Ukrainian style, which is traditionally made with wheat berries, which require overnight soaking and long cooking. For convenience, we've substituted quick-cooking barley, which packs the same nutty-chewy punch. For the best results, prepare the pudding a day ahead: Let it cool, cover it, and chill it overnight to let the flavors meld. Serve it chilled, plain or sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar.

Get two of your daily fruit servings with this diet-friendly dessert from Annie Clemmons, pastry chef at Cyrus in Healdsburg, California.

Another breakfast option: Whip up a smoothie with other fruits.

The sweet and tangy apricot sauce that anchors this dessert is a nod to the spoon sweets — fruit preserves that are eaten from small spoons — traditionally served in Greece to arriving guests.

More elegant than jam but just as handy, this compote goes with almost everything.

Apricot season is short, but our love for the fruit endures. Pan-roasting canned apricots revives their tartness. Combined with frangipane filling, they make for one sweet dream in the middle of winter.

Though you could certainly use regular red cherries in this recipe, we prefer yellow cherries such as Royal Ann or Rainier, available in supermarkets, for their lovely yellow color, as well as their bright flavor and mild sweetness. We use Greek yogurt because it has a much thicker texture than other yogurts and holds its shape nicely.

This is an elegant way to make a whole lot of chicken that tastes really good. It's kind of sweet and sour—sweet from the apricot preserves and the plums, and sour from the bit of vinegar. But what makes this dish are the sage leaves. They give a distinctive taste and make it a beautiful, festive platter that you can really be proud of.

California dried apricots are essential for this recipe — they have the tartness needed to balance the sweet filling and macaroon layers. Don't assemble this cake ahead or the crisp macaroon layers will get soggy.

Sweet summer apricots are a terrific topping for this upside-down cake.

(TORTA DI RISO CON COMPOSTA DI CILIEGE E ALBICOCCHE) This flourless dessert is popular, especially on the Po River plain. The texture is more like that of a rice pudding than that of a cake. The compote is a refreshing partner. For a treat, uncork a semisweet Lambrusco.

The following recipe produces a coarse-crumbed cake; for ease of slicing, dip you knife in hot water before cutting each serving.

Cinnamon, cloves, ginger and cayenne pepper enhance this North African-style dish. Serve the stew over the Saffron-Cardamom Rice or plain basmati rice.

Serve this with sweetened whipped cream.