Paprika

Sfogliata Served with a glass of full-bodied red wine or a Martini, this anchovy- and oregano-flecked Italian bread makes for an appetizer extraordinaire.

In Trinidad and Tobago, crabs are traditionally cooked whole and the meat picked out. This sophisticated dish combines American-style crab cakes with the island flavor of callaloo, a green stew that's the national dish of Trinidad. Here, the stew becomes a sauce, creating an elegant starter or light lunch.

Peppers from the valley of La Vera, in Extremadura, are used to produce a deliciously smoky paprika. There are three kinds of pimentón: sweet, bittersweet (called agridulce), and hot. We prefer agridulce in this recipe.

It is critical that you use smoked — not regular—paprika in this dish. Whether you use sweet or hot, you will end up with irresistible sweet potatoes.

These satisfying tarts may incite "vegetarian envy" in your meat-eating guests. The recipe makes 4 sizable main-course portions, but the tarts could be halved (or even quartered) to serve as a side dish. Either way, they are delicious with the roasted mushroom and barley gravy.

You'll have more spice rub than you need for the Grillades . Try this seasoning on fish, pork, or beef dishes.

The Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions feature dishes with sweet-and-sour combinations such as honey and lemon. Serve this chicken with potatoes or matzo farfel, and you've got a great meal.

If you only have sweet Spanish smoked paprika on hand, you can mix 1 1/2 teaspoons of it with 1/8 teaspoon cayenne as a substitute for hot Spanish smoked paprika.

This spice rub is also great with chicken. Team the steaks with a salad of boiled green beans and quartered radishes, and offer some favorite beer.

This recipe is adapted from George Lang's book The Cuisine of Hungary.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. The cuisine of Goa, a former Portuguese colony, is an exuberant amalgam of Portugal and India. Liberal use of Portuguese vinegar, along with hot chiles (an import from the New World) and spices, produces the scarlet-hued vindaloo curries typical of this state. The following outstanding Goan seafood curry — a milder variation of vindaloo, and with lime juice replacing the vinegar — features clams steamed with sautéed onion, spices, and fresh coconut milk. They are then tossed with grated coconut, cilantro, and a squirt of lime juice and are generally accompanied by a pao, a soft, warm roll (another Portuguese contribution) for sopping up the juices. This dish is equally good with mussels or oysters.

Berbere is a chile and spice blend used to season many Ethiopian dishes. Because authentic berbere can be hard to find, we developed our own recipe. Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 15 min

The smoked paprika in this recipe adds depth. Unlike Hungarian paprika powder, which is prepared by drying the chiles in the sun, the Spanish smoked version (like La Chinata brand) is prepared by roasting the peppers over smoldering oak fires before being ground to a velvety powder. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 30 min

These chicken wings need to marinate for at least 8 hours — we recommend putting them in the refrigerator before you go to bed so they'll be ready for roasting the next day. The deep, almost beeflike flavor of these wings comes from the red wine in the marinade; both the wings and the mayonnaise get a boost from the Spanish smoked paprika.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Alice Marcus Solovy of Skokie, Illinois, writes: "When I was 12 years old, my mother taught me how to make my first pie crust. My father said it tasted just like his grandmother's, and I was very flattered. That's basically the story of how I started cooking. After almost a lifetime in the kitchen, I still enjoy playing around with recipes. I've even been known to go out to dinner, taste a certain dish, and then re-create it at home in a few tries."

You could also serve it on its own with crackers or bread, or offer it as a relish for grilled chicken or fish. It can be made with black olives as well as with green.