Scallop

Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 45 min

If they are available, purchase dry-packed scallops, which exude less liquid.

We have given no-boil lasagne noodles as an alternative to fresh because regular dried lasagne noodles often have curly edges and are too thick. Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 3 1/2 hr

This preparation can be served in scallop-shell dishes for an impressive main course.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serving the sauce at room temperature helps bring out the taste of the caviar.

Herbed rice and sautéed cherry tomatoes are suitable accompaniments for the delicate main course.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

What the New Sammy's menu describes as a broth is really a purée. The dish is somewhat monochromatic, but its fascinating flavor spectrum will make your mouth extremely happy.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The soy-based sauce for these kebabs draws its various intensely flavored ingredients-cilantro, garlic, ginger and chilies-from the equatorial hot zone, where weather and food alike are fiery.

In this clever dish from chef Michel Richard at Citronelle in Washington, D.C., fried sea scallops coated with fine strands of phyllo pastry resemble porcupines.

Even though Aux Delices des Bois left Tribeca, Thierry and I still love Zutto, the sushi bar that was near our warehouse. It dates back to when Tribeca's cast-iron canopies cast their shadows on silent streets at night. Its metal loading dock held two tables, the precursor to the neighborhood's current profusion of loading-dock cafes. One evening the sushi chef, Albert Tse, made us this special dish, using a fish from each of the seven seas. Kind of like a Japanese version of the ancient French dish Coquilles St-Jacques, it combines fin fish and aromatic oyster mushrooms with the scallops and sharpens the flavor with rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and seaweed. If scallop shells aren't handy, use any ovenproof baking dish.