Leafy Greens

"I’m a pasta fiend, and I love to create sauces, especially when they include my favorite vegetable, red bell pepper," writes Dawn Kleinman of Denver, Colorado. "This recipe won a local contest and continues to receive compliments from everyone who tries it."

Nudies? In Florentine dialect they’re called gnudi, nudies, poking fun at a dish from the Casentino, a neighboring area that makes their greens and ricotta gnocchi with the same filling Florentines use for ravioli. Nudies because they’re not wearing pasta. Pronounced YNOO-dees. Spinach is used in Florence but wild greens are common in the mountainous Casentino. And ravioli are stuffed with wild greens in many regional recipes. Use wild greens if you can get them, otherwise use chard or spinach, whichever is fresh and tender. Traditionalists may want to search for sheep’s milk ricotta, which yields richer results, but everyone else can get by with whole cow’s milk ricotta. Drain watery ricotta in a metal sieve for 30 minutes if necessary. Cooks in search of a labor-intensive experience can form nudies by hand, one at a time, or use the 2-spoon French quenelle method. I prefer to pipe the mixture from a plastic bag onto a floured countertop, sprinkle the blobs with flour, and lightly roll to form walnut-sized, roughly shaped balls. Serve the nudies with melted butter or tomato or meat sauce, sprinkled with Parmigiano, and baked in the oven to melt the cheese.

When dressing a salad in the classic Italian style, each vinaigrette ingredient is tossed individually with the greens in a specific order, rather than being whisked together. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 20 min

Stitt likes to use rock salt — the kind used for old-fashioned ice cream churners — as a bed for these oysters because it keeps the shells from tipping and sliding around in the pan and on the plates. Rock salt is sold at many supermarkets, but kosher salt is a good substitute. At the restaurant, Stitt makes this recipe with local Apalachicola oysters, though he also likes the flavor of East Coast varieties such as Blue Point, Pemaquid, and Malpeque, so feel free to use your favorite.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Radicchio di Treviso has long, narrow, pink-to-red leaves that are similar in taste to Belgian endive. It can be found in specialty food markets.

Also try the flavored mayonnaise on roast beef or ham sandwiches.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

(Corn Tortillas with Sweet-and-Savory Ground Pork)

We seasoned this salad — based on the Middle Eastern bread salad called fattoush — with za'atar, a mixture of salt, sumac, sesame, and thyme.

There are several varieties of mustard cabbage; for this recipe we used wrapped-heart mustard cabbage, also called swatow or dai gai choy. Sharp and pungent when raw, mustard cabbage sweetens and mellows with wilting and slow cooking. Try serving this dish with mashed potatoes, which go very well with the gravylike tomato sauce the stuffed cabbage is cooked in.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.