Maggie Ruggiero

The beer and cheese combo gets saucy, turning toast and fried eggs into a truly luxurious meal all about extras: extra-stout beer, extra-sharp Cheddar, and extra good.

Puttanesca is usually a pasta sauce, but here the addition of beans to the spicy blend of tomatoes, basil, and olives turns it into a versatile, satisfying side dish.

A bit of Spanish chorizo goes a long way, lending another dimension to a skillet full of mouthwatering clams and potatoes.

Though we can appreciate the beauty of a panna cotta that's been turned out of its mold, the light-as-air texture of these, just set enough to melt in the mouth, will have you happy to eat them right from the cup. Yogurt gives the almond-infused cream a little tang, and peaches that have been macerated with lemon thyme just long enough to meld and soften seem to exist expressly for this dessert.

Generous handfuls of parsley and mint leaves are left whole, to hold their own alongside sweet ruffles of Bibb and thin slices of cucumber.

We can't get enough of this method for braising potatoes. In this variation, their tenderness is emphasized by an unctuous olive-oil glaze punctuated with fresh chives and tarragon.

An herb paste smeared onto these birds adds a concentrated taste of summer; this works nicely with the poussins, since they're small enough to cook through before the herbs can threaten to burn.

File this one under "secret weapon" and pull it out whenever you need a quick but impressive appetizer. Warming the olives in thyme- and-lemon-zest-infused oil awakens their flavor and transforms a goat-cheese medallion into a sumptuous warm spread for flatbread.

Using a fresh bay leaf brings the perfume of the herb garden to agrodolce onions that beg to be popped in the mouth whole.

Sliced thin and broiled, eggplant retains a slight chewiness but still melts in the mouth; a caper and mint vinaigrette brightens everything.

Think of it as a cracker version of rosemary-flecked flatbread. But these are the easiest crackers you'll ever make: Rather than cutting the dough into small pieces, you bake three large pieces, then break them into smaller ones to serve. The jagged edges invite nibbling.

The stems of Swiss chard get short shrift way too often; when they're beautiful rainbow chard, they deserve a dish all their own. Blanched to remove toughness, then grilled—yes, we like our chard charred—their earthiness is a natural complement to meaty fava beans.

Knowing that every Japanese cook would have strong opinions on the preparation of white rice, Ruggiero counted on her friend Ryuji Inoue, originally from Kyushu, Japan, for guidance. The result is fluffy and slightly stickier than Chinese rice. Even without a rice cooker, the rice comes out just perfect.

Ruggiero couldn't figure out what made the salad dressing at New York's Natori so irresistible and was shocked when she finally got the secret ingredient out of the sushi chef: grated apple. Nor would you ever guess it from a bite of this dressing, since it's not at all sweet or fruity, just perfectly balanced and lip-smackingly delicious. Its slight pulp extends the unctuous richness of avocado and complements the clean assertiveness of watercress.

Visually, this dish speaks softly, but it combines quite a number of sensations: a buttery fish, sautéed for a crisp skin, and a broth of such depth you'll never believe it was simmered for just five minutes. The mixture of enoki and shimeji mushrooms looks gorgeous and lends a meatiness, punctuated by an elusive woodsy smokiness, to the sansho-flecked broth.

Food editor Maggie Ruggiero became enamored of a sesame-dressed salad at Donguri, a Japanese home-cooking restaurant in New York City. This is her take on it. Because the sesame seeds are unhulled, they have a richness that flatters the freshness of spring vegetables—here, cool kohlrabi and sweet pea shoots.

Slender Asian eggplant magically holds its shape as you sauté it, without going mushy, and yet it collapses in the mouth with a final suggestion of its glaze, bold with Japanese seven-spice powder and the gentle heat of fresh ginger.

The Japanese are wild about pickles, pickling practically every vegetable and root they come across—and in sweet, salty, sour, and bitter incarnations to boot. In this classic, a hit of wasabi powder adds a subtle heat to these savory quick pickles.

That distinctive quality of ume-shiso—the tart-and-salty combination of umeboshi (pickled plums) and green shiso, an exuberantly undefinable fresh herb—really enhances the juicy sweetness and char of grilled shrimp and the faintly radishy crunch of daikon.

The tangy sweetness of cherry tomatoes contrasts nicely with the plump, smoky chops, while green-olive paste gives a briny edge to the white beans.