Onion

Can be prepared in 45 minutes of less.

Here's a perfect partner for turkey or veal burgers, sausages and toasted French bread.

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 45 min

This sauce can be prepared with yellow bell peppers instead of poblano chiles. Both sauces go equally well with the chicken-and they also complement each other nicely. So follow your mood: earthy poblano or sunny, sweet yellow bell pepper-or make half a recipe of each and serve them both. This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This salsa is chock-full of sun-loving ingredients like tomatoes, olives and capers. It's a splendid accompaniment to grilled halibut steaks, pork chops, sliced eggplant or sourdough bread.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less, but requires additional unattended time.

Active time: 1 1/2 hr Start to finish: 18 hr (includes chilling)

Avgolemono, a classic Greek sauce flavored with lemon juice and thickened with eggs, adds richness to the tender stewed chicken in this outstanding main course. Pour a chilled Chardonnay, and offer purchased baklava for dessert. See how to joint a chicken.

Consider this delicious dish as a vegetarian main course, too.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

We could describe the comforting qualities of this dish, which brings to mind creamed spinach. We could tell you how we especially love that it takes only minutes to prepare. But Edna Lewis's own comments from In Pursuit of Flavor really do the job much better: "Growing up, we would sow onion seed in the garden and then thin a lot of them out before their bulbs got too big. We chopped them up, sautéed them in bacon fat, poured in heavy cream, and ate them for breakfast. This recipe is not quite as rich as that, but uses scallions in a way that tastes just as delicious. In my opinion, they are an underused vegetable and taste almost as good today as they did years ago. I buy scallions that are about the size of a pencil but if they are a little thicker they still taste good."