Appetizer
3523 recipes found
Southwestern Pea Soup
Zucchini Blossoms Stuffed With Tuna
Spring Carrot Pickles With Caraway
You don’t have to limit yourself to the young multicolored carrots that I’m finding at the farmers’ market right now, but they are particularly beautiful, at least until the colors fade with time. Carrots and caraway make a good marriage.
Simple Grilled Sardines
Grilled fresh sardines are often offered on restaurant menus, but it’s very easy to make them at home, whether over hot coals or under the broiler. At the fishmonger, look for firm, shiny, glistening specimens. Sardines are a sustainable fish choice and are high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Most importantly, they are extremely delicious. For a Mediterranean touch, grill the fish on fig leaves: After cooking the sardines on one side, lay four fig leaves on the grill and place two fish, cooked side up, on top of each leaf to finish cooking. The fig leaves will add a subtle perfume to the sardines (they look beautiful, too), but they are not edible.
Langoustines With Oysters and Seaweed
Halloumi Tzaganaki
Frittata With Red Peppers and Peas
This is one of the best destinations I can think of for frozen peas, and reason enough to have a bag on hand in your freezer at all times. Red peppers keep very well in the refrigerator, and you can also use jarred red peppers for this if you don’t have a fresh one on hand. The frittata looks beautiful on a buffet.
Stuffed Sweet Peppers With Tuna, Bulgur and Herbs
Small, sweet bell peppers (also called mini peppers) in shades of red, orange and green make attractive vessels for stuffing. In this recipe, adapted from the home cook Meline Toumani, they’re roasted until caramelized, then filled with a mixture of bulgur, tuna, herbs and capers for brightness. Offer these to nibble with cocktails when you’re feeding a crowd, or serve them with a salad and some warm pita bread for a light but highly flavorful supper for a smaller group. Be sure to use the best-quality tuna you can get here; tuna packed in olive oil (rather than water or other types of oil) is generally richer and better tasting.
Simple Tapenade
Pan Bagna
Tuna with Mexican Table-Sauce
Hawaiian Tuna Tartare With Fresh Seaweed
Ahi Poke, they call it in Hawaii, a healthy raw dish that comes together fast. Start with the best tuna that you can find and a packet of the Japanese dried seaweed that you can find now in many supermarkets and health food stores. The seaweed, ginger and sesame oil will give the dish some Asian spice, while the mint and lime juice will cool it off. Plus: Peanuts!
Celery and Walnut (or Hazelnut) Tzatziki
Tzatziki, the creamy Greek salad made with cucumber, yogurt and lots of garlic is already one of my favorite dishes, and I think I may like this adaptation made with celery even more. The celery never loses its crunch or distinctive flavor. Walnuts and walnut oil add another dimension, which is nutty and crunchy. You could also try something new and use hazelnuts and hazelnut oil. Serve this as part of a mezze spread, as an appetizer or as a salad.
Pickled Baby Turnips
I didn’t know how delicious these would be until I came back from a trip 10 days after pickling some gorgeous baby red turnips. Initially they tasted sort of blah, but after 10 days they were infused with the pickling brine, which contrasted beautifully with their innate pungent, almost piquant turnip flavor. Cut them into thin wedges, about 1/4 inch thick at the widest point.
Warm Hummus
In this comforting Turkish version of hummus the chickpea purée is warmed in the oven and topped with pine nuts. In the authentic version, a generous amount of melted butter would be drizzled over the top before baking. I have substituted a moderate amount of olive oil for the butter.
Curried tuna in endive sheaves
Scallops With Pea Purée
Herbed Goat Cheese and Roasted Pepper Toasts
A more-than-one-bite hors d’oeuvre, these savory toasts make a satisfying snack to serve with drinks or to take on a picnic. They taste best at room temperature or just barely warm. Roasting the peppers can done a day ahead, as can marinating the goat cheese, making this treat very easy to put together.
Erinia's Ravioli
Cucumbers With Feta, Mint and Sumac
Garden-grown summer cucumbers are ideal for this easy salad, but even hothouse cucumbers are vastly improved with this zesty treatment. The sumac powder can be found at Middle Eastern groceries or online spice emporiums. Sumac adds a pleasant sour flavor that lemon juice alone does not provide. To keep the cucumbers crisp, don’t dress them more than 30 minutes before serving.
Lemon Baked Squid
Green Ceviche With Cucumber
This is a dish good enough to feed presidents, and that’s what it did when the chef Rick Bayless served it at a state dinner at the White House in 2010 for President Felipe Calderón of Mexico. The green hue comes from cilantro and parsley, and the recipe is similar to one in “Fiesta at Rick’s,” his cookbook published that same year.
Baked Figs and Goat Cheese
Cold Tomato Soup with Farro
Farro’s role in this gazpacho of sorts (without the traditional bread thickener), is that of a garnish. It contributes texture and substance to the light summer soup. I spoon about 1/4 cup of the cooked wheat berries into each bowl and also add diced cucumber. The farro sinks, the cucumber floats. When you get to the bottom of the bowl, you’ll find some lingering grains of farro enrobed in the delicious, tangy soup.