Cheese

These sandwiches are a vegetarian cross between a New Orleans–style muffuletta (hey olive salad!) and a Philadelphia-style pork and broccoli rabe sandwich.

At Captiva Art Cafe on Captiva Island, Florida, chef Matthew Mitchell offers imaginative pasta and egg dishes as his meatless selections. We reduced the yolks in his frittata, but all the wonderful flavor is still there. Mitchell accompanies the frittata with toasted focaccia.

Frying thick slices of bread in olive oil on only one side gives you a magical combination of crisp and soft so that the bread can soak up the tomato juices without getting soggy.

Sear squeaky, salty Halloumi cheese in a pan—it won’t melt, but will get a crisp golden crust—then douse in honey and a spicy nut and seed sprinkle and serve as an appetizer or with a simple green salad.

Toss roasted squash and charred Brussels sprouts through a salad of chickpeas, salami, olives, and cheese; add a lemony oregano vinaigrette and enjoy.

Feta and bread get roasted alongside winter squash, then tossed with pleasantly bitter greens for a salad that’s equal parts warm and cold, soft and crunchy, and sweet and savory.

This is the simplest way to make a large batch of meatballs that you can turn into a variety of dinners, from pasta to soup to sandwiches.

Call it "Pizza Chicken" and the whole family will love this fresh take on those classic Italian-American flavors in one-pan chicken dinner form.

Nutella and cheese melt together into a sandwich that's the ideal sweet-and-savory snack.

This simple weeknight dish relies on zucchini ribbons instead of noodles, and is stuffed with a zippy ricotta-pea filling.

Earthy-sweet figs and bright lemon zest and juice give these cupcakes worlds of flavor. If you'd like, take them one step further with a silky cream cheese frosting.

No cheesecake roundup would be complete without this one, created by Santa Fe’s Three Cities of Spain coffeehouse (which closed in the mid-1970s) and our absolute favorite in the creamy category.

Long sweet peppers show up at farmers’ markets during the peak of the season and may be sold as long sweet yellow, sweet banana, Hungarian Sweet, or Cubanelle. You can substitute two medium red, orange, or yellow bell peppers (don’t use the green ones).

Treat this spoonable dessert as a vehicle for piles of your favorite peak-season fruit.