Puff Pastry

This recipe is easily doubled if you'd like to make more.

The mixture known as duxelles (diced mushrooms cooked with shallots or onions) probably dates back to the seventeenth century. It is said that the famous chef La Varenne, who worked for the Marquis d'Uxelles, created this recipe to preserve mushrooms. Serve this tart with baby greens for a light lunch, or enjoy it as a starter with a white Burgundy.

We used a wire mesh cooling rack to form the decorative pattern on this pastry, but any metal cooling rack can be used. Also, if you have a small rack that cannot cover all the pastry at once, you will need to bake it in batches.

In the book American Gourmet, Jane and Michael Stern describe beef Wellington as a "lardaceous dish" that is "rich beyond reason." The pastry-wrapped beef was the ultimate in dinner-party fare in the sixties. In our re-creation, salmon fillets cook in frozen puff pastry sheets, which arrived in the seventies.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

For best results, choose ripe yellow bananas that do not have brown speckles on their skins. This dessert is great served either slightly warm or at room temperature.

These look very pretty when presented on a plate of sliced strawberries.

Purchased pastry makes this pie a snap to prepare.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve these pastries as the first course of a special-occasion supper — maybe with a bottle of chilled Champagne.

Offer a small salad of baby greens with a shallot and tarragon vinaigrette.

Executive chef Bridget Batson of Hawthorne Lane serves this dessert with homemade caramel sauce (you can use purchased if you like). If you're running short of time, omit the homemade ice cream and mix chopped peanut brittle into your favorite vanilla ice cream.

This beautiful appetizer boasts a delicate balance of leek and cheese flavor.