Nut

Walnuts are commonly paired with whole wheat, but something pretty great happens when you team them up with tangy rye and bits of sweet sautéed onion instead. A batch of these is especially tasty alongside a platter of your favorite cheeses.

Roasting already-roasted cashews seems counterintuitive, but it deepens their rich flavor as the green beans cook alongside.

Crisp-skinned duck breast really pops with the nutty, buttery flavor of tawny Port. Any leftover meat makes a terrific sandwich.

For dessert, Grimes was inspired by something from Vienna, a little farther along the Danube: linzertorte. It's traditionally made with hazelnuts and raspberry jam, but this version, with its warmly spiced almond pastry and vivid apricot filling, spoke to Grimes of the highly polished coffeehouses in that part of the world. Cooking dried apricots with brandy and sugar allows you to control the sweetness quotient, and the result is all about the magically musky, tangy fruit.

This homespun loaf cake evokes the nut tree-covered hills of Avellino and the lemon-scented Amalfi coast. The cake batter is primarily ground raw nuts, generously flavored with lemon zest. The latter gives the finished cake a pronounced citrus flavor that pairs well with the orange salad.

Editor's note: This recipe is from chef Wolfgang Puck. My mother would always begin baking in early December and keep it up right through the holidays. But she wasn't working frantically the whole time. She just knew that the earlier you start your holiday baking, the more you'll be free to enjoy the big celebrations. The ingredients in her cookies promote tenderness and retain moisture so that they stand up well to storage for several weeks when properly packed. My mother's Linzer cookies not only stay moist thanks to their ground hazelnuts and raspberry jam, but they actually improve in flavor as their subtle blend of spices matures. They remain one of my favorites.

Flaxseed is an incredible source of omega-3s.

The coffee and toffee flavors of this crunchy dessert are heightened by the dark brown sugar and espresso powder. This version is an adaptation of Leah Reich’s recipe, which was a variation on her grandmother’s recipe.

You can use red beets if golden beets are unavailable, but your pasta will turn pink.

In this satisfying first course, the sweet-savory filling is wrapped up in a delicious homemade strudel dough. Keep in mind that the dough needs to chill overnight, so start this recipe one day ahead. Serve slices of the strudel alongside the watercress salad .

In a surprising twist, Tuscan kale is served raw—and makes for a substantial and satisfying winter salad. Be sure to choose bunches of Tuscan kale with small leaves, which are more tender.

To neatly and evenly transfer the cake batter to the ramekins, Fleming likes to use an ice cream scoop, but if you don't have one, the batter can just as easily be poured.

Spumoni trumps all others as the ideal frozen treat: It's richer than gelato, lighter than ice cream, and smoother than frozen custard. The inspiration for this classic flavor combination came from L & B Spumoni Gardens, in Brooklyn, a favorite spot for this tricolor treat.

Sweet nibbles of butternut squash temper the bitter edge of radicchio in every bite of this healthful, satisfying pasta.

Hake, like cod, is mild in flavor yet meaty in texture. Here, it embraces the crunch of sautéed hazelnuts, whose richness is offset by fresh parsley and briny capers.

Pollo con Frutos y Frutas Secas As this recipe demonstrates, Ferran Adrià, the alchemist chef of El Bulli, is as practical as he is inventive. It's adapted from the cookbook he dedicated to quick recipes that can be made with supermarket ingredients, and it features a store-bought rotisserie chicken that's deliciously doctored with a sauce of dried fruit, pine nuts, and port wine. Though you can whip the dish up in less than half an hour, the flavors are sophisticated enough for a fancy dinner party. If you'd like to roast your own chicken, so much the better.

No, it's not a mistake. This cake really doesn't contain any eggs. The oil in the batter makes the cake moist; the rest of the ingredients provide enough structure to give the cake a great crumb.