Frozen Hazelnut Soufflés With Champagne Sauce, photo by Dan Kacvinski The addition of wine to your favorite recipes can impart wonderful flavor, but too much or the wrong style can potentially ruin a delicious dish. Example: Fish is usually better with the addition of white wine — except when using a pinot noir with a salmon recipe. Red wine can give meat a lot of extra flavor as well as…

Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes. Photo by Dan Kacvinski Passover, the Festival of Freedom — also known as the Festival of Unleavened Bread — is celebrated for eight days. Over the centuries, Jewish cooks have produced a rich array of foods for the Passover holiday, and desserts are an especially important course of the meal. No leavened ingredients may be used, such as flour, grains, cornstarch, baking powder or baking soda. One…

Apples, honey and a freshly baked round challah are traditionally served at the beginning of our Rosh Hashanah dinner. The shape of the challah represents unending happiness, and foods sweetened with honey symbolize a sweet and happy new year ahead. Just before Rosh Hashanah, I start thinking of recipes featuring apples and honey, and what better way to combine them but in an assortment of desserts? Apples come in so…

Fresh ingredients for a soup are a chef’s dream, and the best place to find them is at your local farmers market — fresh fennel, squash, mushrooms, ripe tomatoes of all shapes as well as root vegetables. Our first experience with open-air markets was on a trip to Italy in the early ’60s. We walked excitedly through the marketplace looking at the fresh fruit and vegetables, then when we discovered…

Just back from Italy, I was inspired by the foods served at our favorite restaurants. My Chanukah menu this year is a travelogue of those culinary experiences. We devote Chanukah to our children and grandchildren, and many of the dishes are easy to prepare and perfect for the whole family. In addition to the traditional potato latkes, I have included two special treats to begin our Chanukah celebration. We discovered…