Makes 1 quart

Putting up pickles can be a pleasure, but most of us don’t have the room for storage nor the large family to eat them up by the next summer. Therefore, I make my pickles one jar at a time. They will get a bit soggy after a week or two, but the pickles don’t stay uneaten for longer than that.

Ingredients:
4 Kirby cucumbers, scrubbed, cut lengthwise into quarters
3 teaspoons fine sea salt, divided
2 cups white distilled vinegar
2⁄3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon whole allspice
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 whole cloves

Directions:

Fire-truck-red, baseball-size tomatoes are a familiar sight, and you can buy a tomato in the dead of winter, if you want to. But in the last few years, tomatoes have broken through the color barrier, and when the summer tomato season reaches fever pitch, you’ll see yellow, orange, green, and striped tomatoes along with many different shades of red, from burgundy to pink. Instead of the usual “modern” commercial hybrids, these tomatoes are grown from old varieties. They are often called “heirloom” to indicate that they come from antique strains. These tomatoes are grown for flavor, not for ease of shipping. Some of them may seem misshapen and downright ugly—until tasted and then you realize that looks aren’t everything. Just cut away the gnarly parts and savor what’s left. Few dishes signal summer cooking more than a platter of sliced heirloom tomatoes of different hues, simply dressed with olive oil, a sprinkle of sea salt, and perhaps some torn basil leaves.

Makes 6 first-course or 12 hors-d’oeuvre servings

Not only is this free-form phyllo tart colorful and tasty, it is also versatile. Cut it into small rectangles to serve as an appetizer with drinks, or place larger pieces atop a green salad as a first course. For the most dramatic effect, use a variety of not-too-big colored tomatoes; large tomatoes won’t fill the crust as nicely as small ones.

Ingredients:
6 small to mediumheirloom tomatoes
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
12 sheets frozen phyllo dough, defrosted
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
2 ounces rindless goat cheese, crumbled
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs, such as a combination of basil, chives, and parsley

Directions:

Makes 6 servings

The Bellini, a sparkling wine and peach puree cocktail, traveled to America from Venice, where it supposedly originated at the famous Harry’s Bar. There’s just one problem: it can quickly lose its chill in the warm sun. The problem is solved by freezing the peach puree into granita, which, added to the wine, keeps the fizzy libation ice-cold. Serve it as a cocktail or, as I often do, as a dessert for brunch.

Ingredients:
6 ripe white peaches
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
6 teaspoons red raspberry liqueur, such as Chambord
One 750-ml bottle sparkling wine, such as Prosecco, chilled
Peach slices, raspberries, and fresh mint sprigs, for garnish

Directions:

Large chiles, such as poblanos, have thin but tough skins that are usually removed to render the chiles more tender. Roasting the chile chars the skin so it can be peeled off. To use a grill, build a hot fire in a charcoal or gas grill. Place the
chiles on the grill and cover with the lid. Grill, turning occasionally, until the chiles are just charred and blistered on all
sides, taking care not to burn a hole through the flesh, about 8 minutes. Or place the chiles on a broiler rack in a preheated broiler about 6 inches from the source of heat, turning occasionally. Transfer the chiles to a plate. Some recipes ask you to cover the chiles to create steam to loosen the skins. However, it also makes the chiles cool more slowly and increases the chance of overcooking them, so I let them cool uncovered. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the blackened skin, seeds, and stem. Coarsely chop the chiles and set aside. If you are proceeding from grilling the chiles to grilling the pizza, let the coals in a charcoal grill burn down to medium-hot, or reduce the heat in a gas grill to medium.

Makes one 12-inch pizza, 4 appetizer servings

Grilled pizza was developed by George Germon and Johanne Killeen at Al Forno Restaurant in Providence about twenty years ago. At first, no dish seemed stranger, and now it is a national institution. This is a cross-cultural pizza with Mexican flavors, butit is a happy marriage.While you could make a couple of pizzas to serve as a main course, I find it more efficient to make a single pizza as an appetizer, accompanied by ice-cold beers or margaritas.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed through a press
All-purpose flour, for the dough and pan
One 15-ounce package pizza dough, at room temperature
1 and 1/3 cups (about 5 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack, divided
1/2 cup cooked corn kernels (cut from about 2 ears boiled or grilled corn)
1 scallion, white and green parts, finely chopped
1 poblano chile, roasted, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Apricots herald the arrival of early summer. It was just recently that my long aversion to these yellow-orange fruits was finally broken. When I was growing up, our backyard in California was shaded by a large, prolificapricot tree. No matter how sweet the fruit, nor how beautiful the tree was in bloom, I hated apricots.One of my household chores was cutting the lawn, and the many sticky orbs that dropped from thetree got in the way of my job. Now that a few years have passed, I have finally let go of my prejudice. The best apricots have a honeylike sweetness. And they are good for you, high in fiber, beta carotene, and vitamin A.  Apricots should be chosen as for peaches. Look for fragrant fruit that barely yields to the touch, and let them ripen, if necessary, at room temperature. Their skins are thin, and you rarely have to peel them for cooking. Almost all commercial apricots are grown in California, but because early picking makes for lesstasty fruit, it is best to search out a local source where the fruit may be tree-ripened. I can buy Red Jacket apricots in New York State, and they are treasures.

Makes 18 pieces

The combination of sweet apricot, tart goat cheese, and crunchy nuts is irresistible. If you wish, substitute pistachios (they don’t need to be skinned) for the hazelnuts.

Ingredients:
½ cup hazelnuts
9 ripe apricots
4 ounces rindless goat cheese, at room temperature

Directions: