Apricots

Fresh apricots become a tangy fruit butter that’s perfect with fresh ricotta and crackers or simple buttered toast.

Kate Neumann describes this cool, delicate dessert as “just fruit and cream, barely sweetened. It has the qualities of custard without the egginess. Greek yogurt makes it wonderfully tangy.” She tops the panna cotta with dried apricots that she’s plumped in wine and honey, often adding a scattering of crunchy, salty toasted almonds or pistachios.

Roy Shvartzapel layers roasted fresh apricots atop basil custard to make a gorgeous tart. The tender crust is extraordinary: Combining hard-boiled egg yolk and potato starch, it’s based on a classic dough that he learned from Paris pastry genius Pierre Hermé. The ideal wine match: Tokaji.

Depending on the season, Travis Lett also makes this salad with plums, peaches and pears.

These griesschnitte (fried semolina dumplings) are moist and not too sweet, a perfect end to a meal. This recipe, from chef Roman Albrecht of The Kosher Classroom in Berlin, is made with margarine and soy milk.

The cooks at Big Bob’s marinate chicken wings for about four hours in a spicy apricot sauce before tossing them on the grill. An apricot-based sauce brushed on chicken wings before grilling gives them plenty of flavor; extra sauce is good for dipping.

While visiting Spain’s Navarra region, Alex Raij saw fruit trees growing in a parcel of Garnacha vines. To pay homage to the mixed plot, she plucked apricots and plums and poached them in a rosé made from Garnacha grapes.

This fruit-filled butter is wonderful on crusty bread. It’s also great with warm popovers, pancakes, waffles and muffins.

The inventive cocktails at Central mirror the restaurant's updated American dishes, such as lobster burgers and crab cakes with leek tartar sauce.

Fruity and peppery, this exotic dish will perk up your midweek menu. Yet it’s no more trouble than the simplest chicken recipe in your repertoire.

Daniel Orr loved the blondies his mother, Mary Lu Orr, baked when he was growing up in Columbus, Indiana. “She was always taking fun recipes and trying to make them healthy,” he recalls. Here, inspired by her, Orr folds in nutritious nuts and dried fruit along with sweet white-chocolate chips.

Pork shoulder is a succulent cut that’s best braised or roasted slowly, so it stays tender and juicy. The sweet-and-savory glazed pork here is terrific with or without the garlic-and-dried-apricot stuffing.

For this fun cross between a salad and a cheese course, Daniel Humm grills apricots to give them an alluring smokiness, then serves them with goat cheese, arugula and a toasted-pine nut dressing.

For the boules potlucks, Michel Keller, owner and pastry chef of Restaurant du Village in Chester, Connecticut, makes a big fruit tart using an 18-inch antique pan he inherited from his grandfather. He adapted the recipe to produce the far simpler, 12-inch version here.

Oats and almonds may both help lower blood pressure; they’re incorporated here in an ingenious granola crust for this sweet-tart pie.

After sautéing chicken breasts, Melissa Rubel Jacobson adds diced onions and white wine to sweep up the delicious browned bits left in the skillet, then sweetens the sauce slightly with dried apricots and apricot preserves.

This dried-apricot tart is crispy and tender, tangy and sweet all at the same time. The recipe also works with fresh apricots; just omit the poaching step.

Alain Coumont’s simple dessert delivers a lot of flavor without a lot of work. Try it with any combination of summer fruits, such as plums, peaches or raspberries, or use thyme instead of lavender. It’s also delicious with crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.

Super-ripe tomatoes and grilled apricots get spooned over creamy ricotta in these open-face sandwiches from F&W's Justin Chapple.