Mussel

These mussels, flavored with garlic-herb butter and baked instead of steamed, beg for some crusty bread to sop up the wonderful sauce. Try them over pasta, too. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 35 min

A fabulous all-in-one dish, similar to paella, from Lucques in Los Angeles.

Ravigote sauce is piquant vinaigrette that typically contains onions, capers, and herbs. The hard-boiled egg in this rendition gives the sauce body. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

To debeard the mussels, just pull off the hairlike bits coming out of the shell.

Tangy beer makes a good match with sweet, briny mussels. Here the brew is seasoned with a spice mixture akin to that used in a Louisiana-style crab boil. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve this flavorful saffron-scented dish as either an appetizer or a main course.

Make garlic-rubbed baguette toasts for mopping up the sauce. What to drink: Brut Champagne or a dry, aromatic white wine, like Viognier.

The name for this beautiful Bordelais dish is mouclade. Use small mussels to approximate the tiny, sweet variety cultivated just off the coast north of Bordeaux. What to drink: Baron Philippe de Rothschild 2000 Mouton Cadet Blanc.

Northern Greeks, particularly those from Salonika, eat a lot of clams and mussels, usually as mezedes. Here's an easy-to-make dish from Greece's "second city" Cappetino.

Offer this main course with plenty of crusty bread to soak up the delicious saffron broth. A crisp Sauvignon Blanc is good here, too.

Be sure to accompany this with plenty of crusty bread to soak up the rich broth.