These skewers are a refreshing appetizer for summer gatherings and a great finger food—no forks required. It can be prepped a few hours in advance, but wait until you’re ready to serve before drizzling with the oil and vinegar.

Churrascas are a great last-minute homemade bread because the dough needs just a short amount of rest after kneading. While this recipe calls for making them on the stovetop, you can also make them on your grill, cooking as many as will fit all at once. Do enjoy them right away, while they’re still soft and pillowy. Note: Don’t confuse churrasca the bread with churrasco the grilled meat that’s often stuffed into a sandwich—you will find a great recipe for that in the current Chilean Pressing Report.

The variety of lettuces is what makes this salad so special. It features a vinaigrette that combines the sweetness of balsamic with the tartness of red wine vinegar. Remember that true balsamic vinegar must come from Modena, Italy. Turn this salad into a meal by adding cold shrimp or grilled chicken.

Chile’s beloved “Queen’s Avocado” gets a contem- porary reboot. All the classic flavors — creamy avocado, savory chicken salad, and a bright vinaigrette — are here, layered on a bed of greens instead of mounded onto the fruit. Tuna or shrimp salad works beautifully here, too.

Add zest to mozzarella with this flavorful marinade. Pearls are cheese balls about the size of cherry tomatoes. Serve them as a finger food or pair with tomatoes for a first course.

This ancient grain, often available in heirloom varieties such as emmer farro, has a nutty taste and is a great source of fiber and protein. Because it takes 45 minutes to cook, you might double the amount and save half for breakfast or lunch the next day. Notes: If you don’t want to light up the grill, dice the veggies and add them raw. The balsamic should be a thick, naturally aged vinegar from Modena, Italy.

These bites make an elegant appetizer. For the sweet potatoes, choose long rather than rounded ones to get the most slices from each. Keeping the brie refrigerated until needed makes it easier to cut.

My numerous trips to Italy to source fresh-pressed olive oil have led to my fondness for fennel, a cousin of celery with the taste of mild licorice, and a veggie totally underappreciated here. It’s the perfect complement for oranges—you’ll see them together in many dishes.

This eye-catching brunch dish gets its zesty taste from marinated cucumbers. Make them a day in advance and you’ll cut prep time to minutes.

Hard-cooked eggs figure prominently in many Spanish dishes. With this sauté of spring vegetables, they elevate a side dish to meal status.

I was inundated with recipe requests when I took this salad to a dinner party recently. It features incredible extra virgin olive oil plus an ingredient you might not be familiar with—guindilla peppers. These small slender peppers, typically sold pickled, hail from Basque country. Find them in the international section of your supermarket or online. (Another option: Substitute pickled banana peppers.) Guindilla peppers are also great on charcuterie boards, as a tapa, or in martinis or Bloody Marys.