Since it’s springtime, for either lunch or dinner you can serve a bright, colorful and easy-to-make pasta dish that’s alive with fresh garden flavors, along with a green salad brightened with colors—orange grape tomatoes, blood orange segments and anything that catches your eye at the market.

Here’s a recipe for Pasta Primavera, a food fan favorite.

The recipe is from the Sable & Rosenfeld Elegant Entertaining Cookbook.

Pasta Primavera can be served hot or cold, with a crisp white wine or a light-bodied red.

And don’t forget crusty bread or garlic bread—worth the carbs!

• Find more of our favorite pasta recipes.

Your garden doesn’t have to be elaborate;
a patio with a planter will do. Photo courtesy Sable & Rosenfeld.

Think pink and give Mom rosé Champagne
or other rosé wine.

Here’s a better idea: give Mom rosé instead of roses.

“Rosé,” or blush wine, is made by leaving the skin of red grapes in contact with the juice for a short period of time, before the grapes are pressed. The grape skins are then discarded, rather than left in contact with the juice throughout fermentation (which would create red wine).

The red grape skin imparts some flavor and a lovely color (the longer the skins are left in contact with the juice, the more intense the color of the wine). Different red grapes are used to make rosé, depending on country and region.

Styles of rosé vary widely by country, (Australia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, U.S. etc.) region and winemaker. There are crisp rosés, medium-sweet roses (think Mateus) and sparkling rosés, the most luxurious of which is rosé Champagne. Without doubt, the latter two are the most festive for Mother’s Day and other celebrations.

For a memorable Mother’s Day, have a tasting of different kinds of rosé wines. Unlike the wilted roses, the wine tasting will remain a happy memory.

Another happy memory: The wonderful wine-based sorbets from Wine Cellar Sorbets (including Rosé), which you can also send to Mom.

Make the ever-popular Caesar salad into an elegant first course or main dish by adding lobster.

1. You’ll need two cooked 2-pound lobsters for 4 luncheon servings or 6 first courses.

2. Slice the tail meat lengthwise to place atop the salad; the claw meat can be tossed with the romaine.

3. You can also add 2 cups of peeled, coarsely grated celery root or parsnip to the tossed romaine.

Here’s the traditional Caesar Salad recipe and the history of caesar salad.

Find more salad recipes.

Can’t afford lobster? Go for chicken or rare-
grilled salmon. Photo © Okea | Dreamstime.

Kakawa Cocoa Beans from Cocoa Puro.
Photo by Kent Lacin | Cocoa Puro.

Researchers have determined that millions of years ago, one particular tree whose pods contained what we now call cacao beans is the actual mother tree responsible for all the cacao and chocolate in the world.

Cacao now grows worldwide in the “cacao belt,” 20 degrees north and south of the equator, in humid jungle lowlands. It can be found from South America to Madagascar.*

Amid the three categories of cacao beans—criollo, forastero and trinitario, a hybrid of the two—there are many thousands of clonal varieties because the trees crossbreed naturally. The pods range from elongated to squat, and yellow to yellow-green to orange to deep burgundy (see photos.)

*A comprehensive list of cacao-producing countries and cities includes Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Hawaii, Honduras, Jamaica, Java, Madagascar, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Saint Vincent and Grenadine, Samoa, Santa Lucia, São Tomé and Principe, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Windward and Leeward Islands. Not all is top quality; only 5%-10% of the world’s cacao falls into this category.

Our new Soup Glossary is the latest of our 70+ food glossaries: mini-courses in learning in everything from A (antioxidant foods) through Y (yogurt—there’s no Z yet, but zucchini is in our Squash Glossary).

You’ll have fun perusing pretty pictures of soup as you learn the different types of soups and the history.

Instant ramen noodle soup was invented in Japan in 1956 (and where would the college students of America be without it?). Before then everyone in Japan enjoyed fresh ramen noodle soup with hand-cut noodles, which came from China at the turn of the 20th century.

The very word “supper” comes from “soup,” which used to be the evening meal for less affluent people (i.e., most people).

• Find your favorite foods in the other food glossaries.

Can you name this soup? Photo courtesy
MackenzieLtd.com. (It’s bouillabaisse.)