Celebrate the freshness of summer with a salad featuring the bright flavors of apple, celeriac and fennel. It goes together easily, especially if you have a mandoline to cut the vegetables and the apple to a paper thinness.

At Il Sogno, Andrew Weissman’s Italian restaurant in the Pearl Brewery complex, 200 E. Grayson St., this dish is featured among the array of antipasti.

Fennel, Apple and Celery Root Salad

1 Granny Smith apple, sliced paper thin
Celery root, or celeriac, sliced thin, to taste (see note)
1 fennel bulb, sliced thin with fronds reserved
Olive oil, to taste
Salt, to taste
Trace amount of lemon juice, to taste

Note: When slicing the celery root, or celeriac, use about as much as you use apple.

Toss apple, celery root and fennel bulb together in a non-reactive bowl with a little olive oil, a pinch of salt, or more to taste, and a splash of lemon juice. Add some finely minced fennel frond. Serve immediately.

Source: Andrew Weissman/Il Sogno

The sauce for this shrimp dish incorporates lime, tequila and triple sec.

Sautéed Shrimp with Margarita Sauce

1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 tablespoon red bell pepper or zucchini or tomato, diced
2 tablespoons pure olive oil
2 tablespoons shallots, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
5 local, wild-caught shrimp, peeled and deveined
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons triple sec and tequila (1:1 ratio)
1/4 cup organic black beans
1/4 cup organic coconut milk
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cook the rice according tot the package instructions, adding 1 tablespoon red bell pepper or other vegetable.

When the rice is done, tightly pack it into two 4-ounce ramekins. turn out the molded rice onto two serving plates.

Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat. Add the shallots and garlic and sauté them for 1 minute.

Add the shrimp and sauté them for 3 minutes. Add the lime juice and cook for another minute. remove the pan from the heat and deglaze the pan with the liquors. Return the pan to the heat and add the beans, coconut milk, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook for a minute or two longer to reduce the pan sauce; then serve.

Makes 2 servings.

From “The Harvest Eating Cookbook” by Keith Snow

Basil

The flavors of summer combine in this refreshing, simple salad.

Bibb, Basil and Mint Salad

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 head Bibb or butter lettuce, leaves torn
1 medium fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced
1/3 packed cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/3 packed up fresh mint leaves, chopped

In a salad bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and oil until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lettuce, fennel, basil and mint and toss well.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Adapted from “Giada at Home” by Giada De Laurentiis

Use fresh fava beans when they are available.

Fresh fava beans or frozen lima beans work equally well in this recipe. “Be careful not to overcook the beans, as they can turn an unattractive gray,” Giada De Laurentiis warns. “Red snapper, with its pinkish hue, is a quite flavorful white fish that works perfectly with the fava beans. Finish it off with a drizzle of really good-quality extra virgin olive oil.”

Red Snapper with Fava Bean Purée

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 pounds fresh fava beans, shelled, or 1 1/2 pounds frozen lima beans, thawed
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 (6-ounce) center-cut red snapper fillets

In a medium saucepan, bring the broth to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the beans. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the beans are tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Drain the beans and reserve 1 cup of the broth. If using fava beans, when the beans are cool enough to handle, pop them out of their outer pods, discarding the pods. Combine the fava or lima beans and reserved broth in a blender or food processor. Add the mint and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the fish with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until brown and the center is just opaque.

Divide the fava bean purée among 4 serving plates. Place a fillet of red snapper on top of the purée. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

From “Giada at Home” by Giada De Laurentiis

This simple dish comes together in two minutes and cooks for 15, so it’s a great side dish for those without a lot of time on their hands.

Roasted Cauliflower

5 cups cauliflower florets
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Toss the cauliflower in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper.

Place in a roasting dish and cook until the cauliflower begins to brown slightly, about 15 minutes.

The roasted flavor of the cauliflower makes many dishes special, such as cauliflower soup, fresh salads, pizza or mashed cauliflower.

Makes 2-4 servings.

From “The Harvest Eating Cookbook” by Keith Snow

CiCi's pizza buffet.

CiCi’s Pizza has opened a location at 2335 S.W. Military Road.

The new south San Antonio location will employ 40 people, while offering patrons an endless pizza buffet for $5.49 a person.

CiCi's Pizza Italiano

“We’ve been a part of the San Antonio community for years, and we’re excited to bring yet another CiCi’s location to the area,” franchisee Tommy Marlin said. “CiCi’s endless buffet offers so many choices, there’s something for everyone in the community, and every family member to enjoy.”

CiCi’s offers a variety of unique pizzas, including Macaroni & Cheese, Mexican Pizza Olé and Spinach Alfredo. The latest is the Italiano, a thin-crust pizza with several cheeses, sausage and a special spice blend.

Hours are 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. Click here for more information.

Two recent cookbooks demonstrate a trend that’s becoming more popular with those who have little time to cook, yet still want to put something fresh and delicious on the dinner table. They are “The Harvest Eating Cookbook” (Running Press, $29.95) by PBS chef Keith Snow and Giada at Home (Clarkson Potter, $35) by Food Network celebrity Giada De Laurentiis.

What they have in common is that they are both tie-ins to TV shows and feature plenty of pretty pictures of food. Yet neither has little writing in them to rob you of an extra second to spare.

So don’t look for a lot of technique here. Instead look for sound recipes that come together quickly. Snow even provides prep times as well as cooking time, so you can have Roasted Cauliflower on the table in no time. Snow says you should be able to prep the vegetable in two minutes and cook it in 15, so it’s ready in 17 minutes. Whip that up while you’re working on Sautéed Shrimp with Margarita Sauce, which takes 10 minutes of prep time and 25 minutes of cooking.

What is Harvest Eating? Snow answers in his brief introduction: “Harvest Eating is not a fad diet. Rather a lifestyle of cooking and eating using methods that have been practiced for centuries all over the globe. The method is simple: Buy foods that are fresh and in season; then prepare them using whole, natural ingredients produced by farmers, not chemists. If your second-grader can’t read it, you definitely don’t want to eat it.”

Snow breaks down his recipes into the seasons, using an icon to differentiate among the dishes. That doesn’t always work here in South Texas; the better advise would be to use whatever is freshest at the farmers market, mixing and matching what is available now, no matter what the rest of the country is eating.

If I prefer Snow’s work to De Laurentiis’, it could be because so many of the recipes and few tips that the Food Network star seem old hat. “Chimichurri is the A1 sauce of Argentina,” she writes as a preface to one recipe. “Italians love lentils and cook them in lots of creative ways,” she burbles in another. Some of her information is helpful, though: “Leftover caponata will keep, covered in the refrigerator, for up to a week. Toss with warm pasta, serve on top of meat, chicken or fish, or simply serve it with some toasted bread or crostini.”

Essentially, though, the usefulness of “Giada at Home” boils down to whether you like De Laurentiis’ Cal-Ital approach to cooking. After leafing through the book on several occasions, I came to the conclusion that I don’t. A few recipes were intriguing, but more often than not, I kept flipping pages hoping to find something I might make. For every Bibb, Basil and Mint Salad or Red Snapper with Fava Bean Purée, there were too many dishes like the sickly sweet sounding Honey-Balsamic Lamb Chops or the yawn-inducing turkey meatloaf.

No amount of photos of De Laurentiis in her kitchen or dining with friends could make up for the cavernous gastronomic pauses.

Your tastes could be wildly different. Just take the time to leaf through the both books before deciding.

Island Coleslaw

Looking for a different take on your coleslaw? Try this Caribbean version from Trinidad and Tobago, where ripe fruit is plentiful and the combination of it with the cabbage is delicious.

Island Coleslaw

1 small head green cabbage, shredded small
1/2 cup crushed pineapple
2 small oranges, pith and seeds removed
1/2 cup diced mango
1 cup plain yogurt
Pinch of salt, or to taste
Dasheen or spinach leaves, for serving (optional)

Mix cabbage, pineapple, orange and mango. Stir in yogurt. Salt to taste. Serve either in a bowl or on a bed of dasheen, leaves of the taro plant, or spinact leaves.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Adapted from “Callaloo, Calypso & Carnival” by Dave DeWitt and Mary Jane Wilan

Didn’t get to visit enough restaurants during Restaurant Week? Then check out one of Jason Dady’s places.

The chef and owner of the Lodge Restaurant of Castle Hills and Bin 555 among others, has announced that he’s continuing his specials through the end of September.

The menus will change weekly, he says, but three-course lunches will be offered for $15 and three-course dinners for $35. The specials will be available at the Lodge, 1746 Lockhill-Selma; Bin 555 at Artisans Alley, 555 W. Bitters Road; Tre Trattoria, 4003 Broadway; and Restaurant Insignia in the Fairmount, 401 S. Alamo St.

For more information, call 210-349-8466.

Bruce Auden of Biga on the Banks, 203 S. St Mary’s St., also reminded us that his restaurant has a three-course dinner special every evening for $37.

The official Restaurant Week concludes tonight. For more information, click here.

In other restaurant news, Freebirds World Burrito has opened a new location. It’s at 125 N.W. Loop 410 in the Plaza del Norte center.

Cuzco Salad at Biga on the Banks.

The ongoing Restaurant Week has been a great opportunity to sample the culinary riches of San Antonio at an affordable price. The latest we’ve tried was the avocado-friendly menu at Biga on the Banks, 203 S. St. Mary’s St.

The first course was a choice between an avocado soup and a Peruvian-influence Cuzco Salad. Both were well worth trying.

The soup was velvety, with plenty of avocado flavor. Offering a delightful contrast to the smoothness was some pico made from orange, jicama and shrimp that added immeasurably to an already-wonderful dish. It was also beautifully presented in a martini glass.

Halibut with cilantro rice at Biga on the Banks.

The salad, meanwhile, was a zesty assortment of marinated red onion, avocado, sweet potato, posole and more tucked into butter lettuce leaves.

For the main course, I couldn’t resist achiote pork tenderloin in a lively cinnamon-laced tomato sauce. Guacamole was perched atop the slices of moist meat, while roasted fresh summer corn and plantains rounded out the plate. Again, the presentation, this time on a banana leaf, added to the enjoyment.

Another option was tortilla-crusted halibut – which chef Bruce Auden and his staff provided without the tortilla – topped with an avocado purée and served with chayote squash and an excellent cilantro rice that had everyone raving.

A third option is quail atop multi-colored, house-made fettuccine in a lemon cream sauce. No avocado, but the dish was just fine with the pasta being a standout.

You can continue the avocado fix into dessert, if you choose. There’s a delicate avocado mousse with a lime lift that arrived with a scoop of coconut ice on top and an array of fresh fruit, including perfectly ripe cubes of pineapple, on the plate. For those who don’t eat sweet avocado on a regular basis, the flavor will be exotic, but the creaminess of the mousse is pure comfort.

Chocolate cake at Biga on the Banks.

Chocolate lovers, though, will find it hard to resist the dense, rich cake, which gives you a feeling that you’re eating both fudge and cake. A generous slice with a touch of chocolate whipped cream was gone almost before I had a taste.

The cost of the three-course meal is $35 during Restaurant Week. Many of the dishes are offered on the regular menu.

For more on Restaurant Week and the participating restaurants, click here.