Bridal celebration tip

Bridal celebration tip

Finger foods that will make your bridal celebration unforgettable: Melted Gruyere Toasts with Crisp Frizzled Prosciutto, Shrimp Fajitas Salad on Crisp Flour Tortilla Chips and Beet Puree with Sesame Flavors served on Endive Leaves. See recipes on C2.

Hamburger hint

Juicy burgers are an American favorite. Barbecue sauce mixed in with the meat gives a barbecue flavor without having to heat up the grill. It also helps make these lower-fat burgers moist.

When shaping the burgers, handle them lightly. Don’t squeeze or compact them. When cooking, don’t press the burgers with a spatula.

Best Ribs Ever

Steven Raichlen, author of numerous award-winning barbecue books, is back with a slim volume focusing on “the rib ... surely the most perfect morsel of meat known to man.” (He cites Chinese spareribs, Argentinean tira de asado, Korean kalbi kui and good old American barbecued St. Louis and baby back ribs as evidence — not to mention Norwegian pinnekjott.)

“Best Ribs Ever” (Workman, $13.95) covers tools, techniques, mail-order sources and “100 killer recipes” for pork, beef and lamb ribs, as well as rib-worthy sides, drinks and desserts.

New on the shelves

Two new products from Barilla, maker of many shapes of pasta and several varieties of pasta sauce: five shelf-stable microwave meals, with names like “Fusilli Integrali alle Verdure” (in smaller type “whole grain fusilli with vegetable marinara sauce”).

Also interesting are Barilla’s new shelf-stable bags of tortellini. Barilla’s little 8-ounce bags of three-cheese or ricotta-and-spinach tortellini look like fish out of water on the dry pasta shelf, but back in the water (a pot of boiling water — not in the microwave), they cook up nicely in 10 minutes.

Combined dispatches