Creating a good sauce can make a meal great: red wine , apricot mustard , orange , strawberry-fig and romesco sauces.

December 2008 (check local listings)

Creating a good sauce can make a meal great. EVERYDAY FOOD dresses up entrées and desserts with sauces that taste so good they seem hard to make but couldn't be easier. Elegant pepper-crusted filet mignon with red wine sauce is a tender cut of beef with a lush wine reduction that requires only two ingredients and 10 minutes. It's served with crisp green beans drizzled with lemony vinaigrette. Allie prepares an apricot mustard sauce to grace sautéed pork chops, with buttered savoy cabbage on the side. Emma transforms ordinary sweets into extraordinary desserts when she combines them with dazzling sauces: orange sauce on ricotta and strawberry-fig sauce on pound cake. Margot makes an after-school snack of white bean dip with toasted pita chips that's creamy, light and nutritious. Today's "Freeze It" is romesco sauce. Lucinda prepares this classic Spanish sauce of tomatoes, sweet peppers, almonds and bread that's perfect for chicken, fish or meat.