Now Is the Time to Use Winter Citrus. Here Are Our Favorite Recipes

Says Sonoma chef Kelly Mariani of this recipe: “When I think of a classic ‘California winter’ salad, this is what comes to mind. It celebrates how special California is. Our coldest season is still amazing.”

This easy fruit salad looks especially striking made with multiple varieties and colors of blood oranges and grapefruit, but it’s just as delicious with a single kind of each. You’ll have enough syrup left over for flavoring sparkling water or lattes.

If you’ve never had raw Brussels sprouts before, this salad will be a revelation. To save time, use a handheld slicer for the sprouts and onion.

Just a few deftly chosen ingredients make for an elegant, complex-tasting salad. Serve it with warm rolls and glasses of cold, crisp, white wine.

In winter, when most of the country hunkers down under gray skies, Suzanne Goin serves sunny Meyer lemon salads like this one at Lucques in West Hollywood. To enjoy the whole lemon slices, cut them very thinly; if your knife skills aren’t restaurant-ready, use a handheld slicer.

Imagine a cheese plate in salad form: Sweet red d’Anjou pears team up with sharp, nutty parmesan. Though the red pears add a pop of color, green ones work well, too. Save any extra dressing as a dip for raw vegetables or to slather on bread.

Attention, citrus lovers: This dish includes zest in the lemongrass-chile rub, juice in the refreshing dressing, and peeled segments in the crunchy cucumber and shallot topping.

This penne pasta is topped with a ricotta that’s mixed with Meyer lemon juice and black pepper

Rockfish, also known as Pacific snapper or rock cod, is one of the most sustainable and widely available fish in the West; it has a mildly sweet flavor. Vermilion rockfish, with their scarlet hue, are especially pretty and tasty. For a large feast-worthy fish, order ahead of time from your seafood shop or counter.

West Coast Dungeness crab and Meyer lemons come together deliciously in this special-occasion pasta. At A16 Rockridge in Oakland, chef Rocky Maselli made it with housemade squid-ink tonnarelli; we opted for fettuccine since it’s easier to find.

Duck breasts have thick skin, so it’s best to cook them slowly over a low flame to render the fat. Here, we used that fat to make a decadent glaze studded with citrus segments.

For Feast Hawaii, chef Bella Toland, then of Maui’s Travaasa Hana (now Hana-Maui) resort added tender yellow corn sprouts to the platter. Grown indoors on the island year-round, they’re a few weeks old and taste just like corn. This version excludes them but is just as delicious.

Every good cook needs a moist, dense cake in his or her repertoire. This one, which is loaded with orange flavor and tender flecks of peel, is not too sweet. That means it’s perfect for brunch as well as dessert.

The marvelous merger of orange and chocolate gets even better when you pair blood oranges’ raspberry nuances with dark chocolate and a little Campari for complexity. The herbal, slightly bitter liqueur also helps keep the sorbet from getting icy.

A polenta cake from pastry chef Hannah Buoye, of A16 Rockridge in Oakland, was the model for this dense, moist dessert. As the sliced lemons bake under the cake and absorb butter and brown sugar, they take on a marmalade-like quality. Be sure the cake is fully baked before you remove it from the oven, or it may sink.

Emily Rosenberg, a pastry sous chef at the Four Seasons Maui at Wailea, added toasted fennel seeds to give the tart a subtle crunch. You may have leftover dough, but you can use it to make cookies (sprinkle them with turbinado sugar and bake at 325°F). You’ll have leftover lime curd, too. It’s delicious with ice cream or spooned into biscuits or onto pancakes, and lasts a month in the fridge.

The neighborhood will smell the sweet aroma of almond and orange when you’re baking this French cookie recipe. Just be sure you’ve made enough to share.

For a lighter, more refreshing take on traditional chocolate lava cake, we subbed in white chocolate for the dark and added creamy lemon curd. The center of the dessert still comes out enticingly molten at serving time. Top with berries for a bright burst of color and flavor.

If you like a Paloma, you’ll love this grapefruit and tequila cocktail that pushes the citrus flavor with a house-made cordial and brings the heat with serrano syrup.

Step aside mimosas, the Grapefruit Garibaldi is the cocktail you need to brighten up brunch. The tart, fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice cuts the sweetness of the Mommenpop Grapefruit apéritif, meshing well with either club soda or Prosecco to lift the aromas.

Cassie Winslow, founder of the blog Deco Tartelette and the author of Floral Libations, shares her refreshing and calming take on the Paloma.

This cocktail is a boozy take on the beloved soda chanh muôi, the salted lemonade soda found at restaurants, bakeries, and street stalls throughout Vietnam. Leave out the vodka for a refreshing drink any time of year. Salting and preserving the lemons takes three months, but that investment of time is worth it; once made, they’ll last indefinitely.

This drink gets its backbone from aromatic gin and a zippy grapefruit shrub, which is herby and tangy. Play with different vinegars to subtly adjust the acidity and flavor profile.

This recipe was shared with us by the team at U-Street Pizza in Pasadena, California. The pizza joint nestled next door to the popular Italian eatery Union recently expanded to add a cocktail and wine program. The Free Parking cocktail caught our eye for its use of lime juice. With orange wine as a base, it’s a great option to serve at a party and enjoy in rounds.