Sausage

This hearty soup gets rich flavor from linguiça, a delicious pork sausage from Portugal seasoned with garlic, paprika, and other spices. Spanish chorizo sausage is a great substitute.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner—this recipe (known in Mexico as migas) is the all-in-one answer for leftover tortilla chips. A light crunch and the punch of chorizo makes it irresistible any time of day.

Tamal "en cazuela" Combining pork shoulder, Sherry, and a classic Cuban marinade of garlic, cumin, and sour orange in a ropa vieja–like stew that gets tucked between corn-rich pastry, this hearty meal is ideal for a big family gathering. True, it takes some effort, but the good news is that you can break up the tasks and finish them ahead of time—leaving nothing to worry about except the reheating (and maybe the in-laws).

Love the crust? Eat up! It's a solid source of heart-smart folate.

The restaurant uses sausages that are specially made by a local market, but you can use any mild pork sausage.

For this Spanish-inspired pasta, you break the dried noodles and cook them more like rice — the result is a silky mix speckled with crunchy almonds, smoky chorizo, and aromatic saffron.

The classic cold soup seems almost restrained next to this lusty dish — gazpacho ingredients are grilled, then tossed with pasta and cheese (some of the vegetables are puréed to make a tangy sauce that lightly cloaks the whole). The sausages are cooked separately, so this recipe will come in handy when there are vegetarians around.

The dog-and-relish combo, reinvented.

These Italian kebabs make a very stylish one-dish supper.

Char Kway Teow These slightly sweet, salty rice noodles, with lots of garlic and a hint of heat, are a popular street food in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. There's a bit of chopping involved, but the ingredients are remarkably easy to put together.

Fresh marinara sauce makes all the difference in these robust sandwiches. Look for it near the cheeses and fresh pasta at the supermarket.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Lobel's Prime Time Grilling: Recipes & Tips from America's #1 Butchers, by Stanley, Leon, Evan, Mark and David Lobel. Sausage varies wildly in quality and seasonings. Buy your favorite hot Italian sausage from a butcher or shop you know and like. If you prefer, use another kind of sausage meat, flavored as you prefer, but use the best money can buy.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Mastering the Grill: The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking, by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim. You will need large hot dogs (knockwurst or foot-longs, take your choice) to hold all of the filling in this recipe. "The works" means anything and everything you like on a hot dog, so if there's something that works for you that we haven't included, bring it on; you can't mess it up. Whatever you do, the results will be over the top. One word of warning: Don't wrap the bacon too tightly, or it will break when the hot dogs swell during cooking.

Early-spring evenings often feel a lot like winter, but you won't mind so much with this warm and robust German-style supper at the ready.

The hearty pork stew known as cocido is eaten all over Spain but varies from region to region. This one comes from Liébana, the westernmost part of Cantabria, where it's traditionally served in stages—beginning with the broth and fideos (fine pasta) and followed by the meat, chickpeas, and cabbage arranged on a large platter. We prefer to eat it all together, as the broth lends a nice moistness to the other elements.

Since the beans need to soak overnight, be sure to begin one day ahead. Spicy Italian sausage is a good substitute for the chorizo.

Cara Brunetti Hillyard of Hamilton, Virginia, writes: "I come from a long line of great cooks. My father owns an Italian market in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where my mother gets a lot of the ingredients she uses in her wonderful dishes. My mother-in-law is a recipe developer, and I've been known to sit next to my great-aunt Stella with a pen and paper as she details her amazing recipes. I live far from home now, but I reconnect with my family traditions every evening when I make dinner."