Pasta

Don't worry if the batter for this traditional German staple seems a bit thin—it should be more liquidy than a normal dough.

Common ingredients create a Moroccan meal.

For a nutrition boost, replace one of the eggs with 1/2 cup of pureed beans or vegetables. (That's two 2-ounce jars of baby food.)

An extra-sharp raw-milk cheddar from England is the perfect counterpoint to the sweet sautéed leeks in this upscale twist on mac and cheese.

Fresh fennel and fennel seeds infuse the couscous with a subtle anise flavor.

Increasingly available in supermarkets, the firm wheat protein known as seitan is mild in flavor and versatile in the kitchen. In this casserole, it takes on the earthy flavor of mushrooms, adding heartiness and heft.

You can use red beets if golden beets are unavailable, but your pasta will turn pink.

This small, round pasta is named for its resemblance to peppercorns, so why not pair it with black pepper, which, along with lemon, adds brightness to the parmesan?

In the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, lasagne bolognese is usually made with a besciamella sauce. Italian-American cooks often replace that time-consuming step with ricotta. In this wickedly good interpretation, food editor Melissa Roberts combines the two traditions by whisking milk into some of the ricotta, creating a billowy pseudo-besciamella (the remaining ricotta mixture is stirred together with spinach). We rarely call for specific brands, but we did find that widely available Barilla no-boil dried noodles produced an exemplary lasagne. An egg pasta, this one comes very close to the flavor and delicacy of homemade.

Although this flour, semolina, and egg mixture begins as a stiff dough, it cooks into beautiful, velvety noodles that are as smooth as butter. A pasta machine makes this recipe easy and foolproof. Store-bought fettuccine simply can't compare to homemade.

Incorporating tender slow-roasted pork into a sugo (sauce) brings out its fullest potential.

In this quick version of a common Puglian dish, pungent garlic and spicy red-pepper flakes turn frozen broccoli into a perfect partner for ear-shaped pasta.

Sweet nibbles of butternut squash temper the bitter edge of radicchio in every bite of this healthful, satisfying pasta.

Wake up your taste buds with this lowfat recipe. It is sure to satisfy — and provide a spicy kick!

Ji Geung Lo Mein Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted from My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen: 100 Family Recipes and Life Lessons, by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. At the New Year, noodles represent longevity. Because of this they were never cut when preparing them, and to serve them was to wish those who ate them a long life. In Sah Gau there were many varieties and shapes of noodles, and for vegetarians there were noodles made without eggs. These are what were served to the nuns, along with that special food that came usually with the onset of the New Year, young ginger, more subtle, less hot than the customary kind. These days this young, often pinkish gingerroot is available year-round. This dish illustrates what a "lo mein" is — that is, a dish tossed together, not precisely stir-fried.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from I Like Food, Food Tastes Good: In the Kitchen with Your Favorite Bands by Kara Zuaro. The Violent Femmes
from Brian Ritchie If adolescence had an official soundtrack, it would be provided by the Violent Femmes. They're not quite indie rock, but if you haven't got their self-titled debut CD in your neatly alphabetized record collection, nestled somewhere between the Velvet Teen and Weezer, then your roommate must have stolen it. Brian Ritchie's acoustic bass line has no doubt rocked your teenage dance parties, and now he's going to up the ante at your next dinner soirée. "My strategy is to eat food at a restaurant and then try to guess how they made it. Then I add my own ideas," Brian explains. "I used to live in Italy, and this is my version of something I had in Florence. This recipe is as good as what you'd get there." I picked up some wild boar from New York's Citarella Fine Foods, but I had to place an order a few days in advance, and the smallest amount they would sell me was a whopping five pounds of meat. Fortunately, this deeply flavorful stew is something I'll be happy to make again (half the boar is still in my freezer) — but if you don't have easy access to wild boar, try another type of meat, as Brian suggests below. "Ragù is a winter dish characterized by meat and tomatoes. It is traditional to cook it all day, adding more liquid if it starts to dry out. Italians use fresh tomatoes in the summer and canned in winter. "Making a ragù is like playing jazz. You have to be creative, tasteful, and able to adapt to the circumstances. The beauty of ragù is that everybody is free to develop their own. Aside from meat and tomatoes, you can basically add whichever other spices and ingredients appeal to you. If you don't want wild boar, substitute any other meat you like — lamb, pork, veal, beef, or venison. I have made this dish with all of those depending on availability and what looks good at the butcher. "Note: I do not use a recipe or exact quantities when I cook. These quantities are just to give you a rough idea. Adjust to your own taste." —Brian Ritchie

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Italy. Pasta con acchiughe e pomodoro This is a poor people's pasta from Palermo in Sicily. You could use tagliatelle or spaghetti, but if you can find margherita pasta it's great — it looks thicker than spaghetti, and it's frilly down one edge. This sauce has great flavor and is very Sicilian with the raisins and pine nuts. P.S., I'd like to thank my mate John Hamilton, the incredible art director on this book, who made this dish with me in Sicily. He made it with such care and concentrated so hard staring at it that I thought it might turn to stone! As you can see from the picture, it goes to show that even a Glaswegian geezer can produce a pretty and delicate dish.