Pasta

The pork belly needs to cure overnight, so start this one day ahead. If you can't find pork belly, use bacon instead. Mix 12 ounces diced browned bacon, 2 tablespoons drippings, 1 minced garlic clove, 1/2 cup chicken broth, and 1/4 cup dry white wine in large skillet. Bring to simmer; keep warm. Cook pasta; proceed with recipe.

This pasta showcases spring produce.

Cheese power: Monterey Jack and parmesan are creamy and smooth, while blue lends a subtle savoriness.

The cabbage and carrots in this dish supply 126 percent of your daily vitamin A, key to maintaining healthy eyes.

The broccoli gives bright flavor and color to this easy vegetarian pasta dish.

Mac and cheese goes southwestern with corn chips and salsa verde.

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."

Homemade ravioli are well worth the effort, and making them is the perfect task to share with a kitchen full of cooks (even novices can get in on the fun). Mixing the pasta dough is a breeze in the food processor, but if you don't have one, don't worry — we've given the method for making the dough by hand as well. A brown-butter pine-nut sauce is light enough to let your efforts on the pasta really shine through.

This dish is great alongside the Lemony Chicken Milanese .

A comfort classic meets a bar-food favorite. WHAT TO DRINK: Pabst Blue Ribbon, an old-school brew that's enjoying a cult revival, is a light and refreshing foil for this rich dish.

Cracklings made from the leftover duck skin top this satisfying pasta dish.

Orecchiette con Ragù di Coniglio Think of orecchiette as the fingerprinting device of the culinary world. Each "little ear" of pasta is formed by the cook's thumb pressing into a small disk of dough. In Puglia, orecchiette is the signature pasta, and, with a ragù made from rabbit or its wild cousin the hare, whose meat is darker, it's comfort food, Italian-style.

These pretty frilled-edge rolls conceal a spiral of creamy ricotta and deep-flavored Parmigiano-Reggiano. Roasted tomatoes and eggplant fulfill the promise of lasagne.

Food editor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez got the idea of using egg fettuccine in place of lasagne noodles in this deliciously over-the-top lasagne from Mary Ann Castaldi, the mother of her college roommate, who would send her daughter back to school with a giant pan of lasagne after weekends at home.

If you're going to take the time to make fresh pasta, you want to know the dish is worth your while—and these ravioli definitely fit the bill. They're even better with the bubbling sauce of cream, fresh plum tomatoes, and parmesan cheese.