Pasta

Maccheroni e Melanzane This is a pasta dish that is served in Sicilian homes and home-style restaurants, rather than upscale places. The recipe calls for perciatelli or bucatini, which is what Italians consider maccheroni.

Pea tendrils taste like a cross between peas and spinach and are used in Chinese cooking, where they are called dau miu. Find them at farmers' markets and Asian markets. Spinach or watercress can be substituted for pea tendrils in this lovely green dish.

Add more color to this dish by using a mix of red, yellow, and orange tomatoes.

Acini di pepe, the Italian term for "peppercorns," also refers to tiny pearls of pasta. This dish goes well with lamb chops or grilled chicken.

We prefer wild salmon not only for ecological reasons but for its flavor, which is more mild than that of farm raised. Although limited varieties are available year-round, peak season begins in the spring, when the fish are caught en route to their spawning rivers.

The classic dish is updated by adding oven-roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, and onions to deepen the flavors. What to drink: A soft, fruity Sangiovese.

This fun dish combines classic antipasto platter ingredients with pasta. If you're in a hurry, omit the sautéed mushrooms.

We used a food mill to coarsely purée the tomatoes, but you could use a blender.

Hearty ingredients make this a perfect dish for a cold night.

Anitra Earle of Yonkers, New York, writes: "I'm a perfume detective who hunts down hard-to-find and discontinued scents. One of the benefits of running my business from home is that I get to cook every day. I usually make dishes that I've relied on for years, like this linguine recipe. It takes just minutes to prepare, and as recipes go, it's practically foolproof."

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman's book the A Return To Cooking. To read more about Ripert, click here. This is the cook at work, switching a few ingredients from the pastry chef's mise to his own. Except for the sugar, chocolate, and pastry cream, this is just like cooking dinner. The sauce is simply an all-purpose ganache that can be used for all manner of desserts.

I grew up in a household where we didn't eat meat on Friday, which presented a problem because when I was a child, I didn't like most fish or shellfish. My mother solved this dilemma by making me pasta with canned tuna and tomato sauce. This is my adult version of that recipe, made with high-quality preserved tuna with capers and anchovies added to hit the notes one expects in such a classic seafood pasta.

This beautiful pasta dish features a classic trio of Italian ingredients. Bottled roasted chestnuts make preparation surprisingly quick.

Macarrones con Crema y Queso Poblano and serrano chiles give a mild kick to this cheesy Mexican pasta.

Fideos, pasta nests that are often toasted in oil, are popular on the eastern coast of Spain. Here, the sauce is enhanced with a sofrito, a concentrated mixture that imparts a deep tomato flavor. The browned fideos slowly absorb the seafood-based sauce as they cook.

A steaming plate of al dente spaghetti with homemade sauce and a sprinkle of cheese is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.