Pasta

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Nudies? In Florentine dialect they’re called gnudi, nudies, poking fun at a dish from the Casentino, a neighboring area that makes their greens and ricotta gnocchi with the same filling Florentines use for ravioli. Nudies because they’re not wearing pasta. Pronounced YNOO-dees. Spinach is used in Florence but wild greens are common in the mountainous Casentino. And ravioli are stuffed with wild greens in many regional recipes. Use wild greens if you can get them, otherwise use chard or spinach, whichever is fresh and tender. Traditionalists may want to search for sheep’s milk ricotta, which yields richer results, but everyone else can get by with whole cow’s milk ricotta. Drain watery ricotta in a metal sieve for 30 minutes if necessary. Cooks in search of a labor-intensive experience can form nudies by hand, one at a time, or use the 2-spoon French quenelle method. I prefer to pipe the mixture from a plastic bag onto a floured countertop, sprinkle the blobs with flour, and lightly roll to form walnut-sized, roughly shaped balls. Serve the nudies with melted butter or tomato or meat sauce, sprinkled with Parmigiano, and baked in the oven to melt the cheese.

This recipe, from Lord and Baroncini's cookbook, calls for simmering a small amount of tomatoes for over an hour. The result is a rich, concentrated sauce. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr

Here's a rich, creamy pasta from chef Cory Mattson of the Fearrington House Restaurant in Pittsboro, North Carolina.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Everyone's favorite childhood dish gets a sophisticated twist with the addition of red bell peppers, celery and blue cheese. But never fear: The kid in you — and all the kids — will love it.

Buckwheat noodles give this classic spring pasta dish a nifty twist. Uncork your favorite Chardonnay.

Syracuse, the beautiful port city on the Ionian Sea, has a cuisine that is marked by highly aromatic combinations of vegetables and seafood. This pasta recipe is a distinctive example.

In Apulia, women still make pasta at home. Their favorite pasta shape - and the symbol of the region - is arecchiette, or "little ears". Called recchie or recchietelle in the local dialect, orecchiette is eaten just about daily, but is prepared a different way in almost every village. The sauces for this whimsical pasta are straightforward and usually contain vegetables, beans or legumes. This recipe is one of the most basic.

The same parsley butter (which can be prepared three days ahead) seasons the pasta and the broccoli rabe served alongside.

If desired, grate a little extra Parmesan cheese for passing; a sprinkling over the soup will echo the flavor in the meatballs.

Good accompaniments to this Sicilian-style pasta are an arugula and fig salad, breadsticks, and gelato with amaretti.

Bonnie Wilkens Metully of Cincinnati, Ohio, writes: "Having two very active teenagers means I've also had to learn how to put together an interesting dinner even on busy nights. I get inspiration from my favorite bedtime reading, an immense collection of cookbooks and food magazines. I also do a quick grocery run every day —usually because I've just read about a dish that I simply must try —but also because having a well-stocked refrigerator is the key to easier cooking."

Romanesco cauliflower — with its cone-shaped florets — has a more subtle, nuanced flavor than traditional varieties. The size of Romanesco cauliflower can vary widely, so we call for weight in this recipe rather than number of heads.

This pasta celebrates the month of September, when tomatoes are truly in full season and just exploding. It's our favorite take on pasta al pomodoro.

Parmesan isn't usually served with seafood pasta, but the cheese adds a nice richness to this linguine.