Pasta

This dish is very elegant, and the combination of crab and creamy béchamel sauce is unusual and delicious. It’s a showstopper.

Here’s a great way to get all your veggies in, with tons of flavor. I used to make this often when I was a caterer as an alternative entrée for non-meat eaters because it’s an elegant dish with lots of colors and textures. It’s also quite convenient, because it can be prepared ahead of time, so if you have vegetarian guests at your next gathering, you can assemble this early and then just pop it in the oven while you’re making the rest of the dinner. But don’t think this is strictly for vegetarians; it’s a real crowd-pleaser all around.

I rely on this dish whenever I’m hosting a ladies’ lunch or wedding shower, or when I just want something tasty and healthy in the refrigerator to snack on. The trick here is using a purchased, roasted whole chicken. It’s important to use a whole chicken because it stays moister and more tender than precooked breasts.

When we’re hosting game night and have lots of my husband’s friends coming over, I make this salad. It’s hearty and colorful, and because it holds very well at room temperature, I can make it ahead of time so I can take part in game night, too!

Men sometimes complain that pasta salads aren’t a “real” meal because they’re so light. This one will make a believer out of anyone who has turned his nose up at pasta salad in the past. Meaty eggplant chunks, cannellini beans, plus lots of grilled seafood make this as filling and robust as it is attractive on the plate.

Among the many virtues of this salad is that it can be made ahead very successfully and it also looks so attractive.

Salade Niçoise meets all-American pasta salad in this all-in-one dish that’s perfect for a picnic or dinner on a hot summer night. The trick is to use the Italian canned tuna; the flavor of water-packed albacore tuna is just not comparable.

Broken strands of spaghetti are the starch in my family’s version of ribollita, a thick Tuscan soup that is usually made with cubes of stale bread. We always had odds and ends of long pasta on the pantry shelves when I was a child and serving it this way made a hearty meal out of a little bit of pasta.

You can make this kind of soup anytime, using any kind of pasta you like. Small shapes and short noodles are the obvious choices, but my parents often added spaghetti or fettuccine, broken into small pieces so we could still eat it with a spoon. The fettuccine looks a little more elegant, but if all you have on hand is spaghetti, that’s fine; the soup will have a more rustic, homey look.

If you like pasta e fagioli, you’ll love this rib-sticking soup that substitutes garbanzo beans for the usual cannellinis and adds some tomatoes for color and flavor. It happens to be my Aunt Raffy’s favorite soup.

Use either fresh or frozen tortellini for this soup, a twist on the traditional tortellini en brodo that is a traditional Christmas dish all over northern Italy. White beans and the pancetta make this one very hearty and even more flavorful.

The perfect light, clean side salad to serve alongside a hearty pasta, this is my version of succotash. The different shades of yellow and green beans make it really pretty, too.

When I visited St. Louis on my first book tour, I sampled these addictive little cocktail nibbles. They are a perfect addition to an antipasto platter or a fun and easy party appetizer; serve them on a big platter with a small bowl of marinara in the center for dipping.

Edamame contain as much protein per serving as eggs, milk, and meat, and are also a good source of iron, zinc, and B vitamins. Since the corn is not cooked, it’s imperative that you use the freshest you can find. Serve hot or cold as a speedy, summery pasta dish.

After the chicken is browned and the vegetables are sautéed, the meat is braised until fork-tender. Orange juice adds vitamin C and brightens the dish, but you can omit it and increase the chicken stock by half a cup.

This version of pasta salad ditches the mayonnaise-based dressing for a lighter and brighter vinaigrette of flaxseed oil, lemon juice, and vinegar. It also incorporates ample fresh herbs, a variety of vegetables, and kamut pasta—a protein-rich whole-wheat pasta that contains healthy amounts of the antioxidants vitamin E and selenium. Other types of whole-wheat pasta can be used instead. The salad makes a great side for a potluck, but it works as a main course, too.

French green lentils, sometimes called lentilles du Puy, hold their shape well once cooked, making them particularly suited to salads and pasta dishes. Like other legumes, lentils are low in fat and are exceptional sources of folate, iron, and protein, plus other vitamins and minerals. Here, the lentils are combined with whole-wheat pasta shapes called chiocciole (snails), but you can substitute penne or any other short tubular shapes. If you like, grate or shave parmesan over the pasta just before serving.

A snappy almond-and-herb pesto is a fresh departure from the classic pine-nut-and-basil version. For an even more nutritious variation, add three tablespoons ground flaxseed to the pesto.

In Italy, lasagne is usually made with fresh pasta, either made at home or bought at the local shop (practically every town has one). The quality of the pasta is in fact the key to the dish, since the ratio of noodles to sauce should be fairly equal. The other components should also be of top quality, as they will contribute to the overall dish; buy fresh ricotta and mozzarella if possible—both will lend wonderful flavor and creaminess. This vegetarian lasagne evokes the Italian flag, with its layers of red (marinara sauce), white (cheese), and green (fresh spinach pasta). If you would like to incorporate some meat, brown a pound of sweet Italian sausage (casings removed), crumbling with a spoon as it cooks, then halve the sausage and sprinkle evenly among the cheese in two layers. The pasta dough should be made as close to assembling the lasagne as possible, so plan accordingly. There is no need to pre-boil these noodles. Once rolled out to the thinnest setting on your pasta machine, stack the noodles (they should measure 5 inches wide and 26 inches long) on a baking sheet with plenty of semolina in between to keep them from sticking together. The lasagne can be assembled on one day and then baked on the next; cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake.

You might imagine that this dish was a modern creation, but its history dates back to the 1700s, when dried macaroni—one of the few staples that could survive a year aboard ship—was brought from Italy to Britain and to the American colonies. Because there was a lack of other (Italian) ingredients, the imported pasta would often be served with a simple white sauce—milk thickened with flour and butter; sometimes it was baked in a casserole with bread crumbs on top. The earliest recorded recipe was in the Boston Cooking School Cookbook in 1896. This recipe uses a classic variation of béchamel known as sauce Mornay, made by whisking the flour into sautéed onions to form the roux (which is what thickens the sauce; see page 62 for more); then milk is added and the sauce is left to simmer until thick and creamy. Grated cheese is the final touch. Béchamel—and any sauce where flour is used as a thickener—is typically cooked for about 30 minutes to give the starch molecules in the flour enough time to absorb as much liquid as possible (so the flour goes from being granular to smooth, or gelatinized). In this recipe, the sauce is simmered for a much shorter time, since it will continue to cook in the oven after being stirred into the dish. For variety, top some or all of the servings with thin slices of roasted tomato and fresh thyme.