Pasta

If you have a mini meatball in your house (or you’re just a kid at heart) this one will feed you well, stomach and soul!

Sweet and salty food . . . I can eat it at the same time? I’m there. How about you?

You can make this dish again, subbing cubed white or dark meat chicken for the lamb if you have extra spice blend on hand.

This quick pasta has big flavors and lots of texture. Salty, sweet, crunchy—Delish!

Though I haven’t lived on Cape Code since I was eight, this dish proves I’m not just a Red Sox fan but a true New England Patriot. With Chowda and Mac ’n’ Cheese in one dinner, you can get to Massachusetts in 30 minutes or less, even if you live in Michigan.

Make your own take-out. When you MYOTO, you control the salt, fat, and quality of ingredients. This dish is not only healthful, but you also don’t have to make any decisions like whether you want chicken or pork. This recipe has got everything in it but the kitchen sink.

Tuna casserole was a classic back in the day when I was a kid. I’m bringing it back—Mediterranean style!

My “favorite” pasta changes each time I whip up a new one. Here I go again.

So easy! Too delish! I make Chicken Francese all the time, but this recipe for Sole Francese is actually based on a fish sandwich served at The Algonquin on Lake George, New York. I have been eating this fish there, dockside in the summer sun, for more decades than I care to acknowledge. (See you there next year!)

Pasta with butter, ricotta, and Parm cheese is an Italian children’s standard. Add a little broccoli—we grown-ups need our fiber—then be a kid again and enjoy.

The saffron does all the work for you in this dish—you’ll freak out when you take your first bite and actually taste how easy this was to make. Since you now have saffron on hand, next time you’re making regular old rice, add a pinch of saffron and your rice will taste extraordinary.

The ingredients list is the whole sales pitch. Need I say more?

Eat this meal in front of the TV. Invite Clint Eastwood and the cast of your favorite spaghetti western (mine’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly).

Nutty toasted garlic and sweet peas? Oh, my! I could eat the whole potful myself, then drift off into sweet dreams!

If you like those spinach and artichoke dips you get on the appetizer menu in restaurants, you’re gonna LOVE this!

With veggies and pasta in one dish, there’s no need to make any sides—plus, you only have to wash one pot!

Anchovies work magic here. Once they melt they will not taste fishy; they’ll taste more like salted nuts, really. Plus, anchovies in any seafood sauce I serve are the secret ingredient that makes the eaters go “Hmm, what is that?” (Don’t tell anyone my secret, k?)

This Roman dish is as old as the city’s seven hills. It doesn’t get any easier, really. As a side, I fry up some garlic in oil and toss it with chopped defrosted spinach and some rinsed canned white beans.

Ceci are chickpeas. This is a classic, simple Italian dinner. Thousands of tired Romans will be eating it tonight; how about we join them? Greens dressed with vinegar and oil would make a good side dish.

About ten years ago, my friend Donna told me she had made chicken with leeks—just leeks—for dinner the night before and she raved about it! I made my own version of Leek-y Chicken that night and I’ve been making it ever since. I included a version of this recipe in my first 30-Minute cookbook back in 1998, but I could not do a book on “Express” cooking without including Leek-y Chicken in some form. Here it is served on a bed of couscous.