Pasta

This hearty, veggie-filled rigatoni recipe requires a little bit of work, but makes plenty for a group and is full of flavor.

Home turf: Ohio
Local flavor: Spaghetti topped with chili: It's as simple (and as bizarrely satisfying) as that. This combo has inspired some 200 chili parlors in the Cincinnati area. What sets it apart? It's thinner than your average chili and is packed with aromatic spices (allspice, cinnamon)—and a touch of chocolate. *Beef is the protein of choice, but we've gone with lamb here, which is amazing with the spice blend.
Make it a meal: garlic bread, salad with ranch dressing, and Samuel Adams black lager ($8 per six-pack).

If you can't secure any Big Island wild boar, use some free-range pork instead. If you've got the time, try to order a boar shoulder from Texas-based Broken Arrow Ranch—a favorite of chefs like dean Fearing—or send for a full-flavored heirloom pig breed like Berkshire or Red Wattle from heritage Foods USA (brokenarrowranch.com and heritagefoodsusa.com).

Quickly wilted arugula, canned beans, and toasted walnuts add heft to this vegetarian main course. Try spinach in place of arugula and pine nuts instead of walnuts.

This countrified soup is often served in late March for Nowruz, the Persian new year. With beans, vegetables, noodles, and yogurt, it is a meal in itself. If you can't find fava beans, use limas. Start this recipe the night before to soak the chickpeas, kidneys beans, and fava beans. Boil them in a pot with four cups of water for one minute, then turn off the heat and add a splash of apple cider vinegar. Cover the pot and let them soak overnight

As simple a dish as this is, I have had requests for it in all my restaurants as far back as I can remember. I like the sauce a little feisty, so I’m generous with the crushed red pepper. You can add as much—or as little—as you like. Often, restaurant chefs finish this dish by swirling butter into the sauce at the end. You can do the same, or use olive oil to finish the sauce. I prefer olive oil, but I probably don’t have to tell you that by now.

Slightly bitter Swiss chard (which is a variety of beet) was reportedly named for the Swiss botanist who identified the green. In this dish, chard's earthy flavor balances out the rich, creamy béchamel sauce.

When you find out you cannot eat gluten, one of the first foods you worry about living without is pasta. There's a certain mourning involved, imagining a trip to Italy without a mound of fresh fettuccine. Guess what? The Italians make great gluten-free pasta, since many of their citizens have celiac sprue. You can buy a package of gluten-free pasta at the farmacia and take it to the best restaurant in town, where they will make the pasta of the day for you. When we first started making pasta, we tried our favorite gluten pasta recipes with gluten-free flours, without much success. It took us about fifteen different recipes and wranglings with flour combinations before we figured out the right ratio of flours to liquids. Now, at least once a week, when we want a quick meal, we pull out flours and make homemade pasta.

Don't be afraid of oxtail. Just knowing that it comes from the tail of a cow (it used to be the ox, but most oxtail sold in butcher's shops is from cow now) puts some people off. Have a sense of adventure and try it. Don't just stick with the same old foods. This recipe may sound intimidating, but this is really just great peasant food. There's not a lot of meat on oxtail bones, so you might think it's not worth your time to make it. However, oxtail has a lot of muscle on it, which gets broken down when you braise it. The meat that is there falls apart and becomes gelatinous. That makes this oxtail so damned good. You only need a small amount to feel satisfied, so it's a dish rich in taste for not much price. Plus, when you braise the oxtail, you can braise it in water or chicken stock and have a flavorful stock left over for other dishes. At Papillon, our wild mushroom raviolis bobbed in oxtail broth. Making this recipe will take time, but that's where flavor is born. It's worth your time.

To make fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs, cut off the crust from country-style bread. Tear the bread into two-inch pieces and grind in the food processor until the breadcrumbs resemble very coarse sand.

For the best texture, don't overwork the meat mixture and use Parmesan that's ground to a fine powder ( use the processor or the rasp side of a box grater). For more heat, add 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper to the sauce.

A classic Moroccan tagine (or stew) is typically made with meat. This satisfying vegetarian main course features three kinds of root vegetables—and a delicious spicy, crunchy chickpea garnish.

For ideas on what to serve with the macaroni and cheese, see "On the Side."