I have made this potato soup for many whom have given it this title. It takes a bit of effort but is well worth it. Please note: for those who do not wish to use bacon, substitute 1/4 cup melted butter for the bacon grease and continue with the recipe. (I generally serve this soup as a special treat as it is not recommended for people counting calories.)

It is often used when you want to tell someone that something isn’t as easy as, say, making enchiladas. I guess it refers to the fact that corn tortillas, salsa, and cheese are common staples for the Mexican home cook, and that you can quickly prepare this meal by dipping the tortillas into the sauce and topping them with crumbled cheese. However, for those who don’t always have a ready-made salsa at home, it might not be that easy. That’s why I’m making this recipe using some leftover rotisserie chicken and Herdez Tomatillo Verde Cooking Salsa. Having two of the main ingredients already prepared, this delicious meal will be easier to cook, and in less time. The best part is the end result; I promise that you will love them!

This classic red wine sangria comes together in just minutes. Any dry red wine will work, but the fruit-forward notes in Spanish reds made with Tempranillo grapes make them an ideal choice here. The amount of sugar added depends on your personal preference, the red wine you choose and the ripeness of the fruit. As is, this sangria is dry and balanced with a touch of sweetness. If you prefer a boozier sangria, you can increase the amount of brandy to ½ cup (in that case you may want to add additional sugar as well). Sangria is best served within 48 hours, when the fruit has softened but is still fresh. Serve in large glasses over ice, if desired, with a few pieces of wine-soaked fruit as a delicious and potent garnish.

In this vegetarian main inspired by Indian dal, lentils are cooked with an aromatic blend of Thai spices — fresh ginger, turmeric, red curry paste and chile — then simmered in coconut milk until fall-apart tender. Browning the sweet potatoes before cooking them with the lentils brings out their sweetness, balancing the heat from the chile and curry paste, while baby spinach tossed in just before serving adds fresh flavor. Serve over steamed white or brown rice, or with toasted flatbread on the side.

This light, delicate weeknight curry comes together in less than 30 minutes and is defined by its deep miso flavor. Miso is typically whisked into soups toward the end of the recipe, but sweating it directly in the pot with ginger, garlic and a little oil early on helps the paste caramelize, intensifying its earthy sweetness. Adding coconut milk creates a rich broth that works with a wide range of seafood. Salmon is used here, but flaky white fish, shrimp or scallops would all benefit from this quick poaching method. A squeeze of lime and a flurry of fresh herbs keep this curry bright and citrusy. For a hit of heat, garnish with sliced fresh jalapeño or serrano chile peppers.

Bright with lemon and herbs, and packed with hearty greens, this highly adaptable soup can be either light and brothy or thick and stewlike, depending on your preference. Smashing some of the beans to release their starch will give you a thicker soup that’s almost worthy of a fork. To keep it on the brothy side, add a little more liquid and leave the beans intact. Either way, it’s a warming, piquant, one-pot meal that’s perfect for winter. The recipe is also wildly adaptable. Substitute other ground meat for the turkey, or go meatless. Canned chickpeas, kidney beans or black beans can stand in for the white beans; use any greens you have.

Mexican Tortilla Casserole is a casserole dish that is incredibly easy to make, and delicious, too! Smart School House shares this simple recipe you can make with beef or chicken, enchilada sauce, spices, cheese, and crispy tortilla chips. Top it with sour cream and avocados for a meal idea the whole family will love. It’s so quick and easy to throw together that it is perfect for busy nights. You’ll want to make it over and over and again!

These yummy turkey sausage balls are my new favorite snack/breakfast food! They're based on a similar recipe for pork sausage balls. My friends and family give them a 5-star rating.

A combination of lard and yogurt gave this dough a supple texture. Though it was not as flavorful, vegetable shortening worked as a substitute for lard. If the dough doesn’t ball up in the processor, gather it together and briefly knead it by hand. Roll out the rounds as evenly as possible. Let the dough rest if it resists rolling or snaps back. And if the char on the first piadina is too light, heat the pan several minutes longer.

The addition of potatoes and carrots makes this corned beef and cabbage recipe not only great on St. Patrick’s Day but a satisfying meal any day. Cure beef brisket in a salty, spiced brine and it becomes savory, tangy and aromatic corned beef. Get a corned beef made from flat-cut brisket, if you can, as it will be easier to slice into neat, uniform slabs. (The point cut has more striations of fat and may fall apart when sliced.) Braise the meat until tender, and add the vegetables toward the end of the braising time so they’ll absorb the beef juices and soften until perfectly crisp-tender. Finish the beef with a simple honey-mustard glaze and a quick broil to caramelize, then serve it with more Dijon mustard and beer. (Here are slow cooker and pressure cooker versions of the recipe.)

“The reason to corn your own beef is flavor,” said Michael Ruhlman, a chef and passionate advocate of the process. He wrote about it with Brian Polcyn in their book, “Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.” “You can achieve tastes that aren’t available in the mass produced versions,” he said. Feel free to experiment with the “pickling spices” called for below — you can customize them, if you like, from a base of coriander seeds, black peppercorns and garlic — but please do not omit the curing salt, which gives the meat immense flavor in addition to a reddish hue. (It’s perfectly safe, Mr. Ruhlman exhorts: “It’s not a chemical additive. Most of the nitrates we eat come in vegetables!”) Finally, if you want a traditional boiled dinner, slide quartered cabbage and some peeled carrots into the braise for the final hour or so of cooking. Or use the meat for Irish tacos.

This seemingly simple chicken wing recipe from Mansour Arem, a co-founder of Zwïta, a Tunisian food company, has genius moments throughout the cooking process, resulting in sticky, stellar results. Dry-roasting the wings ensures thin, crackly skin that’s at once crispy and airy under the spicy, sweet and immensely savory sauce, which requires no cooking, just stirring. Adding the hot wings to the cool sauce awakens the flavors of the harissa and lets it shine bright. This recipe calls for chicken, but the glossy sauce works well on many things, including salmon, tofu and chickpeas. Mr. Arem recommends enjoying this dish with beer, such as a pilsner, hefeweizen or amber lager. —Eric Kim

Going out for sushi is one of my favourite date nights; we love finding the freshest, highest-quality fish in town. But an often overlooked item at many sushi restaurants is always ordered for the table. I love it so much that I needed to figure out how it’s made to enjoy it every day of the week and not just on date night. The zippy, tangy and bright Sushi Restaurant Salad Dressing will be a staple in your fridge; I guarantee it. Sushi Restaurant Salad Dressing is a wonder dressing; it’s so versatile and veggie-friendly that you can pretty much put it with anything and everything you want. In most sushi bars, you’ll see it on a bed of iceberg lettuce, with other thinly sliced veg like cucumbers, carrots and peppers. Add a few cooked edamame peas, and have a very handsome first course!

This is all pretty straightforward stuff. I got everything from a grocery store. The bun was from the bakery section. The cheese was from the deli (though it was a little thick on the slice — more on that later). And the beef was a local grass-fed beef with an 85/15 lean/fat ratio. It’s as close to the “restaurant-raised” Hawthone-fied version as I was going to get. Luckily, there’s a clear mise en place set up for the burger-making scene. You can see four small bowls for onions, pickles, and yellow mustard. It looks like the other mini bowl has mayo so I just went with that. I got all of that from the store too. Remember, we’re talking about simple things elevated here.

Zaalouk is a Moroccan cooked salad, similar to baba ghanouj and moutabal, that highlights eggplant in all its glory. Just a few ingredients come together to create a lightly aromatic, herby and melt-in-your mouth dip. There are many ways to prepare zaalouk; what varies is the way in which the eggplant is cooked. It can be steamed, boiled, chargrilled, baked or, as in this recipe, simply cooked on the stovetop with the rest of the ingredients. Zaalouk is commonly served as a starter, however, feel free to enjoy it as a side or as a spread in a tasty sandwich with grilled meat or vegetables.

Green goddess dressing was served for the first time, in the 1920s, at the Palace Hotel, in San Francisco, at a banquet in honor of George Arliss, who starred in the play “The Green Goddess.” Herbaceous, creamy and tangy, the original recipe used mayonnaise, scallions, chives, tarragon, parsley, anchovies and vinegar. This vegan rendition mostly sticks to tradition, but employs tahini for body, basil for sweetness and soy sauce for a flavor that’s similar to anchovy. Keep the dressing thick for a dip, or thin it to coat sturdy salad leaves like romaine, iceberg, escarole or radicchio.

This easy chili comes together quickly, thanks to rotisserie chicken or leftover roast chicken and an ingredient list that leans heavily on pantry staples. Made with canned chiles and seeded jalapeños, this chili has a mild heat that can be intensified with the addition of ground cayenne, or by leaving the seeds in the jalapeños. While some white chili recipes call for cream cheese or sour cream to thicken the broth, this one achieves a similar texture by mashing some of the white beans. If you prefer a creamy chili, feel free to stir in a large spoonful of sour cream just before serving. Or, include sour cream with a host of toppings — including crushed tortilla chips, shredded cheese, diced avocado and pickled jalapeños — to make this chili a customizable family favorite.

A successful batch of jollof rice requires a few key ingredients (tomatoes, peppers, onions, a few herbs, spices and some stock) and a perfect sauce-to-rice ratio, so the cooked grains remain separate. I have found that the best, no-fuss way to do this is in the oven. Jollof is typically made with long-grain rice, though in Nigeria, parboiled rice is the norm. Most jollof is prepared over an open flame or on a stovetop. Missing from this oven version is the slightly smoky flavor you get from the little bits of rice that have browned on the bottom of your pan, but that’s nothing a pinch of smoked paprika can’t fix. Serve with braised goat or other stewed meats, and a side of fried plantains.

This ebullient green salad is dressed with ripe, sweet tomatoes marinated in sherry vinegar and fresh basil. The garlicky croutons add loads of crunchy texture, giving this a bit more staying power. Serve this as is for a substantial salad course or side dish, or bulk it up with the likes of cubed tofu or shredded chicken, avocado, jammy eggs, tuna, chickpeas, cheese or nuts and seeds.

Bibimbap, the Korean mixed rice dish, is a kaleidoscope of flavors and textures. The popular dish has multiple origin stories and, like banchan and kimchi, many variations. Cooks who ordinarily keep namul (seasoned vegetable) banchan in the fridge may add them to a bowl with leftover rice and seasonings like spicy-sweet gochujang and nutty sesame oil, for example. Or, if starting their bibimbap from scratch, some may prep each component separately. But here’s a fun way to accomplish everything at once: Roast a melange of bits and bobs on one sheet pan as rice heats and eggs oven-fry on another. The caramelized sweet potato and salty kale in this formula come highly recommended, but you can use any vegetables on hand, reducing cook times for delicate options such as spinach, scallions or asparagus.

This classic homemade pizza dough recipe is one to keep in your back pocket. Your stand mixer will do the heavy lifting here, while an overnight rest in the refrigerator will allow the dough to develop flavor and texture—and let you skip the usual hand-kneading. Using a small amount of whole wheat flour gives the yeast character and texture, leading to a dough with greater personality. All of the ingredients should be room temperature before mixing, including the water. Using tepid water slows the rising of the dough (warm water would cause it to ferment too quickly), giving it more time to develop. The resulting pizza crust has an airy lift and tons of crispy, chewy character and blisters beautifully in a hot oven.

Amber is found in the natural world as a resin that can be extracted from trees, so our cocktail takes direct inspiration from this organic element by using another tree-extracted ingredient—maple syrup—to infuse the drink with a sweet woodsy richness. This is balanced by a strong backbone of barrel proof American rye whiskey, which has the proof and spice to stand up to the sweetness of the syrup, as well as an herbal undertone that matches perfectly with amber’s organic associations. Amaro Nonino adds more earthy richness, with notes of caramel, cinnamon and allspice. Meanwhile Peychaud’s bitters and Herbsaint give the drink even more herbal lift. In the glass the cocktail radiates with amber vitality, reflecting brown and orange light in equal measure. Rich, deep, and herbal in flavor.

Cookbook author and TV host of Girl Meets Farm, Molly Yeh always thought turkey burgers were terrible—until she developed a version for her cookbook Home Is Where the Eggs Are. Her solution: Add meatball-style ingredients to the mix, incorporating onion for extra moisture and breadcrumbs and egg for added structure that holds on to more juiciness. Falafel herbs and spices amp up the flavor. The patties are browned in a skillet for ease and turn supremely crispy.

If the word “meatballs” brings to mind some kind of long, elaborate Sunday cooking project, then this recipe is here to change your mind. No shade to the classic Italian American version, but they just don’t need three kinds of meat, a tedious sear and braise, or even tomato sauce to be incredibly delicious. When you stick with one type of meat, give them quick, high-heat roast in the oven, and serve them with an herby salsa verde, few things are as cheap, versatile, and weeknight-friendly as a sheet pan full of meatballs. Think of this recipe as a template, and the possibilities are endless—mess around with different spices, types of meat, herbs and other add-ins, and you can easily make these once a week without getting bored. They’re great on top of grain bowls, in noodle-y soups, as an appetizer, or on their own alongside a green salad or some simply roasted veggies. And don't sleep on that salsa verde—it might just become your new favorite put-on-everything sauce.

Whether it's an appetizer for a casual gathering or a part of the spread for a special event, our Caramelized Onion Dip is always a welcome hit. Made by slowly caramelizing several yellow onions before mixing them into a handful of other ingredients, this dip is as delicious as it is simple. The key is to cook the onions over medium heat until they're translucent before reducing the heat to until they're brown. This is different than the browning that takes place when onions come in contact with a very hot surface. Rather than sizzling and creating a crusty brown exterior to the onions, this slow browning happens as the sugars in the onion caramelize, becoming richer and sweeter. The result is a pot of onions that are very soft and almost liquid. After the onions are finished, the hard work is done. All that's left is to create a smooth, tangy base from cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce. Fold in the onions, and the dip is ready to serve.

It's actually a version of spaghetti Pomodoro (or fettucine pomodoro), which is a tomato sauce that has super finely diced, or crushed tomatoes in it. It's been around forever, in various forms, and it's an absolute classic. I tested a couple different versions of this sauce, but I can tell you his tip to make sure you blend the oil, basil, garlic and hot pepper flakes (instead of straining them out) is on point, and totally the way to go.

Real cocktail pros might throw their coupe glasses at me, but I love a dirty martini. Actually, some might say I love a glass of olive brine with some gin and vermouth in it. It might not be the best way to taste the liquors, but it’s the king of savory cocktails in my book. As I’ve refined my version of the cocktail, I’ve discovered that adding a pinch of umami-boosting MSG is the secret to making a dirty martini taste even dirtier. I once used olive brine from a jar of olives that was seasoned with MSG and it blew my mind, so now I always add a sprinkle. I’ve also seen bartenders adding it to regular martinis and plenty of other cocktails.

Made with semolina, these thick flatbreads have a texture somewhere between cornbread and an English muffin. They get a rich flavor from butter and yogurt mixed into the dough. The flatbreads can be sweet (they pair well with jam) or savory (serve them with our tagine). Or try them with drizzled honey-thyme butter. Harcha are best served warm, straight from the skillet.

This classic sauce takes its spiciness from black pepper and dried chiles and its depth of flavor from guanciale, Italian salt-cured pork jowl. If you can't find it, use pancetta, which is available at better supermarkets.

The universal appeal of shrimp scampi, frankly, isn’t the shrimp but the pan sauce: garlicky butter lightened with white wine and bursts of lemon, parsley and red-pepper flakes. Scampi is often tossed with pasta or served with crusty bread, but this version instead uses quick-cooking orzo. It simmers directly in the pan sauce, imparting a starchy gloss — and soaking up the garlicky scampi flavors. Toss the shrimp with some garlic, lemon zest and red-pepper flakes to marinate while the pasta gets a head start on the stove, then simply toss the shrimp on top of the orzo to steam. It all comes together in a flash, and feels effortless. Pair this dish with Caesar salad, steamed broccoli or arugula, or bask in its simple comfort, straight from a spoon.

This chicken with moutarde, or Dijon mustard, is a fantastically easy and delicious dish made with onions, white wine, and heavy cream. Your family will feel like they've had a meal made by an impressive French-inspired chef. Serve with rice, pasta, or crunchy French baguettes.

"Part of what makes this cook so quickly is that our meat is nice and thin," says Nicole. If you're starting with whole breasts, simply slice the larger end into halves and keep the smaller portion uncut. Pounding the meat with a mallet helps to keep things even. Place plastic wrap over the chicken to avoid tearing and strike until all of the pieces are evenly thin. No mallet on hand? A small skillet or rolling pin works just as well. Test if your chicken is done by gently pressing down on the breast with your finger. "If it's firm, it's likely done,” according to Nicole.