Italian American

The dinner menu at the Terrace Dining Room in Phoenix includes this elegant selection. Orechiette, which means "little ears," is a small, round pasta that resembles-little ears.

"My father was a grilling fanatic,: Sandra says. "I remember him standing over the barbecue in a terrible rainstorm one day when he just had to have grilled chicken. He named this marinade after the village in Italy where he grew up."

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

A savory onion-cheese spread turns ordinary packaged biscuit dough into inspired mini appetizer "pizzas."

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Homemade pizza is more accessible than you think, especially if you keep a supply of dough in the freezer, and a few topping ingredients on hand. If you make small pizzas ("pizzettas"), you can individualize the toppings, and satisfy the various tastes of everyone in you household without a whole lot of extra work.

From Daniel Boulud and Alex Lee, the former executive chef at Daniel in New York.

Karla Medina of League City, Texas, writes: "At a food festival in downtown Houston, I had a sampler plate from Carmelo's Italian Restaurant. The eggplant Parmesan and spicy meatballs were very good, but the polenta was out of this world. I'd love to know how they prepared it."

Active time: 1 1/2 hr Start to finish: 2 hr

Roasted bell peppers, prosciutto, and olives are added to the classic Italian trio of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. Serve with plenty of crusty country bread.

The origin of this dish is unknown, but it's a common menu feature of many Italo-American restaurants of the red-sauce variety. In kitchen lingo, a shoemaker is a shortcutting, skillful hack; a shoemaker cobbles things, a meal, together from the meager things on hand. In Italian, scarpa translates as "shoe" and scarpariella is slang for shoemaker. The actual name for one who plies this trade is calzolaio. In Chicken Scarpariella, a spring chicken is "hacked" up in to small pieces and quickly cooked with a few common ingredients.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 30 min