Italian

Think of this butternut cacio e pepe recipe as pasta cacio e pepe...with sausage. It’s comfort food-y, so it could use some fresh greens and/or veggies to help balance it out. Check out step-by-step photos here.

If you don’t happen to have or particularly enjoy pastrami, bacon or pancetta would be a delicious substitute for this minestrone recipe. Check out step-by-step photos here.

These are extra saucy and a little sweet like the original SpaghettiOs, but with grown-up flavors all around.

You don’t need hours to simmer tomato sauce. This recipe shows you how to make an excellent one in 30 minutes, with 5 ingredients, in 1 pan, with very little effort.

Not the biggest fan of lamb? This hearty, soul-warming ravioli recipe will be equally successful if you use beef short ribs instead. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to shape and fill ravioli.

These are jumbo-sized ravioli, and each one envelops an egg yolk, which will run when you cut the pasta open and mingle with the pan sauce. Duh-lish!

Agnolotti is one of our favorite pasta shapes because the little pockets catch the sauce; try a variation with a simple ricotta filling and marinara sauce instead. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to make agnolotti.

This pasta dough is easy, texturally resilient, and versatile enough to form into any shape.

Getting the consistency of the creamy mushroom sauce right is key for this pasta recipe. You want to reduce it just until it clings to the pasta to create a light coating.

The genius of this pasta recipe is in the contrast of the textures and flavors. If spicy isn’t your thing, sub in any fresh sausage you like.

This all-star topper can gussy up anything: steak, roasted potatoes—even a citrus salad.

You can finish this carbonara with other seasonal vegetables, such as shredded brussels sprouts or Napa cabbage. This recipe is from Oberlin, one of the Hot 10, America's Best New Restaurants 2016.

Once you get hooked on fresh chiles, you'll want to pack them into everything you cook—including your antipasto.

This twist on the traditional Italian peperonata omits the tomatoes, but the bell peppers are hearty and colorful enough on their own. Serve as a side dish or pour over steak.

At Pietro’s, the cooks deep fry the chicken cutlets in a large, wide skillet, which allows the oil to come up to temperature very quickly and stay there once the cutlet is added. Smart, but potentially messy (it’s a lot of oil!). If you have a Dutch oven with high sides, that will minimize splatter—we’d feel rotten if you got burned.

If there is a lot of liquid in the pan when the spinach is done, drain it before adding the beans.

Add another ½ tsp. red pepper flakes if you like it fiery; omit them all if you don’t. This sauce pairs perfectly with our mozzarella sticks.

Visit an Italian deli and splurge on the cold cuts, but hit the supermarket for everything else, including the not-too-crusty rolls that are usually loaded into bins in the bakery section.

Puntarelle refers to the bitter inner stalks of the Catalonian chicory (Belgian endive and radicchio are close cousins). Reserve the white stalks for another use—they’re great in a crunchy salad.

Though it can be made with other small plums, this cake is the tastiest with the Italian variety—but keep in mind that they are in their peak season only a few weeks a year, in late summer to early fall.