Dairy

The key to crispy nachos is to limit the number of ingredients that go into the oven with the chips. These start with three essential ingredients: a dollop of homemade pinto bean dip, sliced jalapeños, and plenty of grated cheddar.

"Spicy, vibrant watermelon radishes need little more than lemon and herbs to make magic with salty burrata." –Alison Roman, senior associate food editor

No disrespect to the frozen tots these are based on, but making your own is way more fun than opening a bag (and they taste better, too).

You could use any melting cheese in this recipe, such as a sharp cheddar, fontina, or Gruyère—in which case, just call them "Cheesy Grits."

Pizza rustica looks nothing like the Neopolitan-style pizzas we know so well in this country. That's because pizza in Italian means pie and not all Italian pies are made with a bread dough. Pizza rusticas tend to be double-crusted affairs enclosing a mixture of cheese and nuggets of various cured meats and sausages. With its rich filling, pizza rustica is often served at Easter as a way to celebrate after the lean eating during Lent. In this version, author Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez makes an open-faced pizza rustica.

Selling skeptics on the idea of a vegetarian dinner is easy when it's in pie form. Maitake mushrooms add heft.

Chef Nemo Bolin at Cook & Brown Public House in Providence, RI, turned us on to the technique for this streamlined, no-knead gnocchi dough.

A confection similar in flavor to caramelized white chocolate. Tangy buttermilk tempers the sweetness.

Ask anybody's nonna: Making Sunday sauce is not an exact science. You can use other meats—like thick pork chops or short ribs—in place of or in addition to the ones listed here.

Mary Fitzgerald, Wexford: Gardener and internet enthusiast Three generations of my family have eaten this dish: we used to make it to use up my father's seasonal harvest of spinach. I now grow spinach in my own garden, along with everything from sorrel and runner-beans to beetroot and rhubarb, and make this pie regularly.

Now you can easily make one of your favorite rice dishes from the Indian restaurant. And all it takes is 15 minutes!

Connie McEvoy, Louth: Retired farmer and craft expert As the eldest of ten, from the age of 12 I would make several cakes of this wheaten bread every Saturday based on my grandmother's recipe. We always mixed it by hand and I still measure it by hand, using four large fistfuls of wholemeal flour and two smaller fistfuls of plain flour.

Cabbage is my new favorite vegetable chip—especially sprinkled with toasted caraway and dipped in yogurt.