5 Ingredients or Fewer

While the chicken roasts (it only takes about 30 minutes), prepare one of these sauces to dress it up, or simply serve with mashed potatoes and gravy prepared with the pan drippings.

Roast chicken is a simple but perfect dish when convection roasted: the meat is juicy and the skin is brown and crisp. I reach for fresh herbs in the summertime or dried ones in the winter and a bit of butter, then slip them under the breast skin before baking. When there’s absolutely no time, I just put the chicken in the oven. Be sure to place the chicken on a rack above a shallow roasting pan for perfect air circulation. To turn this into a one-dish meal, add some vegetables—carrot chunks, potato cubes, onion wedges, fennel sticks, cut-up zucchini, or anything in season. Roast them in a single layer in a shallow baking pan beneath the chicken. Following this basic recipe, I give my favorite variations.

Tender, juicy pork tenderloins cook as quickly as boneless chicken breasts.

This is a simple and tasty way to grill boneless pork chops, and you can roast vegetables at the same time by placing them in a pan on the rack beneath the meat.

These ribs are rubbed with an oil and spice mixture. They cook to tender perfection in less than an hour in the convection oven.

Leg of lamb is a traditional Easter and Passover dish, but it makes a wonderful company meal any time.

So simple, yet so flavorful. These lamb chops roast to medium-rare in 8 to 10 minutes in the convection oven. Lamb chops are difficult to probe with a thermometer because they are so small. You can cut one to determine doneness.

Boneless leg of lamb is versatile and easy to prepare. One of my favorite and easiest rubs for lamb combines the flavors of garlic and rosemary.

This is definitely a special-occasion meal, but it is so easy to do, and you can “grill” it all year round! I like to use ridged cast-iron grill pans to do everything from hamburgers to tenderloin steaks. I preheat the pan in the oven using the regular bake setting. Once it’s preheated, I set the oven to convection roast or convection broil and use tongs to transfer the meat to the hot grill pan. Turn it over halfway through cooking to get grill marks on both sides. At the same time I bake thick-cut potatoes in a roasting pan on a lower oven rack. Add a simple green salad to the menu and serve with crusty bread.

This is definitely a special-occasion cut of meat, but there is absolutely no better way to cook it than in the convection oven. Cooking time will be reduced by one-third to one-half to achieve the doneness you prefer. Use the probe that comes with your oven, or follow the timing and check doneness with a meat thermometer inserted into the roast or with an instant-read thermometer.

Roast beef tenderloin is a special-occasion meat even though it is about the simplest cut to prepare. Here’s the basic method plus a wonderful variation.

The rib eye is the prime rib of beef minus the bones. It is usually trimmed and tied. I prefer the roast taken from the small end of the loin. In the convection oven, the roast cooks in one-third to one-half the time it takes in a conventional oven. If your oven has a probe, use it for accurate timing.

Roasted garlic becomes sweet, losing the sharp pungency that makes raw garlic so powerful. You can spread roasted garlic like butter on bread or vegetables. Add it to soups, sauces, and dressings, or smear it onto a pizza. You can roast a number of whole heads at one time.

If you make this ahead of time, keep it refrigerated but bring it to room temperature before serving.

This is a great quick snack or appetizer. To make it a bit heartier, add more toppings like chopped green onions, diced peppers, bits of sausage, or additional cheese.

The difference between marinara sauce and tomato sauce is this: Marinara is a quick sauce, seasoned only with garlic, pepper, and, if you like, basil or oregano. The pieces of tomato are left chunky, and the texture of the finished sauce is fairly loose. Tomato sauce, on the other hand, is a more complex affair, starting with puréed tomatoes and seasoned with onion, carrot, celery, and bay leaf, and left to simmer until thickened and rich in flavor. Make this sauce with fresh tomatoes only when the juiciest, most flavorful ripe tomatoes are available. (Increase the amount of olive oil a little if you make the sauce with fresh tomatoes.) Otherwise, canned plum tomatoes make a delicious marinara sauce.

Small ditalini and well-cooked broccoli di rape are all you need to make a delicious, warm, nourishing, and comforting dish—moist and almost soupy in consistency. Of course, you need the basic seasoning of the Basilicata cook, too: olive oil, garlic, lots of peperoncino, and pecorino. If you feel the need to add more to this simple dish, slivers of chicken breast can cook right in the pot with the ditalini and will give a meaty substance. Another natural addition would be cubes of provola just before serving (see Wedding Soup, page 299, for tips on adding provola to a soupy dish).

I love this simple method for cooking whole octopus so it explodes with flavor. You just put it in a heavy pan and let it cook very slowly (with only olive oil, sliced onions, and olives to season it) for a couple of hours. As it cooks, it releases all of its natural, tasty water, which serves as a braising liquid. Though the meat loses some volume, its flavor is retained in the liquid, which naturally cooks into a great dressing for spaghetti or other pasta. In this recipe, the meat is cut into chunks that are tossed with the spaghetti and cooking juices. For a special occasion, though, you can serve the whole octopus, uncut (or two smaller octopuses, as called for here). If you dress the spaghetti with the juices alone and set the octopus on top, with the tentacles curling around and under, it makes a beautiful presentation. You can also serve this delectable cephalopod—either whole or cut into pieces—over freshly cooked soft polenta or slabs of grilled polenta. And any leftover octopus meat or sauce can be incorporated into a terrific risotto; with so much flavor in them, just a small amount of leftovers is all you’ll need to make a great risotto for two.