5 Ingredients or Fewer

MY FRIEND DANIELLE CENTONI, Portland, Oregon, food writer and editor of Mix magazine, showed up at a potluck one day with a roasted broccolini dish similar to this one. When I asked Danielle if she would share the recipe, she responded in a way that made me chuckle: "It's very loosey-goosey. I used what I had around." I rarely pay attention to quantities when I am throwing something together at home, either, but with Danielle's guidance—and excellent memory—we were able to piece together what she had done. The broccolini tastes great at room temperature, so you can cook it ahead of time, or you can make the mushroom sauce while the vegetables are roasting.

Clotted cream is not a part of my own traditional food culture but it is a forgotten skill in everyday cooking and is so gorgeous and so easy to make that it is really worth doing every now and then. You can make clotted cream on any stove or in a cool oven—just make sure the heat is low. Even a temperature as low as 110°F will do! It's best to use unpasteurized cream like they do in Devon and Cornwall, where clotted cream has its own appellation. You can use gently pasteurized cream, but homogenized cream or cream that has been ultra-pasteurized will not work for this recipe.

Originating in Italy, mascarpone is a mild and creamy fresh cheese with a consistency similar to soft butter or thick crème fraîche and a fat content between 70 and 75 percent. You may know it as the key ingredient in the decadent Italian dessert tiramisu. This recipe hails from Allison Hooper, award-winning cheese maker and co-owner of the notable Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery. The overnight process is virtually effortless, and the resulting cheese may very well be the best mascarpone I've ever tasted. Editor’s note: Head this way for our favorite ways to use mascarpone →

A favorite, try this versatile crunchy peanut mixture with braised-chicken-thigh lettuce wraps.

This versatile oil is a great way to bring heat to just about any dish.

Some parsnips can have a woody core, which you'll want to cut away before cooking.

An unfloured surface provides some traction, so it's easy to roll the dough very thin.

Use the best, freshest eggs you can find, and don't even think of making this dish with eggs from stressed-out battery chickens. You can taste the difference. If you can find real guanciale, so much the better. Once the eggs have been added to the pasta, do not let the pan touch the heat directly or you will wind up with scrambled eggs.

A refreshing homemade soda that can quench a thirst as well as feed a chocolate fix. Refrigerate the leftover chocolate syrup for another use.

I love doughnuts, but I really love malasadas. And ever since I visited Hawaii, I got up on this game. One day, a friend of mine showed me how he did it growing up in Oahu: take a pack of the Pillsbury biscuits and fry them, then toss them in sugar. "DUDE!!!!!!" I said. Try it and you'll see. You too will say, "DUDE!!!!!!!!!" and deplete your local grocery store of Pillsbury biscuit dough just to make these.

You can have almost no money and still have enough to live off this stuff for weeks, months, years. Eat enough and you'll start to look for ways to make it different: add a little more sauce, a little less sauce, cook the noodles less, cook them more, add more water, less water, add an egg, scramble the egg, etc. Me, I've become a freak when it comes to my instant ramen. Don't fuck wit it, don't fuck wit me, let me do my thing. This is how I do my own thing.

This is not your usual garlic-and- oil sauté: Lime pickle brings a spicy and pungent kick.

Adding onion delivers moisture; forming thicker patties prevents them from cooking too fast and drying out. Both steps are key when working with grass-fed ground beef.

You'll see fibers running through the cooked steak; make sure to cut across them for tender slices.

The salmon absorbs more teriyaki flavor as it sits, making it even better (and breakfast that much quicker) if done in advance.

This deceptively simple condiment is as addictive as pesto and as transformative as a squeeze of lemon. Spoon it onto fish, chicken, steak, roasted vegetables, or even pasta.