Pasta

"I’m a pasta fiend, and I love to create sauces, especially when they include my favorite vegetable, red bell pepper," writes Dawn Kleinman of Denver, Colorado. "This recipe won a local contest and continues to receive compliments from everyone who tries it."

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Nudies? In Florentine dialect they’re called gnudi, nudies, poking fun at a dish from the Casentino, a neighboring area that makes their greens and ricotta gnocchi with the same filling Florentines use for ravioli. Nudies because they’re not wearing pasta. Pronounced YNOO-dees. Spinach is used in Florence but wild greens are common in the mountainous Casentino. And ravioli are stuffed with wild greens in many regional recipes. Use wild greens if you can get them, otherwise use chard or spinach, whichever is fresh and tender. Traditionalists may want to search for sheep’s milk ricotta, which yields richer results, but everyone else can get by with whole cow’s milk ricotta. Drain watery ricotta in a metal sieve for 30 minutes if necessary. Cooks in search of a labor-intensive experience can form nudies by hand, one at a time, or use the 2-spoon French quenelle method. I prefer to pipe the mixture from a plastic bag onto a floured countertop, sprinkle the blobs with flour, and lightly roll to form walnut-sized, roughly shaped balls. Serve the nudies with melted butter or tomato or meat sauce, sprinkled with Parmigiano, and baked in the oven to melt the cheese.

This recipe, from Lord and Baroncini's cookbook, calls for simmering a small amount of tomatoes for over an hour. The result is a rich, concentrated sauce. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr

Delicious with roasted meats or chicken.

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.

With such hearty vegetables, this can easily be served as a meatless main course.

Though Rose Pascale always uses fresh octopus (sold as pulpo in many Latino markets), we found that it's generally sold frozen. You may need to special-order or reserve octopus from your local fish market several days ahead.

Stuffed pastas such as ravioli are simple to make, but it is important to keep the dough soft enough to be worked easily. Always roll out and fill 1 sheet of dough at a time, keeping the remaining dough wrapped in plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.

Residents of Maghreb use semolina to make tiny pasta pellets called kesksu in Arabic. Unlike pasta made with other types of wheat flour, pasta made from semolina does not become mushy during cooking. The old-fashioned way of making these pellets is to mix semolina flour with water, roll the dough into tiny balls, sift it over a medium-meshed wire sieve to remove any excess flour, then steam the final product over boiling water or a stew. Instant couscous, available at most supermarkets, is prepared by adding boiling water. Although not as fluffy as the classic type, it is more than acceptable for seffa and easy to prepare. Israelis make a larger form of couscous, which is lightly toasted; do not substitute for the regular type. In the Maghreb, couscous is both everyday fare—served in most households, both rich and poor, several times a week—and a food for special occasions. It is most commonly used as the base for flavorful meat, poultry, fish, or vegetable stews. For special occasions, however, it is sweetened and topped with dried fruits and nuts. Seffa is also made by mounding couscous on a platter and sprinkling sugar on top instead of stirring it. Seffa with dried fruits is a traditional Moroccan Hanukkah dish. For Rosh Hashannah, it is sprinkled with pomegranate seeds or small grapes. On Tu b'Shevat and other special occasions, it is garnished with datils rellenos (stuffed dates) and dried fruit. Moroccans prefer desserts rich and sugar, and their seffa is generally sweeter than Tunisian versions.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Saffron lends authenticity to this fragrant dish, which draws its inspiration from the paellas of Spain. Serve a green salad alongside, and uncork a bottle of Pinot Grigio.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A sophisticated dish made from an assortment of pantry staples.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Reduced-fat cream cheese, low-fat milk and water-packed canned tuna are the secrets to this updated take on a 1950s favorite.

The slight bitterness of the broccoli di rape contrasts pleasantly with the sweetness of the garlic. The pasta makes the soup more substantial.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less