Canned Tomato

Americans enjoyed most of the food at the scores of Italian restaurants that opened in the twenties, but they couldn't understand the appeal of spaghetti and tomato sauce: Where was the meat? To accommodate, the restaurants began to top the pasta with meatballs. This recipe takes the dish a step further by adding the Sicilian flavors of pine nuts and currants.

Braised pork shoulder, spicy Italian sausage, and pancetta enrich the tomato sauce. Dried crushed red pepper kicks up the heat.

Start with hearts of romaine topped with balsamic dressing and diced feta cheese, and pass whole grain bread. Have chocolate cupcakes afterward.

Loaded with vegetables and topped with Parmesan cheese, this will satisfy the biggest hunger on the coldest winter night.

Turn your leftover turkey into a warming, crowd-pleasing chili for dinner tonight.

Pass warm biscuits, or stick with tradition and mound some cooked white rice in the center of each bowl of soup. For a nice go-with, toss shredded lettuce with artichoke hearts, sliced mushrooms and creamy buttermilk dressing. Stay with the southern theme by ending with pecan pie.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A century ago, spicy English mustards like Colman's were too pungent for American tastes, even in small quantities: Back then, mustard was used only in salad dressings. George French came along in 1904 with a formula for a milder condiment he called French’s Cream Salad Mustard. Eventually slathered on everything from bologna sandwiches to soft pretzels, French’s mustard is also delicious in this barbecue sauce.

An adaptation of a recipe from Mexican Light Cooking by our friend Kathi Long, a chef and author in Santa Fe.

Curry powder, cumin, and cinnamon give this dish a hint of the exotic.

Some soups genuinely do inspire a devotion akin to love, and this is one of them. In the cold of winter, when Gourmet editors ponder the matter of what soup to cook up in a steamy Saturday morning kitchen to provide comfort all weekend long, they decide with remarkable frequency to make the following one. Those in the know also add about a pound of smoked sausage; even the best can be made better.