Leafy Greens

Octopus comes with its own braising liquid: just put it in a pot on the stove top, turn on the heat, and a couple of inches of water will soon appear at the bottom of the pot. It is a great little secret that this dish is actually quite simple. Of course, any Neapolitan will tell you that the only octopus worth eating come from the Tyrrhenian Sea, and finding a Tyrrhenian octopus in California is a tall order. But we do have access to fresh octopus from the Pacific, which are a treat. If you cannot find fresh octopus, frozen ones are more widely available. Sometimes you will see frozen cooked octopus for sale, which are not the best option for this soup, though they will do. If you do use precooked octopus, decrease the braising time to 30 minutes and add about 2 cups water to the pot (the cooked octopus won't release sufficient liquid). And if you buy only octopus tentacles, you will also probably need to add water to the pot. Finally, I make this soup with the 4-pound specimens we get at A16, so if you can only find 2-pound octopus, you will need to buy a pair of them. Don't worry if they look large. They will shrink up as they release their water.

Editor's note: This recipe is from chef Wolfgang Puck. If you don't have a Caesar salad on your menu in California, the customers will rebel. For a zesty Provençal touch, the Caesar at Spago is served with croutons slathered with our homemade tapenade. When you can find baby romaine, use it. If you can't, trim the outer leaves of the larger variety and, if necessary, break them into bite-size strips.

Adding Sherry wine vinegar and herbs at the end of cooking this vegetable stew makes the pure flavors shine even brighter.

The peppery watercress and tangy onion are balanced by the sweet richness of the braised figs. It takes eight hours to pickle the onion, so be sure to plan ahead.

Roasted root vegetables and spicy greens complete the meal.

The tall, crisped "chips" look striking when bunched in a tumbler, and they're terrific with cocktails. Roasting the leaves coaxes out a nutty, briny flavor that's kind of addictive.

Sweet-and-spicy hoisin sauce is available in the Asian foods section of many supermarkets and at Asian markets.

In a surprising twist, Tuscan kale is served raw—and makes for a substantial and satisfying winter salad. Be sure to choose bunches of Tuscan kale with small leaves, which are more tender.

When purchasing rack of lamb, ask your butcher to remove the chine bone as well as any excess surface fat and to "french" or clean, the rib bones. To create a really flavorful spice coating for the lamb, Hayden recommends using high-quality coffee and dark, strong Valrhona cocoa. For the salad, Fleming likes to use a spicy Tuscan olive oil to give the vinaigrette an extra kick of flavor.

The beans need to soak overnight.

This comforting, risotto-like take on kale makes a great vegetarian entrée, and it's also good topped with a piece of roasted salmon fillet. Farro is also known as emmer wheat. Be sure to buy semi-pearled, or perlato, which doesn't need presoaking.

Bison meat is very lean and is best served rare or medium-rare.

Lean turkey cutlets benefit from a slightly sweet Marsala wine sauce and the twofold richness of prosciutto and Italian Fontina.

Despite her pride in her cultural heritage, Miraglia Eriquez says: "I gotta be honest, some Italians are known for cooking vegetables to death, and I like to keep my greens green." So she boils chicory for only a few minutes to tame its bitterness, then sautés it briefly, keeping the leaves fresh and slightly crisp. This simple, light side dish is great with the hearty ragù -coated pasta.

Polenta makes a supercrisp coating for panfried chicken breasts. Here, it's crowned with wilted escarole and dressed with a bright and briny sauce.

In the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, lasagne bolognese is usually made with a besciamella sauce. Italian-American cooks often replace that time-consuming step with ricotta. In this wickedly good interpretation, food editor Melissa Roberts combines the two traditions by whisking milk into some of the ricotta, creating a billowy pseudo-besciamella (the remaining ricotta mixture is stirred together with spinach). We rarely call for specific brands, but we did find that widely available Barilla no-boil dried noodles produced an exemplary lasagne. An egg pasta, this one comes very close to the flavor and delicacy of homemade.

In the waste-not mentality of Italian cucina povera, panfried patties made with eggs and bread crumbs are a great use for leftover eggplant parmigiana ingredients. In fact, the patties are so incredibly delicious that we made them the crisp showstoppers in this fun reconstruction.

Patience is the key to this soul-satisfying soup chock-full of winter greens. Its depth of flavor comes from cooking the soffritto—a mixture of pancetta, onion, celery, carrots, and the ribs from the chard—for a good 45 minutes and from browning the tomato paste. The result is so savory that there's no need for broth; water, canned tomatoes, and a parmesan rind work beautifully. And because this soup must cook slowly, don't worry about prepping all your vegetables before you begin—you can simply chop as you go.

Sweet nibbles of butternut squash temper the bitter edge of radicchio in every bite of this healthful, satisfying pasta.