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Meatless doesn't mean dainty. When making a veggie-centric sandwich, load up on aggressive flavors and contrasting textures, and be sure to add something substantial to sink your teeth into, like roasted vegetables, sliced hardboiled eggs, or mashed beans. This vegetarian powerhouse from Brooklyn's Saltie balances salty feta and olives with a salad-like mix of fresh herbs. Plenty of pickled, vinegary ingredients (this one uses capers and pickled beets, but any pickled veg would work) keep the full-flavored components bright.

When working with big flavors, you don't need big quantities. "There's something to be said for restraint," says chef Chris Kuziemko of Chicago's Publican Quality Meats, a butcher shop that uses house-cured meat to make incredible sandwiches. Take his lead and swap the grocery store cold cuts for a special cured meat like soppressata or prosciutto, and indulge in a quality cheese. You'll build something beautiful without having to supersize. Just be sure to balance all the bold notes: In this pulled-back panino, Kuziemko uses a sharp provolone to cut the fat and the slightly sweet flavor of the coppa, and honey to temper the spicy-bitter broccoli rabe pesto. Because when no single ingredient dominates, each one can shine.

The pork for this Southern-inspired pasta sauce is studded with garlic, which infuses the meat while it roasts.

If you've ever woken up with a hangover, you know why egg sandwiches have earned their spot in the comfort-food canon. But the day-after staple can cure your dinnertime blues, too. The necessities: a runny yolk; soft, griddled bread; and something fresh to keep the fat attack in check. Once you've nailed these basics, it's about adding a few more elements for flair. This version, from Austin's Noble Sandwich Co., uses quick-pickled onions (proof that pickles make everything taste better), Sriracha mayonnaise to bring the heat (a dash of hot sauce would also do the trick), and arugula for brightness and bite. Throw some avocado on there, or sliced ripe tomato, if you're in the mood. The point is, think savory, think seasonal, and wake up to a new reality.

The belly's thick layer of fat keeps the pork tender as it cooks. It's cooked low and slow to ensure the meat is tender, then crisped up over high heat.

Meat Todd: I took the traditional Jewish braised brisket (see The Jewish Brisket, Modernized) and added techniques from my French arsenal to come up with a modern, elegant version of this beloved meat dish. It must be made a day before you wish to serve it, but there's an extra plus with that—it lets all the flavors fully develop and frees you for other things.

Parve Although the Bible orders us to feast, the cooks in the house need food that is easy to prepare, especially on Passover eve. Mushrooms have always been a focus of Jewish food and this foragers' pie would be perfect for a pre-seder meal, when eating matzo and other flours is forbidden and the Passover meal is still hours away. This dish will also suit vegetarians as a main course for Passover.

Parve Todd: To me, gefilte fish out of a jar is an abomination, but my version, basically an interpretation of the French quenelles be brochet, is cheftastic. Choosing between the two is a no-brainer, in my opinion (see Gefilte Fish: Jarred or Fresh? below). I prefer to use rockfish, otherwise known as sea bass, for gefilte fish because it is indigenous to the Chesapeake region. I blend it with pike and flounder, but you could use any combination of the three. Any white, non-oily fish will do for that matter. I've even made them with salmon; the light pink color makes a nice change of pace. It's best to poach the fish balls a day ahead of time so they can rest in their cooking liquid for several hours. They can be eaten cold, but Ellen and I like to serve them warm—they make a great, non-meat brunch entrée.

This fresh seasonal sauce—so good you'll be glad to have leftovers—features less sugar than traditional barbecue sauces. Serve the moist, flavorful chicken on warmed burger buns. Wear rubber gloves when mincing the jalapeño so you don't burn your hands. When prepping the fresh cherries, wear a dark shirt, use a good cherry pitter, and work over two bowls: one for the pits and stems and the other for the usable flesh. Feel into the center of each cherry after pitting and de-stemming to make sure that no pit remains.

Parmigiano-Reggiano adds salty, nutty richness to this ratatouille, which rivals the best oven versions. To speed preparation, feel free to skip the first step of salting and rinsing the eggplant and zucchini (this process draws off any bitter juices). Instead, just remove any particularly seedy and brown parts of the eggplant, or use smaller Japanese eggplants (which also do not need to be peeled). For pizzazz, add chickpeas and pitted, chopped oil-cured black olives. To make this dish vegan, swap in olive oil for the butter and skip the cheese (adding olives will make up for cheese's saltiness). When reheating the polenta, add liquid (such as chicken stock or milk), then adjust the seasoning if necessary with more salt, pepper, and butter.

The Japanese are renowned for their longevity. As of 2011, their average life expectancy was 82.3 years. (The United States came in fiftieth, at 78.4 years.) Researchers often credit their diet, and this soup is my way of cramming as much of their healthy cuisine into a bowl as possible. It's called Bento Box Soup because of the traditional Japanese take-out bento box lunch, which is full of compartments, each containing a tasty treat: fish or meat, rice, pickled or cooked veggies, and other goodies. The base is a miso broth; if you're not in the know about miso, it's a salty fermented soy product that aids digestion and improves immune function. In case white miso isn't available, use any mellow (light) miso. I kicked those healing properties up a notch by infusing green tea into the broth for an extra immune boost, then added shiitakes, spinach, kombu, scallions, and tamari.

And who, pray tell, is this exotic culinary adventuress named Bella? My eight-year-old Portuguese water dog. For a long time now, she's loved carrots. She literally comes running every time she hears the carrot peeler come out of the drawer. My husband and I thought, "Hmm, that's different for a dog," and played the approving parents. Recently, she's expanded her palate to sweet potatoes. No sooner do they hit the counter than she's singing and dancing around my feet. I quarter and square off the potatoes and fling the ends at her, and she's been known to get some serious hang time as she leaps for them. Seriously, Air Bud's got nothing on Bella. Maybe she heard about how healthful sweet potatoes are: their natural sweetness is perfectly balanced with high fiber content, slowing the rush of sugar into the bloodstream, which is great for the vascular system, and for mood. My experience says that's true; whenever I make this salad, Bella's awfully happy.

I didn't think it was possible to love artichokes more than I already did until I lived in Italy. There they harvest artichokes in both spring and fall, and that abundance graces their cuisine. Artichokes also enhance their health, as they stimulate the gallbladder to produce bile, which escorts toxins out of the body and also helps break down fats in the diet. Here, artichoke hearts are combined with chicken, chickpeas, and olives to create a rich, nourishing stew, seasoned with a potpourri of heady and healthful spices, including turmeric, cumin, coriander, and mint. For a wonderful pairing, serve it over Brown Rice Pilaf with Saffron and Ginger .

Even your dude will love this skinny pie. (He can bring the beer.)

Low-cal 'shrooms up the heartiness factor of these patties, for burgers that are backyard barbecue-worthy.

This is an old favorite and was, apart form pancakes, the only way my children would eat eggs. They called them 'poofle' eggs, although I can't remember why. They are known by many other names, some more logical than others, including knothole eggs, bird’s nest, Hollywood eggs, and one-eyed Jack.

This sausage uses chicken and schmaltz, along with plentiful sage, garlic, ginger and pepper. And salt of course—sausage needs salt. My optimal salt level is 1.75 percent, so I multiply the weight of the meat (in ounces or grams) by 0.0175 to get that amount of the salt needed (also in ounces or grams). If you like less salt take it back to 1.5%. This seasoning makes a great breakfast sausage as well as an excellent grilling sausage. If you have a sausage stuffer and like to link sausage, by all means stuff this sausage into casing. I like to cook this in patties and cook them either in a sauté pan or on the grill. The schmaltz can be replaced with pork fat or pork belly, if you have access to thighs but not schmaltz, but I think it's most intensely flavored using chicken fat. I'm fanatical about keeping sausage fixings cold all the way through the making, and I'm especially crazy about it here, because chicken fat is pourable at room temperature. Thus it's important to keep everything—the fat, the meat, even the seasonings—close to frozen while you're making this. I freeze the fat, cut it in chunks and then grind it frozen. After grinding this can be mixed by hand using a stiff spatula, dough spatula or wooden spoon, but a standing mixer with the paddle attachment works best. Either way, make sure the mixing bowl is cold.

Buddha's Delight is traditionally served on the first day of Chinese New Year, a practice stemming from an old Buddhist custom of spiritual cleansing. In fact, the recipe's Cantonese name is simply jai, meaning "vegetarian food." Some ingredients, such as lily buds and bean thread noodles, may require a special trip to a Chinese market.

Lo mein is a noodle dish that often is confused with chow mein, and many Chinese restaurants further the confusion by using the two names interchangeably. The dishes are similar, both featuring noodles mixed with stir-fried meat and vegetables and a savory sauce. But whereas chow mein refers to parboiled and stir-fried noodles, lo mein refers to noodles that are fully cooked separately and quickly tossed with sauce in the wok. The roast pork in this recipe is char siu, the same gorgeous reddish-brown pork often displayed and sold in Chinatown shop windows. Instead of buying the pork ready-made, you can also roast your own at home. For the egg noodles, you can use any that are thin and round; spaghetti will also work.

Serve the salmon with raita, which gets a peppery twist from the addition of grated daikon radish.