Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez

This one-pot dinner has lots of things kids love—chicken, peas, and rice—while saffron gives the medley adult appeal.

As this cake bakes, it separates into a soufflé-like layer on top and citrusy pudding on the bottom. While it's not really magic, it certainly looks and tastes like it.

Mayonnaise with lemon and thyme gives both extra freshness and a golden-brown crust to delicate, slightly sweet pollock.

We're taking the highway to French elegance with these stacked desserts. Unsweetened whipped cream is a wonderful foil for gooey caramelized pears and flaky puff pastry.

Far from being a culinary museum piece, the pressure cooker deserves a place in the 21st-century kitchen. One reason: You can make this hearty Italian meal of incredibly tender lamb with vegetables and saucy beans in about an hour.

Food editor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez's grandmother used to serve tender green beans tossed with mashed potatoes—so this is straight from Nonna's kitchen.

Here, we pepped up the fail-safe brunch combination of bacon, egg, and cheese by adding handfuls of flavorful sautéed arugula. They'll be jumping out of bed for this one.

This homey soup—a piquant start to a satisfying Mexican-style dinner of tacos or enchiladas, or a main dish when paired with a grilled cheese sandwich and a salad—gets its fire from a chopped jalapeño.

Crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside, this pork tenderloin gets sultry flavor from smoked paprika, almonds, and Madeira.

For a substantial vegetarian spin on köfte(a kind of Middle Eastern meatball), we beefed up grated zucchini with fresh herbs and mashed chickpeas. The accompanying pilaf, which uses both beets and their greens, is brilliantly colored and gets a joyous crunch from slivered almonds.

You'll turn up your nose at plain old chocolate chip ice cream once you try this cool, stracciatella-flavored concoction—stracciatella being a vanilla-flavored cream with thin ribbons or chips of chocolate (which melt on the tongue) running through it. The stracciatella cream fills this semifreddo-like cake, which also shines with a toasted-almond cookie-crumb base, a toasted-almond topping, and a drizzle of espresso fudge sauce.

Small pasta like acini di pepe and orzo make wonderful room-temperature salads, since they mix so thoroughly with the other ingredients and never go stiff. Garlic, olives, and chile flakes lend a lot of zip to this quick side dish you'll come back to all summer.

Tossing hot vegetables with vinaigrette is the best way to get them to soak it up, and artichokes straight off the grill are no exception. Mint and capers is a combination that flatters artichokes° and somehow, with the added grill flavor, the effect is doubled here.

We were bowled over by Miraglia Eriquez's mother's method for grilled breaded chops—it truly combines the best of both worlds, with the crumbs toasting and crisping up while taking on a hint of smoke. Meanwhile, the meat inside couldn't be juicier. A light, peppery salad gives the chops a freshness that tastes just right at a cookout.