Ground Beef

There are many flavors of sharp Cheddar out in today’s markets to choose from, so go plain or go wild! Among the choices out there in sharp Cheddars: five-peppercorn, smoked, dill, garlic and herb, roasted garlic, horseradish, chipotle, habanero, jalapeño—on and on!

Easier than lasagna, because it’s not lasagna, this pasta, meat sauce, and ricotta toss-up is just as hearty and comforting as the layered Italian fave, but it’s ready in a fraction of the time and with much less effort. Serve with a simple green salad dressed with oil and vinegar.

When I made my annual Christmas Pasta for the holiday this year we discovered that both my mom and I had shopped for the ingredients, so we had lots of leftover hot and sweet sausage and ground beef in the fridge. The next day, this recipe was born.

Italian-style Sloppy Joes—get it? Hah! I kill me! Funny! Well, I thought so, anyway . . .

French bread pizza from Stouffer’s was my favorite frozen food as a kid. Now that I’m all grown up I make my own, because I can overstuff them. (My appetite grew, too.)

When you’re watching the big game it’s important to have some smashmouth, tough-guy food like this.

Bacon—what’s not to like? It’s smoky flavored salt and fat! Yum-o! In fact, the only way to improve on bacon is to wrap it up with beef and top it with cheese, then open wide! You gotta be more hungry than tired for this one!

A friend recommended that I add a little fresh dill and lime juice to my regular Bloody Mary concoction. I gave it a shot and it was great! The dill and lime punched up all the flavors without taking them over. I’ve applied that trick to these burgers.

Eat this meal in front of the TV. Invite Clint Eastwood and the cast of your favorite spaghetti western (mine’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly).

Here’s another one of my Better Burgers. This one comes out looking so impressive. I would serve it even when I entertain (were I not so exhausted!).

I make this dinner every Christmas. I have included it in other books, but I cannot finish any year without it. I have made some small improvements in the recipe over the years, so it’s faster and easier to make than ever. You can eat it all year long as do I. For Italians, after all those fishes on Christmas Eve, this dish, with four different meats in it, is especially nice on Christmas night. This is the greatest gift I can give to myself and those I love: a big bowl of pasta with the works. Have a great year! Serve with tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad (the colors of the season and the Italian flag).

Serve with steamed broccoli or asparagus.

Brad is one of my husband John’s closest friends and fast becoming one of mine. He makes any situation into a party. He also claims to make the best burgers. Being Queen of burgers, I have taken him to task on this, but he never gives up the recipe. This is a tribute burger, for Brad. Brad loves to make burgers with condiments mixed into them. This one tastes like it’s made with spicy barbecue sauce and it’s topped with beefy steak sauce. It’s very Brad. Serve with fancy flavored potato chips, any brand.

Australia has these cool meat pies made of pastry crust stuffed with a slowly simmered, finely ground meat mixture. The pies can be topped with ketchup, and man, are they good! They taste like a ritzy version of a sloppy Joe. This is my sped-up version of a down-under favorite. Serve the pies with a green salad.

I had these mini versions of stuffed cabbage, meatballs in radicchio, in Rome, near the Spanish Steps at Enotec’Antica (Ancient Wine Bar), which is a real haunt of mine when in the city. This is a total guess at their recipe, but it’s really tasty—try it, soon! It’s closer to you tonight than Rome is, I bet!

Serve with veggie sticks or oil-and-vinegar–dressed slaw.