Mozzarella

Turn day-old bread into a masterpiece. This salad delivers all the vitamin C you need daily.

You can find many good brands of prepared tomato sauce in supermarkets. Fresh tomatoes and basil add flavor, and the sausage and red pepper bring on the heat.

Serve these South American cornmeal cakes with a side of pico de gallo or fresh corn salsa.

It's the possibilities in that blank crust that make pizza so much fun. Lately, we've been obsessed with white pizza. Brush the dough with olive oil, sprinkle with mozzarella, and then let the fun begin. Without the acidity of the tomato sauce to contend with, you can really experiment. In this version, asparagus adds freshness and a hit of color, goat cheese brings a creamy tang, and fingerling potatoes (yes, potatoes) round out the pie with their richness.

No need to call your local pizza joint. Thanks to prepared dough and bottled roasted red peppers, making your own calzones can be easy and far more satisfying.

Food editor Maggie Ruggiero was humming for weeks after enjoying a salad of fresh buffalo mozzarella, cucumber, and the Italian wheat called farro at the Manhattan restaurant Il Buco. She set about reimagining it, and her version’s accents—tender lettuce, basil, and a light, lemony dressing—beautifully complement the cheese. Since fresh mozzarella is the star here, it's essential to use the best you can find. We love the kind traditionally made in Italy from the milk of water buffalo for its custardlike texture and sweet, milky tang. Recently, some American producers have gotten in on the act as well.

These mouthwatering sandwiches are packed with zesty flavor. Wrap them up and serve at a picnic.

The sweet raisins and bits of smoky cheese studding this risotto make for an arresting contrast with the smooth, savory rice.

Freeze these for up to a month for a quick microwaveable dinner.

The secret to a great pizza Margherita is to use the best ingredients you can find—and to approach them with restraint. (Just because a little cheese is good doesn't mean a lot will be better!) We always start with our all-time favorite pizza dough, adapted from chef Chris Bianco, of Pizzeria Bianco, in Phoenix. This slightly wet dough, in conjunction with a hot pizza stone, produces a crisp yet chewy crust, the perfect canvas for bright homemade tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and verdant basil leaves.

Miraglia Eriquez's Aunt Dottie loved this indulgent appetizer, which was served at her favorite Italian-American restaurants. A talented, ambitious home cook, Dottie tinkered in her kitchen until she came up with her own version. We're glad she did. The lemon and capers in the anchovy-butter sauce cut through the richness of soft, stretchy mozzarella in a pocket of crisp fried bread.

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.

When tomatoes are at their peak, I could eat them three times a day and straight from the vine. But every once in a while, it's nice to give them a little special attention. When that time comes, this is the recipe I turn to. It's a tartlet that looks like it takes all day to make, but is really a quickie. It's warmed in the oven for such a short time that the tomatoes never lose their fresh-picked taste and texture. I serve these as a first course at dinner or with a salad as the main event at lunch.

David Burke, of David Burke at Bloomingdale’s in New York City, subs flavor for fat in every melty mouthful.

Avoid the temptation to add too many toppings; a pizza should be more bread than topping. In fact, the basic dough in this recipe may be used to prepare a delicious grilled bread as well as the base for pizza. Shape the dough as you would for individual pizzas, and then grill it over hot coals for about 2 minutes on each side, until it is blistered and browned. After the dough is turned, drizzle with olive oil and scatter it with fresh herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, or rosemary.

Who says main dishes have to be conventional? Here, prosciutto moves aside to put the cheese front and center, and an array of antipasto staples frame the crisp, gooey fried mozzarella. An aromatic anchovy vinaigrette ties it all together.