Tomato

While this easy curry is super satisfying served over rice or with naan, we wrapped it in some leftover crepes for a convincing dosa-like experience.

Rethink comfort food with kimchi—a type of spicy Korean sauerkraut—which makes this slow-cooked, tomatoey braise tangy, spicy, and deeply flavorful.

This riff on a classic cassoulet skips most of the exotic ingredients and elaborate preparation but still delivers deep rich flavor.

This fast one-pot dinner is rich enough to comfort, but light enough that it won’t weigh you down.

This is probably the most famous lentil dish coming out of India—yellow lentils tempered with spices and the usual holy trinity of garlic, ginger and chile. It has always been a favorite of mine and it would grace our family dinner table at least once a week when I was growing up. There are lots of different recipes for flavoring the oil (tadka), so play around with your spice pantry and see what you come up with. If you don’t have half of these spices, then don’t worry; just add a tablespoon of your favorite spice paste and it will taste just as delicious.

For Super Bowl 50, go all-out with our epic 50-ingredient nachos, or choose just one of the (much-simpler) five “zones” to make for game day.

Don’t toss out your Parmesan rind. Use it to flavor the beans and broth for this comforting classic.

We like the combo of spicy and sweet Italian sausage, but use any uncooked sausage you like—merguez or chorizo would work.

Meet the most creamy, comforting, flavor-packed baked pasta dinner you can make without any actual pasta.

This quick-cooking version of the street-food favorite features chicken that is crisp on the outside yet moist and juicy on the inside.

This subtly flavored salad really celebrates the chickpea, which is an excellent source of fiber, protein and iron, and perfect for keeping us going on busy days.

I like this one because it's a one-pan dish—you will need a pan with a lid. You can use a can of tomatoes instead of making the purée if you wish, but puréeing the tomatoes produces a better result. You don't need to be precise with the quantities for this dish at all—a handful of cherry tomatoes, add some onion, etc. The important thing is to have the lid to keep in steam and heat so you get a very nice lightly cooked fish. You don't want to overcook it. I've used hake but you can use any white fish like cod, sea bass, halibut or even salmon. It's simple but tasty, and the kind of thing you could easily rustle up for yourself or friends. You can use any green veg but it works well with fennel—sautéed in a pan or slow-baked, or added to the pan and cooked with the fish and tomatoes. This is a great one for a novice cook.

It's hard not to love this classic Italian pasta—it's just the right mix of spicy and sweet.

Smoky ancho chiles add heft to the beef meatballs in this recipe, which are topped with addictively crispy crumbled chorizo just before serving.

Think of this as Indian-spiced ketchup, and use it in all the same ways.