My mother-in-law Angela’s family’s version of this southern Italian classic was always a rather simple but satisfying one: tomato sauce flavoured with garlic and basil, layered with cheese (scamorza was always their favourite, but you can also use mozzarella) and, of course, ziti: long, thick tubes of pasta that my daughter likes to pretend are drumsticks – they’re very effective when beating on pots. But the way you’ll often find it alla Pugliese is with the hearty additions of lots of little polpettine (hazel-nutsized meatballs), or sometimes even slices of hard-boiled egg, sausage, prosciutto or mortadella. I like to stick to the family’s simple version with tomato, basil and scamorza for a weeknight meal, but Marco prefers it with the addition of pork and fennel sausages, crumbled then rolled into small pieces, like quick meatballs. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

These pici with butternut squash and sausage are made with a part of rye flour. The dressing is seasonal, my pièce de résistance during autumn cooking class

Fresh produce means no need to fuss.

Spinach and lentils is a very typical combination and I have got a few ways to cook them together, but this particular recipe is special. It flavours the spinach with lovely spices and coconut, making the taste unique. You can eat a bowl of this on its own, or serve it with rice.

Creole-Style Court Bouillon

Silken tofu serves as the ideal vessel for flavorful pickled tomatoes in this no-cook recipe from cookbook author Hetty McKinnon.

This Neopolitan favourite features soft spring courgettes, shallots and potato, finished off with a whirl of egg and parmesan

In this recipe from Hungarian home cook Edit Szabo Gezane, rolls are enriched with lard and pork cracklings and filled with a thick prune jam called lekvar.

A sumptuously sticky rice dish packed with autumnal flavour

One of my favorite extremely easy weeknight suppers is pasta tossed with caramelized leeks. It's so simple, but quite good. Then I just vary what type of protein I pair with it from sausage, to cheese, to scallops...the sweet, lightly briny flavor of scallops goes wonderfully with the caramelized leeks. And if you top the pasta with a couple of perfectly seared scallops, suddenly your easy weeknight supper turns into something you could serve on date night!

A fresh end of summer pesto made with the ingredients found in the garden in this season: green tomatoes and basil. To these add pine nuts, almonds and Parmigiano Reggiano.

A moreish antipasto that makes use of new-season courgettes fried in crisp batter – they’ll vanish as quickly as you can make them

Plump, juicy hominy, Mexican squash, and crema are the stars in this cozy slow-cooked casserole.

Your favorite creamy dip—but in a form you (and your kids) can happily eat for dinner. Serve with a salad of bitter greens and a bright vinaigrette.

Sauce au chien is like an exotic vinaigrette made with herbs, chiles, aromatic vegetables and lime juice. It's a lively, pungent and spicy complement ...

Based on a recipe from Eastern Shore musician William "Pooh" Johnston, these spicy pickles are a delicious accompaniment to any meal.

A Greek recipe which combines giant beans (gigantes) with a mixture of greens.

I pici con le briciole, fritte velocemente in qualche cucchiaio di buon olio d'oliva, stavano per fare un salto di qualità grazie a un po' di finocchietto..

This classic rice stew recipe includes shrimp, smoked trout and clams. Chef Sean Brock cooks the rice until crispy on the bottom, then uses it as a garnish.

Delicious and easy - a fish pie anyone can make. You'll learn how to poach fish and make a white sauce too

This warm and comforting smoked haddock kedgeree can be enjoyed for brunch, lunch or supper. It's a classic dish combining spiced rice with fish and boiled eggs.

It is not quite normal to feel as joyous as I do when saying the words “Brussels sprouts”, but this recipe does not merely use said much-denigrated ingredient, it also celebrates it. Sprouts are nutty, fresh, gorgeous, and I regard this recipe as their seasonal showcase. Not Italian, you might say. Well, my inspiration for it is the one authentically defining dish of Valtellina, in Lombardy, up towards the Swiss border. That dish is pizzoccheri, a traditional winter-warmer hotchpotch of homemade buckwheat tagliatelle, potatoes, Savoy cabbage and Taleggio or fontina cheese, baked and flavoured with sage, garlic and Parmesan. You can buy pizzoccheri in boxes, with dried short lengths of buckwheat pasta, but for me it is too gummy and tastes nothing like the pizzoccheri I’ve eaten in Italy. I thought it better to do an Anglo version and very happy I am with it indeed. If you don’t have garlic oil to hand, then add a minced garlic clove or two to the ricotta and cheese in Step 3, and in step 4 simply substitute regular olive oil. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Fried pickled okra top this summer succotash recipe from David Thomas, which showcases Maryland's summer vegetables like tomatoes, black-eyed peas, and corn tossed in a tangy fish pepper vinaigrette.

Rich, nutrient dense, sweet, savory, and spicy, this Yam Stew recipe is the ideal winter comfort food. Garnish with green onions & crushed peanuts and enjoy!

Tired of soft, heavy pasta dishes? Here, cauliflower is browned until almost nutty and tossed with whole wheat penne, walnuts, a bit of lemon, and ricotta salata for an easy, crunchy, and complex d…

You are always connected. You are constantly sharing pieces of your life. Is there an end to all of this? How is it influencing the way you live your life? a ma

This meatless main packs a nutritional punch and is great on the go.

Adapted from Trattoria Sostanza, a Florentine institution, this prosciutto-and-cheese-stuffed pasta is served in a simple chicken broth.

Porotos Granads is an Andean stew that comes from the Mapuche Indians and is a national dish of Chile. “Porotos” is Chilean for “beans” and the traditional recipe includes three types of beans. This hearty and savory variation only uses pinto beans and replaces the corn with the polenta dumplings and quinoa. *The recipe below serves 6-8 hungry diners but freezes well and is even better the next day

The combination of cavolo nero and nuts works magnificently in a winter pesto. Sturdy cavolo nero stands in for summer-y basil leaves, while a handful of almonds is a good replacement for more expensive pine nuts

The butternut squash parmigiana is a tasty gratin, the perfect substitution to eggplant parmigiana when eggplants are not in season.

This is first-time-cook simple. It channels the classic New York City bagel with smoked salmon, but you could top it with almost anything – try mortadella and torn burrata, or pretend it’s the bowl for a caesar salad. There’s only one rule: you want people gathered so they don’t miss the moment when the extravagantly puffed pancake emerges from the oven

There’s no stock in this wintry vegetarian stew recipe—it relies on the starchy bean cooking liquid for its flavor (which is a polite way of saying sorry, but you can’t use canned beans here and get the same results).

The humble, dependable turnip may surprise you with its sweet warmth.

Crowned with jam and wrapped in puff pastry, a wheel of brie turns into a gooey, irresistible treat that's an irresistible cocktail party appetizer.

My friend Jan once drunkenly asked me to cook for his dad Anton’s seventieth birthday, which I enthusiastically agreed to (also tipsy). Anton, aka Papa Florek or P Flo, grew up in Derby – his Polish father, Alfredo, had settled there after the war, when he was demobbed from the Carpathian Lancers. Sernyk, a traditional cheesecake eaten across Poland and Ukraine, was one of Anton’s childhood favourites, something that connected him to his Polish heritage, so I decided that’s what I would make. Struggling to find good-quality cottage cheese the day before, I panicked and bought ricotta, adapting my mum’s original recipe to suit the moister texture of ricotta. Happily, it was a huge success, and this cake is now also one of my son’s favourites. I hope someone will make it for him when he is seventy.

Introducing the Roman tradition of misticanza, a ‘particularly satisfying’ mixture of spring greens with potatoes, today served with pancetta or halloumi

As Nancy Harmon Jenkins wrote about this pesto pasta in the New York Times in 1997, "The most elegant pasta dish that Italian cooks have ever invented is astonishingly simple to make, especially now that pesto is made with a food processor instead of a mortar and pestle." (Although Jenkins would also like us to try pesto made by hand just once, to experience the silky texture.) In this traditional pesto pasta from the Liguria region of Italy, all of the vegetables cook along with the pasta in one pot. This shortcut is both faster than cooking the vegetables separately and makes the pasta taste better, too, as the noodles absorb some of the flavor from the vegetables as they cook. This is commonly done in Italy with all kinds of vegetables, especially greens, including tenerumi (the young leaves of a Sicilian squash) and frequently broccoli rabe. The vegetables may cook slightly differently each time you make this dish, but that’s part of the beauty of it. Rely on your gut and your own personal tastes—if you like your green beans very crisp (or they’re looking very thin and tender), add them a bit later, and so forth. Adapted slightly from The New York Times (September 17, 1997).