Recipe Sifter

Pasta in a light lemon wine sauce with thyme, dill, and Dijon mustard. A roux-based sauce using chicken broth and dry white wine instead of cream.

Copycat Chili's chicken enchilada soup thickened with masa harina and loaded with cubed chicken, crushed tomatoes, and melted American cheese. A big-batch Tex-Mex soup that feeds a crowd.

Rigatoni with thick mushroom sauce shreds portobello mushrooms straight into the pan, then reduces with garlic, broth, and red pepper for a meaty vegetarian pasta. Pan to plate in 30 minutes.

Orzo tossed with rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and fresh basil. No-oil pasta sautéed in chicken broth instead of butter. Ready in 25 minutes for an easy weeknight dinner.

Hong Kong pork stew is a slow-cooker sweet and sour pork dish with pineapple, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and green peppers. Tender pork shoulder simmers all day in a tangy molasses-pineapple sauce.

Frank-ly paella with hot dogs, cocktail franks, and salami standing in for traditional seafood, cooked with saffron rice, peppers, and tomatoes. A playful, kid-friendly spin on Spanish paella.

Grape leaves stuffed with ground lamb, rice, pine nuts, mint, parsley, cinnamon, and allspice, simmered in olive oil and lemon juice. A hearty meat-filled dolma served at room temperature.

Tuscan-style Italian cabbage soup with cannellini beans, pancetta, sage, and ham or sausage. Thickened with cornmeal for body. Rustic peasant cooking at its best.

Cabbage and lamb stew with green and red cabbage, lamb sausage, red potatoes, and Creole mustard. Rustic European-style one-pot dinner ready in an hour.

Slow-cooker poached whole chicken in herb-spiked broth, served sliced under a butter-finished cream sauce. Old-school French velouté technique done hands-off in the crockpot.

Silky chilled fennel soup, fennel simmered with shallots and garlic, pureed with lemon and dill, then blended with cool yogurt. A light, tangy, anise-kissed soup served cold as a refreshing starter.

Black bean soup built on a foundation of salt pork, ham hock, and aromatics, slow-simmered until the beans collapse, then pureed smooth and finished with sherry and wine vinegar. A Cuban-style classic that makes 16 generous servings.

Creamy Shaker chicken noodle soup with egg noodles, vermouth-butter reduction, heavy cream, and fresh tarragon. An elevated take on the classic that's rich, herby, and deeply comforting.

Posole Don Federico: a soul-warming Mexican pork and hominy stew, built on pig's feet and pork shanks for a rich broth, with green chiles, garlic, and beer. Garnished with cilantro and scallions.

Creamy curry soup with mixed seafood, mushrooms, asparagus, and green peas in a flour-thickened chicken broth finished with cream. Ready in under 20 minutes.

Hearty Portuguese soup with smoked chorizo, potatoes, kidney beans, cabbage, and tomatoes simmered in chicken broth. One-pot peasant cooking, big-flavor weekend stew.