Pasta recipes

Homemade Filipino-style banana ketchup simmered with raisins, tomato paste, allspice, cayenne, and dark rum. Sweet, tangy, and warmly spiced. Makes 3.5 cups and keeps for a month.

Mad Mike's chili: a no-beans, all-meat Texas-style red made with cubed round steak, V8, enchilada sauce, and a mountain of chili powder. Slow simmered three hours until thick and deep.

Beef and bean burrito casserole stacked in a slow cooker with flour tortillas, enchilada sauce, ground beef, refried beans and cheddar. Sliced into wedges and served with all the fixings.

Vegetarian Spanish rice cooked with tomato paste, bell peppers, celery, garlic, and paprika in vegetable stock. A one-pot side dish loaded with flavor.

Chana masaledar: spiced chickpeas simmered with cumin, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, fresh ginger, and garlic in a tomato-laced sauce. Vegan Indian comfort food.

Ground turkey and black bean chili: a leaner, tomato-paste-thickened weeknight chili with sweet bell peppers, carrots, chili powder, and cumin. Healthier than beef chili, just as satisfying.

Greek-style beef stew braised in red wine with cinnamon, cumin, cloves, and currants, topped with melted Muenster cheese and toasted walnuts. A warmly spiced, make-ahead casserole.

Bajan black bean soup from Barbados: dried black beans simmered with a ham hock, fragrant with allspice and lemon, finished with cream and an optional splash of dark rum. Caribbean comfort in a bowl.

Thai-style sour curry with pan-fried tofu, okra, and juicy tomatoes tossed in tangy red curry paste. Finished with bright lime and soy. Feeds six over rice in just 30 minutes.

West African chicken and groundnut stew with peanut butter, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and warm spices served over rice. A hearty one-pot meal bursting with earthy, nutty flavor.

Tuscan-style white bean and potato pie: garlic-pureed navy beans topped with caramelized onions, potatoes, and Parmesan, baked into a golden rustic torta. Vegetarian Italian main dish.

Slow-cooker two-bean corn chili with black-eyed peas, navy beans, sweet corn, and jalapenos. Vegan, dump-and-go, ready when you walk in the door.

Kahlua chili: ground beef chili spiked with coffee liqueur, served Cincinnati-style over spaghetti with cheddar and onion. The coffee-and-cocoa background note that makes it work.

Set it and forget it! This classic French Coq Au Vin slow cooker recipe transforms chicken into fork-tender magic with red wine, bacon, and earthy mushrooms.

If you're having friends over, then don't hesitate to make this hearty dish made with succulent ham, smoked sausage and hot pepper sauce.

Italian meat sauce mix is a bulk-batch freezer sauce: hot Italian sausage and ground beef slow-simmered for 8 hours with tomato puree, basil, and hidden broccoli and cauliflower florets. Makes 8 pints to stash.