Recipe Sifter

Capellini with burst cherry tomato sauce, garlic, olives, red pepper flakes, and Parmesan. A quick Italian pasta dinner with a fresh, jammy sauce in under 40 minutes.

Southwestern crab meat soufflé with Monterey Jack, green chiles, corn, cottage cheese, and a hint of curry. A savory egg bake that serves 12 for brunch or dinner.

Lighter crab stroganoff with mushrooms, sherry, and nonfat sour cream over spinach noodles. All the creamy, savory comfort of classic stroganoff with less guilt.

Hungarian Christmas bread (makos beigli-inspired loaf): a buttery, lemon-scented yeast bread with a sweet poppy seed and raisin filling. A bread-machine shortcut for the holidays.

Mint macaroons with shredded coconut, chocolate chips, and peppermint extract in a crispy meringue base. Naturally gluten-free and light as air. Makes about 4 dozen.

Hearty Caribbean stew with browned chicken, cubed pork, sweet potatoes, and bananas simmered in a spiced tomato broth with thyme, cloves, and coconut.

Slice-and-bake coffee cookies with brown sugar, rum extract, and nutmeg. Roll the logs in chocolate sprinkles or dip baked cookies in melted chocolate. Makes about 60.

A silky British-style soup pairing ripe tomatoes with tart cooking apples, simmered in stock and pureed velvet-smooth. Equally lovely hot with a swirl of cream and snipped chives, or chilled on a warm summer afternoon.

Linguine with scallops in a reduced white wine and chicken broth sauce with capers, lemon, dill, and parsley. A light, low-calorie seafood pasta.

Low-fat berry trifle layered with raspberry gelatin, blueberry pie filling, orange-soaked angel food cake, and vanilla pudding. A no-bake dessert that chills in under an hour.

Blintz souffle layers a cream cheese and cottage cheese filling inside a puffy orange-scented batter, baked golden and served with warm blueberry sauce. A Jewish brunch classic.

Alicante-style paella with diced pork, young artichokes, green peppers, saffron, and rice cooked dry with separate grains. A traditional Spanish rice dish from the Costa Blanca region.

Chewy peanut butter bars stacked in three layers: a buttery cookie base, a gooey marshmallow middle, and a crunchy peanut butter, rice cereal, and peanut topping. A potluck and bake-sale crowd-pleaser.

A decadent and delicious Passover layer cake. The center is filled with apricot preserves and the cake frosted with a rich whipped chocolate frosting.

This traditional Irish soda bread studded with plump raisins and fragrant caraway seeds bakes up golden and crusty on the outside, tender and cake-like on the inside, no yeast required.

Moist chocolate oatmeal cake topped with a boiled coconut-pecan frosting. The oats soak in boiling water first, creating an incredibly tender, fudgy crumb.