Sauces recipes

Slow-baked chickpeas in tomato sauce with bacon, molasses, brown sugar, and dry mustard. A hearty from-scratch baked bean recipe using garbanzo beans instead of navy beans.

Tortellini tossed in a silky crème fraîche sauce with sautéed courgette, herb cheese, marjoram, and garlic. A cozy dinner for two that's on the table in 30 minutes.

Have you ever seen a ling cod? They are almost primeval looking - huge, gaping mouths with very sharp teeth. As with any fish, the most important factor for how good it tastes is its freshness. I picked up this fillet at my local fish market where they told me that the ling cod had just come in that morning. With the lemon-garlic butter sauce it was divine.

Slow cooker lamb chops in orange-honey sauce with fresh orange zest. Browned rib chops braised low and slow for 6 to 8 hours until fall-apart tender.

Pan-seared chicken breasts get draped in a tangy mustard sauce with dry sherry and a creamy ricotta-yogurt finish. All the richness of a cream sauce with half the guilt.

North Indian almond pistachio saffron curry sauce with dry-roasted nuts, cardamom, mace, and heavy cream simmered into a luxurious, golden coating for grilled meats and chicken.

One-skillet pasta twists with ground beef, garden vegetables, spaghetti sauce, and melted mozzarella. Everything cooks together in under 30 minutes.

Chicken and spaghetti bake in tomato sauce in one Dutch oven, with the pasta cooking right in the sauce. Saves a pot, picks up serious flavor, family-style classic.

Herbed roasted salmon with vegetables and lemon chive sauce: whole fillet marinated in garlic, rosemary, thyme, and parsley, roasted alongside potatoes, carrots, corn, zucchini, and peppers. Sheet-pan elegance.

Shrimp in lobster sauce, the classic Cantonese takeout dish: egg-white-marinated shrimp tossed with ground pork, fermented black beans, garlic, ginger, and silky egg ribbons. No lobster, all flavor.

Spaghetti and clam sauce: a classic Italian-American pantry pasta with canned clams, garlic, olive oil, and herbs tossed with spaghetti. Ready in 20 minutes.

Sweetbreads poached with onion, shallot, thyme, and bay, then finished in cream and veal stock. A New York masterchef ravioli sauce built on luxury offal.

Artichoke pasta sauce: canned artichoke hearts simmered with garlic, fresh tomatoes, onion, and basil into a chunky vegetable sauce. Vegetarian, light, ready in under 35 minutes.

Shrimp spaghetti in a slow-simmered tomato sauce with garlic, basil, oregano, and a surprising kick of horseradish. A seafood pasta with depth you won't find in jarred sauce.

Orzo with fresh tomato sauce: rice-shaped pasta tossed with quickly cooked summer tomatoes, garlic, basil, and red pepper flakes. Ready in 20 minutes.

Pan-fried fish fillets in a Latin-style island sauce with tomatoes, olives, green pepper, vinegar, and bay leaf. A Veracruz-inspired one-pan dinner.