54 mostly recipes

Sharp cheddar, butter-glazed apples with brown sugar and warm spices, plus breakfast sausage on a crispy pizza crust. Vermont breakfast pizza is brunch at its most indulgent.

Swiss kuttle soup from Ticino: a rustic Alpine tripe soup with carrots, leeks, celeriac, cabbage, bacon, red wine, and parmesan. Old-country comfort food at its most honest.

Vintage 1930s special cocoa cake: a tender chocolate layer cake made with bloomed cocoa, brown sugar, and cake flour. Old-fashioned recipe that beats most modern boxed mixes.

South American pork and brown lentil stew finished with firm bananas and fresh cilantro. A surprising, hearty one-pot meal where savory meets sweet in the most satisfying way.

Chocolate-spice crinkle cookies rolled in sugar with cocoa, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves. Chewy, fragrant, and lower-fat thanks to a yogurt swap for most of the butter.

Tuoni e Lampi! This rustic Italian classic pairs tender chickpeas with elbow macaroni, garlic, basil, and good olive oil. A hearty vegetarian pasta that's comfort food at its most elemental.

No-egg applesauce cake with cocoa, warm spices, raisins, and nuts. Three cups of hot applesauce replace the eggs and most of the fat for an incredibly moist, spiced sheet cake.

Fresh raspberry pie where most of the berries stay uncooked, suspended in a glossy cooked raspberry glaze in a baked crust. Bright, fresh, and barely-cooked, finished with sweetened whipped cream.

Fusilli with lentil sauce is a hearty pasta tossed in a simmered lentil, tomato, and spinach sauce with rosemary, thyme, and Parmesan. A protein-rich one-pot pasta dinner that's mostly pantry ingredients.

Slow-simmered pinto beans with smoky ham hocks, onion, and garlic. Soaked overnight and cooked low until creamy and tender, this Southern classic is comfort food at its most honest and satisfying.

When I have abundant seasonal vegetables, I love making this vegetable casserole, and most of the time I just enjoy it with a loaf of good bread. That is all you need for a good meal.

Traditional New Mexican biscohos cookies spiced with cinnamon, star anise, and cloves, then dusted with cinnamon sugar while still warm from the oven. A cherished holiday cookie that fills the kitchen with the most intoxicating aroma.

A show-stopping layered blueberry pie with a white chocolate-coated crust, cooked blueberry filling, a fluffy blueberry Bavarian cream layer, and whipped cream on top. Five layers of blueberry heaven for your most impressive dessert spread.

Golden Wardens are whole pears poached slowly in honey, white grape juice, and lemon until the syrup turns burnished and the fruit collapses to butter-soft. An English heritage dessert built for the hardest, most stubborn pears.

Oxtail is one of the most economical and most flavorful cuts of meat, and one that takes well to marinating for days in a hearty mixture of red wine, herbs, and vegetables. The longer you marinate the mixture, the more flavorful it will be, but be sure it marinates at least 3 days. Oxtail is also a fatty cut -- give yourself plenty of time to allow the stew to cook and then cool, so all the fat can be skimmed off. Serve this with thick noodles in warmed soup bowls, accompanied by a tossed salad, and of course, a robust red wine.

This relish is based on a prize-winning English recipe of more than a generation ago. It is less sweet than traditional chutneys; most of its sweetness comes not from sugar, but from apples, dates, and parsnips. I generally use Winesap apples but any well-flavored, crisp eating apple will do.