Capellini

The pasta absorbs the flavor of the broth as it cooks, and the pasta starches thicken the liquid to a lip-smacking consistency.

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Fifteen minutes is all it takes to get this dish on the table and you’ll find everything you need in the pantry or in the freezer—no need to shop! It has a very concentrated tomatoey flavor that I find appealing.

Flavored oils are a pantry staple for me. They add instant flavor, whether I’m making a dressing, a marinade, or a topping for pasta. Chili oil is my favorite because it adds a kick that wakes up your taste buds.

I love the intensely sweet, chewy flavor of sun-dried tomatoes, and mixed with tomato paste they create a sauce with a very concentrated flavor that doesn’t require the long cooking of a traditional tomato sauce. Softened with a bit of goat cheese, this is a creamy sauce that just barely coats the pasta without weighing it down.

This is a great dish to serve at an informal lunch or dinner party. Set out all the ingredients, and let your guests assemble their own bundles. Store-bought roasted duck or chicken can be used; skip step 2.

Store-bought curry paste is a handy shortcut for preparing Thai- and Indian-style dishes at home. Here, just one tablespoon adds the characteristic color and flavor to beef and noodles. Look for the paste near other Asian ingredients in the supermarket.

POACHING SEAFOOD IN OIL locks in its moisture and produces tender, juicy results. Here, adding fresh red snapper along with the prawns adds a textural contrast, but you could use either one, doubling the quantity. The oil from the poached seafood makes a flavorful sauce when studded with basil, tomatoes, and lemon zest. Delicate capellini, also known as angel hair pasta, rounds out an easy summer lunch or light supper.

Pistou is a garlic-basil paste almost identical to pesto—the names in fact are the same, just in different dialects. In France it’s used less to dress pasta than to thicken soups while heightening their flavor. Pistou is usually passed at the table so your guests can add as much as they like.

My friend Domenica Marchetti knows her pasta. She’s the author of several fantastic books on Italian cooking, but the latest, The Glorious Pastas of Italy, is probably the closest to her heart, so I had to ask her what kind of dish this mother and wife might make for herself on a night she’s alone. She picked something that she grew up with, that her family made just once a year as part of the traditional Italian “feast of the seven fishes” on Christmas Eve. It dawned on her that she didn’t need to wait for the holidays to make it, and now, neither do I. It’s right up my alley. In fact, the day she sent me the recipe, I looked in my fridge and pantry to confirm I had every single ingredient on hand. I couldn’t help but smile; dinner was sealed, deliciously.

The secret to this cool, summertime dish? Steaming the chicken. When you steam chicken, it stays moist and juicy even if you serve it cold. And caramelizing the skin beforehand adds lots of wonderful flavor. These are both techniques I borrow from Chinese cuisine. The angel hair pasta in this dish plays the same role as somen noodles: not too chewy or overwhelming when enjoyed cold.

This fantastically easy recipe utilizes bottled sun-dried tomato pesto to cut your prep time.

I prefer “jumbo lump” crabmeat picked from blue-claw crabs for this recipe. If you can’t find that, substitute “lump” crabmeat—smaller pieces from the same species of crab—or chunks of king-crab meat. Avoid fine-textured crabmeat, like snow crab or spider crab.

Sweet and salty food . . . I can eat it at the same time? I’m there. How about you?

The addition of the sweet vermouth here punctuates the natural sweetness of the canned tomatoes, making this quick sauce taste as if it's been simmered for hours.

This dish focuses on the goodness of ripe tomatoes, letting them be just what they're meant to be — wonderful.