Gumbo is as American a "melting pot" as could be, for it takes in all of us.

A friend asked me to recreate this dish from his time growing up near Minneapolis. So, I did.

This is a very long recipe (it can take three days to make); it is complicated, though the ingredients are commonplace; and it necessitates using only the best. That said, it is a dish that, if you’re successful in making it, will wow anyone eating it as few dishes could.

One bread pudding recipe uses any “quick bread”—such as banana bread or zucchini bread—while the other uses up stale panettone, the Italian brioche-like bread studded with dried fruit.

Way more delicious than dorm-room ramen is a close-to-scratch Homemade Ramen.

A twist on broth or stock made with a carcass saved from a turkey or chicken dinner—Vietnamese pho.

Scotch-Irish barley broth uses both lamb meat as well as corned beef.

The can opener doesn’t necessarily open a can of worms; it might open a can of possibilities.

Cioppino, the fish and seafood stew made famous in San Francisco in the 1800s, is a terrific cool-weather dish.

This dish is best made a day ahead and refrigerated until service so that the flavors develop. Also, it freezes well.

A “persillade” is a finely minced mixture of both fresh parsley and raw garlic and enriches—and makes heady—any sauce using it.

Are there infinite variations on Mac ‘n’ Cheese? Well, maybe, but here are a mere five.

“Pan bagnat” roughly translates as “bathed (or soaked, or wet) bread.” It essentially is a salade nicoise in a loaf of bread.

“Frittata” must be Italian for “kitchen sink.”

Poke (POH-kay), Hawaii’s raw fish salad, is certainly easier than sushi to cobble together, and less complex than ceviche.

The Indian vegetable dish Subji uses as few as one or two different vegetables (or, usually, several) but always many spices and flavorings. Photo from Jacopo Maia on unsplash.

BSJ’s Yellow Chicken Salad, an adaptation of Queen Elizabeth II’s “Coronation Chicken” and Whole Foods’ very popular “Sonoma Chicken Salad.”

Legend has it that this much-favored Sicilian vegetarian pasta preparation is named after Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “Norma.”

A platter of assorted cooked vegetables on a bed of wilted greens, served cool, in the Italian way of summer cooking.

A serving of Bucatini and Wolffish Fra Diavolo.