Pizza: And Other Savory Pies | Touchstone, 2008 | Makes one 12-inch pizza; serves 2 to 4

Pizza is Italian in origin, but this humble flatbread has captured the attention of the entire planet, and in every country where it’s eaten it’s tailored to the cultural palate. Take, for example, Mexico’s ranchera pizza with beans and chorizo and India’s seek kebab pizza with spiced ground meat. Beneath the pepperoni, cheese, and tomato sauce that we have come to know and love in this country is a blank canvas–or dough–that’s primed for all sorts of culinary renditions. In contrast to the Italian approach, in the United States, just as in other parts of the world, many liberties have been taken with the creation of pizza.–Brigit Binns

LC No Pizza Stone? No Problem. Note: No pizza stone? No problem. When baking the meatballs, omit it. When baking your pizza, flip your largest cast-iron skillet upside down or, worst-case scenario, use a baking sheet. (Although surely you have some cast iron in your kitchen, yes? Have we taught you nothing?)

Special Equipment: Pizza stone (or large cast-iron skillet turned upside down)

Active time: 40 minutes | Total time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Meatball Pizza Recipe

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Cook Italy | Kyle Books, 2010 | Serves 8 to 10

Cooking meat in milk is common throughout north Italy because it results in moist meat and a wonderfully rich and flavorful sauce. The milk transforms during the cooking from liquid to yogurt-like clusters which form a rich brown sauce. Valentina Harris advises me that if you give it a good whisk over the heat just before you are ready to serve, it helps to break up the sauce slightly, giving it a smoother texture.–Katie Caldesi

LC Fatty Fat Fat Note: A stroke of Italian brilliance, this classic tenderizing technique infuses a relatively cheap cut of pork with the subtle sweetness of milk. Thing is, pork loin nowadays is leaner than it once was back in the day. Those who like their pork falling-apart tender and infused with fatty flavor ought to consider swapping the loin for a fattier cut of pork, perhaps something from the shoulder region such as pork butt. (We love saying those words almost as much as we love devouring the tantalizingly tender meat.) Promise you won’t be disappointed. As for that milk sauce, it’s going to look curdled and, truthfully, not exactly come hither. But just wait till you taste it.

Active time: 35 minutes | Total time: 2 hours, 35 minutes

Roast Pork in Milk Recipe

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Beyond the Great Wall | Artisan, 2008 | Serves 4

I first tasted this root vegetable stir-fry at a little eatery in Xijang, a large Miao village in Guizhou. It’s an ideal fall and winter dish, and a great way to prepare carrots. They are first cut into strips, then stir-fried with lots of ginger cut the same way. There’s great depth of flavor from the small amount of pork that flavors the cooking oil, and plenty of sauce to spoon onto your rice. Ever since the first time we tried to reproduce the dish in our kitchen, it’s been a big weeknight supper favorite.–Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

LC Wooooah, Helloooo, Ginger! Note: There’s nothing wallflowerish about the warming potency of ginger root. The tongue-tingling, sinus-clearing, tummy-settling, breathtakingly rollercoaster-like rhizome lends oomph even in small doses, let alone in large quantities as in this stir-fry. Those with an unabashed thing for its gingery zing will swoon to this recipe’s zippadeedooda. If you’re not an unabashed devotee of ginger, bear in mind that the carrots’ sweetness tones the potency of the ginger down a notch or three. And those not so into pork will find that situation easily remedied as the pig can easily be omitted if you desire. Not so the ginger. Yowza!

Active time: 25 minutes | Total time: 25 minutes

Ginger and Carrot Stir-Fry Recipe

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Hot Sour Salty Sweet | Artisan, 2000 | Serves 3 to 4

Pad Thai literally means “Thai fry,” and it’s the dish many foreigners think of first when they think about Thai food. It’s a satisfying one-dish noodle stir-fry, dry rather than sauced, and full of different isolated flavors that come together in a balance of salty, sour, and sweet. There are salty peanuts, soft pieces of cooked egg, a little succulent pork, and seared pressed tofu, all scattered throughout pan-seared thin rice noodles. Once you have your ingredients prepared, your cooking time is less than six minutes.

If serving guests classic pad Thai from a platter, chopsticks or tongs are easiest for the job. Or invite everyone to use chopsticks to serve themselves. As they eat, guests can flavor their portions as they wish with assorted condiments set out on the table, whether a squeeze of lime, a sprinkling of more chopped peanuts, bean sprouts, and a drizzle of chile-vinegar sauce.–Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

LC Legitimate Long Noodles Note: There are a lot of pad Thai recipes out there. Wait. Let us rephrase that. There are a lot of Americanized, pathetic, imposter pad Thai recipes out there. Not this one. You’ll find no ingredient sham ingredients such as ketchup or peanut butter, nor will you find a sidestepping of classic ingredients including fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind, tofu, salted radish, and dried shrimp. The recipe does cede that those scary-sounding radishes and shrimp are, indeed, optional, and offers a couple very similar substitutions. Any way you make it, this recipe is the closest we’ve found to actual pad Thai during our decades-long quest–and we’ve tried a lot of recipes. One aspect of authenticity not noted in this recipe? The tradition of not breaking the uncooked rice noodles, which come tightly wound in loops and packaged in plastic, as many Asian cultures believe the longer the noodle, the longer one’s potential longevity.

Active time: 35 minutes | Total time: 1 hour

Classic Pad Thai Recipe

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Diana Henry | Plenty | Mitchell Beazley, 2010 | Serves 8

A roast can seem dauntingly expensive if you’re trying to feed a crowd. But slow-roasted pork shoulder is one of the most satisfying dishes–so tender and, relatively, very cheap. It also looks magnificent. You can vary the stuffing by using dried fruit instead of mushrooms, or add grated Parmesan or wilted spinach.–Diana Henry

LC Back in the Day… Note: Once upon a time, pork roasts came with a lovely gilding of fat, both infused in the meat but also in a pure white layer an inch thick (or more) that was beauteous to behold–and even more beauteous to consume. Savvy home cooks across the land knew that this fat would cushion the underlying pork from the heat of a hot oven and bathe it during the long, slow roasting time required to coax the cheap cut of meat to supple, tender doneness. Then a darkness came over the land and people were afflicted with an obsessive and woefully misguided fear of fat.  Pork was bred to contain less fat, oh horror of horrors, and what fat did remain–ravishing, flavorful layers of fat beneath the skin– was hacked off by butchers who knew customers would shudder at the site of it. The people settled for bland pork that barely resembled its former self. Sadness reigned throughout the land. Strangely, though, the only enforcement for this bizarre behavior? Well, there really was none aside from needless and self-inflicted guilt. The only punishment for disobeying this overriding sentiment? An aromatic, fall-apart tender pork roast with flavor the likes of which most people no longer recall.

This recipe is a relic from back in the day, one that demands–and is best honored by–a proper cut of pork. Yes, a fatty fat fat pork roast can still be found by diligent searching at meat cases and butcher shops. There is no secret handshake or password that assures you the butcher is honorable and will do right by you, aside from taking a look at the pork prior to purchasing it to ensure it still has that stunning white sheath of fatty goodness. As for this tale, it has no ending, not yet. Go write your own. And don’t forget to thank your butcher kindly.

Special equipment: Kitchen string

Active time: 45 minutes | Total time: 3 hours, 30 minutes.

Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder with Stuffed Squash Recipe

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Brigit Binns | The Cook and the Butcher | Weldon Owen, 2011 | Serves 6

In autumn, when the light changes and there’s a briskness in the air, these maple-brined pork chops are my go-to dish for a satisfying meal at home. Adding just a small quantity of maple syrup to the brine gives the meat a hint of sweetness, which shines through when the pork is paired with the sweet-and-savory pear chutney. I like to pour an Oregon Pinot Noir with this dish.–Brigit Binns

LC Deceptively Simple Note: The trickiest aspect of this maple-brined pork chops recipe? Planning ahead 6 hours for them to brine–and then spending said hours doing something other than drifting into a reverie over these subtly sweet, ever so slightly peppery chops. It’s that simple. The pear chutney—all four ingredients–comes together in minutes, and those thick-cut chops practically cook themselves. See how good we make you look?

Active time: 45 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes, not including brining.

Maple-Brined Pork Chops Recipe

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Maria Helm Sinskey | Williams-Sonoma Family Meals | Oxmoor, 2009 | Serves 4 to 6

I love T-bone pork chops—also called bone-in center-cut chops—because you get both a little of the loin and a little of the tenderloin. Juicy and aromatic, these Asian-inspired chops go surprisingly well with applesauce. Don’t worry if your kids declare them too exotic before they try them. After just one taste, they’ll be back for more. –Maria Helm Sinskey

LC On the Side Note: We can think of quite a lot of sides that would go quite spectacularly with these subtly flavored five-spiced chops, including the obvious white rice. But really, just like Sinskey, all we crave is some made-from-scratch applesauce with caramely, appley, spicy overtones. Excuse us while we go make some.

Active time: 30 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Five-Spice Pork Chops Recipe

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Real Cajun | Clarkson Potter, 2009 | Serves 6 to 8

In my opinion, there are two types of jambalaya—Cajun and Creole. The main difference is that in the Creole version, the rice is cooked in a tomatoey sauce that might include shrimp along with meat and sausage. The Cajun approach is more rustic. Searing and caramelizing the meat and onions individually prior to simmering everything together develops not just color but a deeply browned taste. I prefer the way the chicken and sausage flavor blend into the rice in the Cajun version, creating a dish with a robust meaty flavor. Reducing the chicken stock concentrates the flavor and adds a unique saltiness that you just can’t achieve by adding salt. I call it the MSG effect. (Be sure to add the vegetable trimmings to the chicken stock.) This dish becomes even more flavorful after it sits for a while, and it’s delicious at room temperature.–Donald Link

LC Cajun Cast Iron Note: The only way we can think to improve upon this authentic recipe is to insist, as the recipe already does, that you rely on a cast-iron pan. There’s nothing, not a thing, that we’d change.

Active time: 1 hour | Total time: 4 hours

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya Recipe

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Ghillie James | Jam, Jelly & Relish | Kyle Books, 2011 | Makes 24

These freeze beautifully and can be warmed and packed in aluminum foil as a welcome addition to the usual cold picnic fare.–Ghillie James

LC Fancy This Note: Hearty picnic fare that stands up to travel and appeases the gents as well as the ladies. Fancy that. Er, this.

Active time: 20 minutes
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Total time: 45 minutes

Sausage and Chutney Puffs Recipe

Joe Yonan | Serve Yourself | Ten Speed Press, 2011 | Makes 4 tacos

You’ve done the work to make the Yucatan-Style Slow-Roasted Pork, so now take advantage of its depth of flavor and combine it with a fiery (and I mean that) salsa. –Joe Yonan

Author’s Salsa-at-Your-Disposal Note: This recipe makes about 1/4 cup of the salsa, and a little goes a long way, so you may have some left over. It’ll last for 2 weeks refrigerated in an airtight container, and you can use it on all manner of eggs and meats, and as a salad dressing base, but my favorite use might be to mash a tablespoon or two into the yolks of a half dozen hard-cooked eggs, along with mayo, for a party snack that puts the devil back into deviled eggs, for sure.

Active time: 15 minutes Total time: 25 minutes

Pulled Pork Tacos with Habanero Salsa Recipe

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