Super versatile herbed orzo salad.

You’ve had what I call “sad pasta salad” — that takeout deli stuff with corkscrew pasta and way too much bottled Italian dressing. This pasta salad is NOT sad pasta salad! It’s the only pasta salad recipe you need.

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recipe pasta mushrooms tomatoes

Pasta with tomatoes and mushrooms.

This recipe for pasta with tomatoes and mushrooms — called pasta alla boscaiola, or “woodsman’s pasta” — is an old favorite. I think that my brother, Bill, prepared this for us when we visited him when …

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Baked chicken and mushroom macaroni and cheese.

So, hey, yeah … Winter is here, amiright? It’s gonna be crappy again this weekend, so you know what to do: Give yourself a fun cooking project that yields the perfectly carb-y, cheesy main dish for dinner. This hearty Baked Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Mushrooms, Chicken and Fontina is just the ticket. It’s easy, but time consuming enough to occupy an hour of your Saturday afternoon. Get the recipe on writes4food.com.

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Beef and cheddar pasta bake.

So, if you’re looking for recipes that will jump-start your healthy eating habits in the new year … well, this is not that recipe. There’s nothing especially virtuous about this Beef and Cheddar Pasta Bake, dietarily speaking—its virtues are purely sensuous: cheesy, comforting goodness. If you recall that recurring menu item from your elementary school cafeteria days, you might think of this as a sort of upgraded version of Johnny Marzetti. I’ve adapted an old Pierre Franey recipe from the 1990s from the New York Times Cooking app—and it’s pretty much what you’re craving on these bitterly cold nights. Add a brightly dressed green salad and a glass of wine, and you’re good to go. Get the recipe on writes4food.com!

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Couscous salad with apples and feta.

I made up this recipe after we had a similar salad at a delightful little bar/cafe in Lucca, Tuscany. Couscous is the ideal base for any kind of salad—and this one has a lovely range of flavors and textures: crisp, sweet apple, salty Feta, briny olive, crunchy almonds. It’s kinda perfect, actually. Get the recipe for Couscous Salad with Apple and Feta over on writes4food.com!

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homemade egg noodle recipe | writes4food.com

Dorothy’s homemade noodles.

My beloved grandmother, Dorothy, taught me how to cook many things; No. 1 on the list is homemade noodles. In her memory, I’ll be making a batch of these soon. They’re easy and fun to make, and don’t require a pasta machine — you can use these noodles as you would pasta, with a light sauce as they’re fairly delicate. Or, you know, in chicken soup. Here’s the recipe on writes4food.com.

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Orzo pasta salad with seasonal vegetables.

Ever been to a potluck or cookout and had quote-unquote pasta salad? You know what I mean: mushy corkscrew pasta, raw vegetables and icky bottled Italian dressing. Gross. *This* pasta salad is not *that* pasta salad. This Orzo Pasta Salad with Seasonal Vegetables recipe starts with the right kind of pasta, homemade dressing, and crisp-tender seasonal veg. Perfection. Hack it with different vegetables all year round. Get the recipe on writes4food.com!

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broken noodle bowl with broccoli-peanut pesto recipe | writes4food.com

Broken noodle bowl with broccoli peanut pesto.

It’s always fun when I make up a recipe from scratch and idea translates from my head to the plate more deliciously than I imagined. Like this recipe for Broken Noodles with Broccoli-Peanut Pesto. Because I’m craving healthy lunches right now, I stocked up on crisp veggies and grabbed some soba noodles and threw together this lunch-able noodle bowl. And I LOVED it!!! Get the recipe on writes4food.com!

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