Gourmet

Using campanelle or medium shell pasta is key here: The pasta catches all of the little ingredients, like the sweet green peas and the salty prosciutto.

You'll often see a Western-style salad on the menu at a restaurant in South Korea—in all likelihood, a result of the American presence there since World War II. Romaine retains a nice crunch, even after marinating in a hot dressing. Like the cucumber apple pickle , this dish adds a welcome splash of green to the table.

Dotted with bits of vegetables and seafood or meat, savory pancakes are both a popular side dish on the Korean dinner table and a beloved street-food snack. To make them more elegant, we’ve kept these crisp, colorful pancakes on the small side so they can be easily picked up with chopsticks and eaten in a few bites.

This gently simmered tofu topped with a stir-together sauce is a common banchan. It would also make a great vegetarian main course served with rice. The sauce—speckled with chopped garlic, scallion, sesame seeds, and Korean hot red-pepper flakes—couldn't be simpler or more satisfying. You will want to eat it on everything.

Baguette-like loaves make this Irish classic easy to slice, providing perfectly sized portions.

"Koreans are short rib masters," says Chou, who lived and cooked in Korea for several years. "It's their favorite cut." While some ribs are sliced thin, marinated, and grilled, others are reserved for stews and soups. Kalbi jjim, one of the country’s best-known concoctions, shares some ingredients with a European beef stew—namely, carrots, onions, and potatoes—but here the brothy, slightly sweet dish gets its robust undertones from dried mushrooms, soy sauce, fish sauce, and molasses, plus a dollop of hot red-pepper paste. Though it is rustic-looking, the meat's tenderness and the broth’s amazing depth make clear why this dish is a national treasure.

Cooking peeled hard-boiled quail eggs in a mixture of water, soy sauce, and sugar creates lovely little tea-colored morsels that contrast firm whites with buttery yolks. A quarter teaspoon of sesame oil is all it takes to cast an alluringly nutty spell over the eggs.

Bell peppers and cumin add sweetness and spice to this tangy tomato soup, but it's the pimentón that really pulls all the flavors together.

Just two additions—citrus zest in the dressing and toasted pine nuts—transform this simple salad into something memorable.

In this bourbon-spiked baby, homemade génoise (a kind of spongecake) subs for the traditional vanilla wafers, and brown sugar contributes a molasses-like sweetness. Glazed pecans add some crunch to the layers of silky pudding, ripe bananas, and tender cake.

Lightly garlicky and herbed, Moroccan-inspired carrots are versatile enough to accompany almost any meal.

Korean tables—both in restaurants and at home—are always set with a series of banchan, or little dishes that can be eaten alone, with rice, or as an accompaniment to the main course. To keep things lively, banchan should run the gamut of tastes and textures, and this particular pickle really sparkles: It is sweet, tart, crisp, and fresh. Salting the sliced cucumbers and then squeezing out their excess water allows them to fully soak up the pickling mixture.

An almond-spiked crust and twice the amount of filling you'd find in most Key lime pies are the secret here.

In an uncertain world, everybody needs a truly excellent recipe for roast chicken, one that will never, ever fail you. This is it. And although basting the chickens seems like a chore, it will give them a beautiful burnished glow. Killing two birds with one stone—that is, cooking two birds together—provides dinner tonight and enough leftovers for three more meals. Saving both chicken carcasses for the stockpot (they can be frozen if desired) is key.

Cooking anything very gently in oil produces a deliciously moist result (duck confit, for example), and this is no exception. The soft, tangled ribbons of carrot and fennel turn velvety and are balanced by slivers of lemon zest and the warm spark of cayenne.

No Korean meal is complete without kimchi, a piquant condiment of fermented vegetables (most popularly cabbage) seasoned with ginger, garlic, chile, and all manner of fresh or preserved seafood. Fermenting the ingredients over several days gives the dish its distinctive tang, but this easy version, which takes advantage of the funky depth of Asian fish sauce, offers relatively instant gratification.

Roast chicken may be the epitome of comfort food, but a few little flourishes can make it the stuff of dreams. Here, porcini mushrooms infuse the bird with a woodsy aroma while soaking up all that golden chicken goodness; then they’re tossed with potatoes to serve alongside. Take advantage of the liquid left over from soaking the dried mushrooms to make a glaze, tempering its earthiness with honey and Marsala. Brushed on during the last minutes in the oven, it turns the bronzed skin into a much-coveted treat.

Broccoli seems like something new in this rich, satisfyingly chunky side dish, dolled up with parmesan and lemon juice.

This time-honored example of kitchen thrift is ready when you are: Have it simmering away while you tend to another meal or are puttering around on a Saturday morning. Just looking at it in the refrigerator or freezer will make you happy, secure in the knowledge that you can put a terrific meal on the table in no time at all.