Cheese

From pancakes to salads, these 15 recipes taste better with ricotta cheese.

The intensely flavored soffritto is the foundation of this rich pasta; double the ingredients and freeze half for next time.

In search of a classic tuna melt? This is the best we’ve tried. Palace Diner makes its own pickles, but of course you can start with store-bought.

Chorizo adds smoky flavor to this vegetable-heavy frittata; use bacon if you prefer.

There are as many stromboli fillings as there are pizza toppings. Feel free to improvise, but don’t use too many wet ingredients in this stromboli recipe, or the dough will be gummy inside.

Does Tosca’s roast chicken recipe take work? Yes, but the results—from the drippings-soaked sourdough toasts to the glossy pan sauce—are transcendent.

Prefer a turkey, pork, or lamb sausage? By all means, use that instead.

“Acid and texture are the most important things,” says chef Eli Kulp, High Street on Market, Philadelphia. His hearty vegetarian breakfast sandwich—with its mix of marinated mushrooms, soft eggs, melted cheese, and a buttery toasted roll—proves his point.

Chef John Fleer, Rhubarb, Asheville, NC, and his family enjoy indoor picnics with brandade (made here with a shortcut: smoked trout) and store-bought fixings. “We just sit on the floor and chat and chew,” he says.

What’s better than cheese and crackers for lunch? Salami, too! Use whatever hard cheese and cured meats you prefer.

Keep a batch of tuna salad in the fridge to use in a DIY toaster-oven snack.

Use a frozen whole grain waffle, or freeze leftover homemade waffles between sheets of waxed paper.

Leftovers are the key to packing lunches easily—and this recipe is perfect for that. Plus it freezes well, too; if you freeze in small portioned containers, all you have to do is reheat and go.

Try pouring the soup directly over the sliced sandwich for an irresistible cheesy bread soup.

The best blue cheese for this is salty but creamy, not too sharp or funky.

Use store-bought meringues and skip the first step, if you prefer.

The flesh immediately surround-ing the seeds is the most succulent part of any melon; if you haven’t tried eating the crunchy seeds before, hold on to your hat.

Cooked summer squash can be mushy. Solution: Eat it raw. If you can’t find buckwheat groats, use chopped toasted almonds instead.

A super-juicy watermelon is key; it should feel heavy for its size and sound hollow when tapped.

With stretchy mozzarella inside and a coating of crunchy breadcrumbs, these squash blossoms get the creamy-crispy ratio just right.

Making the eggplant spread ahead of time has a double upside: The flavors of the mixture will deepen as it sits, and you get to cross something off the list.

Use very ripe—even overripe—tomatoes; they’ll give up even more juice.

Delicate squash blossoms are a farmers' market treasure. Look for flowers with perky, intact petals and a generous length of stem still attached.

The sweetness of nectarines makes for some fascinating bites. (This recipe was developed with IBM's Chef Watson.)