By Linda Gassenheimer From Tribune News Service Cioppino is a 20-minute meal. Italian immigrants are credited with bringing this soup filled with a variety of seafood and vegetables to San Francisco. Helpful Hints You can substitute any type of firm non-oily white fish. You can substitute several drops of hot pepper sauce for red pepper…

It’s a slow-cooking time of year, which calls for a meal like this: an aromatic pot of braised short ribs, blanketed in a richly fortified sauce, exuding warmth and comfort. This stew will satisfy any cravings for cozy, wintry food and focus your attention solely on the task of digging into this fragrant pot, one…

Hearty winter root vegetables—carrots, parsnips, and celeriac—release their sweetness into this earthy stew. Mustard greens, stirred in at the very last minute, wilt in the residual heat for a lovely finish. I recommend French lentils (Puy lentils) in this recipe for their ability to keep their form during long cooking; however, both brown and green…

View the print-ready version of this recipe. Brimming with fresh seafood in a tomato and wine broth that tastes like the sea, cioppino (pronounced cho-pee-no) is a rustic Italian-American fish stew. Though the dish originated with Italian immigrant fishermen in San Francisco, my favorite version is served on the opposite coast at Portofino, a charming bayside restaurant in Longboat Key,…

Back in my personal chef days, I worked for a wonderful family that had a bit of a dinner conundrum. The father longed for his Sicilian American mother’s beef ragu, but his kids wouldn’t touch it because it contained — gasp! — vegetables. Wanting to find a compromise, I added something to the recipe that…

View the print-ready version of this recipe. With over 4,000 5-star reviews, this classic French beef stew is the all-time most popular recipe on my website. It is the ultimate cold weather comfort food. Chunks of well-marbled beef are seared in a hot pan, then gently braised with garlic and onions in a rich wine-based…

Pity the misfit tomatillo, also known as the Mexican husk tomato. Most cooks don’t know what to do with that swaddled orb that looks like a paper lantern and tastes like some underripe fruit. Green salsa is the most common application, but I usually prefer tomato salsa, in part because tomatillos can be a bit…

Best made in late summer using ripe vegetables, ratatouille is an iconic French Provençal stew of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers, slowly cooked together until creamy soft. While an uncomplicated recipe, making a good ratatouille does require a bit of time. Make this stovetop version on a weekend, and enjoy it throughout the week—ratatouille…

Years ago, an older relative shared this recipe with me. He had grown up in rural Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years, when times were hard, food was scarce, and bellies often went hungry. His mother tended a little kitchen garden—a luxury when many neighbors had nothing—and gleaned from it what she could. Each summer…

TL;DR: Sauté vegetables, then chorizo and tomato paste. Add beans and water 
and cook until thickened and flavorful. Add greens and eat. It has taken maturity to embrace the glorious simplicity of this kind of dinner. My inner critic is prone to telling me that it’s not creative enough or new enough or whatever overachieving…