Main Course

Chana masala is arguably one of North India's most popular vegetarian dishes, and it can be quick and easy to prepare. We started by using the food processor to grind the aromatic paste that formed the base of our dish. We opted for canned chickpeas because their flavor and texture were nearly indistinguishable from those of chickpeas that are cooked from dried, and we didn't drain them because the canning liquid added body and savory depth to the dish. The canned chickpeas still retained a bit of snap, so we simmered them in the sauce until they turned soft.

In Provence, the garlic-infused mayonnaise called aioli is typically served with a platter of raw and boiled vegetables and sometimes fish. With its intense creamy texture and deep garlic flavor, it turns a humble meal into a spectacular one. In this recipe, an assortment of colorful roasted vegetables stand in for the raw and boiled ones. It makes a very elegant side dish to an entrée of roasted fish or meat, or can be the main event of a vegetable-focused meal. The aioli can be made up to three days ahead and stored in the refrigerator.

For those of you who love lasagna's edges, where sticky tomato meets crisp cheese, this whole dish is for you — even the middle. A tube of tomato paste here mimics the deep flavors of sun-dried tomato. Frying a few generous squeezes caramelizes the tomato's sugars and saturates the olive oil, making a mixture that's ready to glom onto anything you stir through it. Here, it’s white beans, though you could add in kale, noodles, even roasted vegetables. Then, all that’s left to do is dot it with cheese and bake until it’s as molten or singed as you like.

You’ve heard of one-pot dinners? These are one-sheet-pan dinners, which means easier cleanup with the added bonus of concentrated, roasted flavors. Here I use a traditional salade Nicoise as the starting point for a pan of roasted potatoes, green beans, and fish. Ham, squash, and apples are gratifying flavors of a New England autumn, and roasted chicken with fennel, bell peppers, and herbes de Provence gives you a little detour toward the south of France (if you shut your eyes tight and stand by the warm oven!).

In Normandy, this richly flavored stew would be served with a composed salad of watercress, shallots, and roasted beets. What to drink: Muscadet, Chablis, or unoaked Chardonnay.

I nearly always serve a green salad with dinner, but only rarely serve one for dinner. That’s because the best main-course salads are precariously balanced things, requiring planning and forethought to come out well. You need to make sure that your mix of vegetables, proteins and starches hits all the requisite flavor and textural notes – sweet, salty, tangy, fresh, crisp, soft and rich. In the end, a main-course salad should feel both virtuous and a little decadent, and eminently satisfying.

 We eat these Indian-spiced pancakes for dinner, along with a green salad. They don’t even need a topping. If you do want to top them with something, a cucumber raita or plain yogurt would work well.

Huevos Rancheros are perfect for entertaining since you can prep everything ahead of time and multiply the recipe almost infinitely. You can also make it more or less complicated: If you don't want to cook beans, make the variation. If you want to go all out, serve them with sliced or crumbled chorizo or other sausage, Radish Salsa, avocado slices, chopped fresh chiles, shredded lettuce, and limes. Some crema on the side is also nice. 

At the beginning of the semester, this was one of the things I made when my housemates and I sat down for dinner together. The Brussels sprouts at the market looked particularly appealing that day, and we had some bread sitting around. Panzanella is a traditional Italian dish made with stale bread, tomatoes, and olive oil. This version, made with Aleppo pepper (a fruity, not-too-too-spicy chili from Syria) can work as a vegetarian main course.

Eggplant is a dinnertime staple on the southern Italian island of Sicily, where the vegetable is known as melanzane and might appear as involtini (rolled up with a filling) or caponata (the sweet-and-sour cooked vegetable salad). These are both first courses, but with a little tweaking, you can make them substantial enough for the main event. We fell for the dishes at the Anna Tasca Lanza cooking school in Sicily, where the late founder’s daughter, Fabrizia, teaches them.