Pizza

It makes a great side dish, but this salad is even better as a pizza topping. Brush the pizza shell with olive oil, sprinkle it with sea salt and shredded mozzarella, then bake. When the pizza comes out of the oven, top it with the salad. 

No need to call your local pizza joint. Thanks to prepared dough and bottled roasted red peppers, making your own calzones can be easy and far more satisfying.

It's the possibilities in that blank crust that make pizza so much fun. Lately, we've been obsessed with white pizza. Brush the dough with olive oil, sprinkle with mozzarella, and then let the fun begin. Without the acidity of the tomato sauce to contend with, you can really experiment. In this version, asparagus adds freshness and a hit of color, goat cheese brings a creamy tang, and fingerling potatoes (yes, potatoes) round out the pie with their richness.

Store-bought dough, a quick sauce of crushed tomatoes, a topping of mozzarella, salami or pepperoni, and fresh basil take minutes to assemble and transform into pizza. Bertucci’s sells rounds of dough already rolled out (you take it out in a box; a 16-inch round costs $3.50). 

This super-simple pie is made with very thinly sliced potatoes (use a mandoline or hand-held slicer, if possible).

Make the dough one day and bake it the next (refrigerate it and punch it down every 8 hours), or make one round and freeze the other piece of dough in an oiled plastic zipper bag. You can also freeze the rest of the sauce.

Naan, the large flat Indian bread, makes a fine pizza crust. It’s available in many specialty markets.

Why not use cooler-weather vegetables like broccoli and arugula as an unconventional pizza topping? The arugula adds a slightly bitter, peppery taste—for a milder flavor, use spinach instead. Serve with wedges of fresh tomato tossed with vinegar, olive oil, basil and freshly ground pepper.