Pasta & Noodles

This lovely and satisfying main course uses light coconut milk, Thai red curry paste and jalapeño chili for lots of flavor and spice.

Japanese connoisseurs of the noodle hold soba, made primarily of buckwheat flour, in particularly high regard. Here the nutty taste of the soba noodles is set off by a restorative broth in which miso is a savory option. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Despite its name, this luau classic is actually a noodle dish (rice-free). At least there is chicken in it — stock as well as shredded chicken.

Although this particularly suits Chicken Paprikás , it is also a fine side dish for ham, as well as for roast beef or pork.

This lemony pasta dish is great with sesame breadsticks and a salad of sliced tomatoes and Vidalia onions in a red-wine vinaigrette. End with hazelnut cookies and a mixed-melon compote splashed with Champagne.

Here, you get an entire meal with a single, 45-minute recipe. Udon, Japanese wheat noodles with a chewy, stretchy texture, are available dried in the Asian food section of most supermarkets (along with mirin and chile paste with garlic) or fresh in the produce section. Sliced pineapple or mango sorbet would be an ideal dessert.

Chinese egg noodles are at Asian markets and in the Asian foods section of the supermarket.

We love this dish on its own, but a sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano and fresh basil can be a nice addition. If you can get fresh ricotta, by all means use it here.

The combination of salty, sweet, crunchy, and smooth gives these confections a special place in my heart. That, added to the fact that they made an appearance at every bridge and mahjongg game my mother ever hosted, elevates their status to serious nostalgia food. You can find cans of Chinese chow-mein noodles in the Asian food section of the supermarket. The ones you want are cooked and ready to eat like crackers.

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 30 min

(Gnocchi di Spinaci e Ricotta) These gnocchi are also known in different parts of Tuscany as malfatti (badly made), ravioli nudi (naked ravioli) or topini verdi (little green mice). Gnocchi are among the oldest foods in Italy, and the spinach ones are a specialty of the Casentino, an area east of Florence where greens grow wild on the hillsides.

An Asian take on pasta salad. Soba, or Japanese buckwheat noodles, have a brown-gray color and nutty flavor.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.