With the discovery that my oven can go hotter than 450°F, I am newly obsessed with making pizza at home. My lastest quest: cracker-thin crust. Zoë François and Jeff Hertzberg, the culinary minds behind Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, share a few secrets of the trade. More

We started out by calling this a lighter version of classic lasagna. But let's be honest: Despite the fact that you're switching out ground beef for lean chicken, this recipe still has heavy cream, butter, and plenty of cheese. And yet it's nice to have an alternative lasagna up your sleeve that isn't spinach or veggie. More

Okay, it's time to stop denying it, this is really happening: we're at that point where there's hardly any fresh, local, in-season produce in the markets to inspire wild innovation in the kitchen. It's time to stretch.

How do you honor the hearty ice-kissed greens and mighty squash of winter and not yawn over your dinner plate? This is a great problem to have and one that has made me a better cook than when I have all the produce I ever desired handed to me in a farmers' market tote. Stretch and you shall build muscle.

A few tips and they all start with b: break out the balsamic and bacon...

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The New Year brings different traditions for different folks. Some make black-eyed peas, others make firm resolutions. I make chicken stock. There's something wonderfully industrious about making homemade stock, and this year on New Year's Day that's where I found myself. More

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today's guest: Domenica Marchetti. Domenica is a widely-published food writer and columnist, and she has published some wonderful books on Italian cooking, including this year's favorite, The Glorious Pasta of Italy. Welcome Domenica!

Fried dough.

That is what our house smelled like on Christmas morning when I was growing up. Even as my sister, Maria, and I attacked the presents piled under the tree, our mother dashed back and forth from the living room to the kitchen, where she fried batches of calcionelli.

These golden-brown crescent-shaped pillows of sweet dough, filled with ground nuts and honey, are a specialty of my Italian mom's native region of Abruzzo. I imagine that as she stood there at the stove at our house in New Jersey, the aroma of honey and orange zest and fried dough brought her right back to her own childhood Christmases in the hilltop city of Chieti.

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Tall, golden loaves of panettone are everywhere this time of year. Traditionally eaten around Christmas and New Year's, this fruit-studded sweet bread can be enjoyed plain or simply toasted — but it doesn't have to be. How about crisp-custardy panettone french toast or even a savory panettone panzanella with pancetta and brussels sprouts? More

With December finally here, I can't seem to find enough hours to get through each day. Between Christmas shopping, holiday parties, and work projects, life on Monday through Saturday is hurried and I'm sprinting just to keep up. But then, just in the nick of time, there is Sunday. More

"Glorious" is truly the proper word to describe Domenica Marchetti's new collection of Italian pasta recipes, The Glorious Pasta of Italy. As Exhibit A, I present to you a fast vegetarian dish with all the luxury you would find in the best restaurant in town. It's a dish for any time of the year: linguine with a garlicky pesto of walnuts, Parmesan, and ricotta. More

Some days you just have to go all out. Maybe you have soft cheeses and crackers before dinner, open a bottle of good wine, make spaghetti and meatballs and then decide that garlic bread is also important. When you can't stop thinking about garlic bread, this is the recipe for you. More

I have a confession: Pasta Week is killing me. For medical reasons, I am not eating wheat for 30 days, and unfortunately this is only the third week of the new diet, so mac and cheese, fall vegetable orzo, and — my favorite — pappardelle topped with a rich, meaty tomato sauce are all off-limits. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the same long-simmered sauces I would normally eat over noodles. More