Get the latest recipes from Bondc http://www.grouprecipes.com/people/bondc From the Italian Cooking Encyclopedia. Similar to, but not the same as, the Hazan adaptation I posted earlier. http://www.grouprecipes.com/101635/bolognese-sauce-ii.html Adapted from Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, without the nonsense. Bolognese is simple, but good bolognese is hard to find in a restaurant. Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. No garlic, no basil, no oregano. http://www.grouprecipes.com/101560/bolognese-sauce.html This is what I should have posted last year instead of that Mole Negro recipe. For mole, this is simple, and a great first mole. I've made hundreds of moles, but as often as not, I make this recipe. With a base of fruity anchos and rich, dark, earthy pasillas, the spiciniess of cinnamon and cloves, and the sweetness of banana and raisins, this mole is truly memorable. This recipe makes a whole lot. Making mole is an all day affair, so you want to make lots then freeze most of it for later (I have some on the stove for Sunday). Mole is highly complex. The longer you keep it, the more the flavors meld and the better it is. I will poach some chicken, shred it, then mix with the mole for tamale filling, then server the tamales with more mole on top. You could just as easily cook chicken in the mole and serve it. The sky's the limit, since mole is a sauce, and not a dish. http://www.grouprecipes.com/99374/mole-rojo.html Tacos are actually pretty much mix and match in Mexico, so taco recipes are a bit odd. There are a bunch of ingredients and you toss whatever you want inside your tortilla, then roll it up and eat it. One of those items is carnitas, which is something like the Mexican equivalent of pulled pork (except that it isn't smoked). There are as many recipes for carnitas as there are families in Mexico or the southwest, but this is in my opinion the best, even if it sounds odd. You can substitute regular evaporated milk for the evaporated goat milk, and store cinnamon for the canela (true cinnamon, and not likely to be found except in a Mexican market). Feel free to substitute another dried chile for the guajillos, though the bright vivid guajillo sets off the ingredients really well. http://www.grouprecipes.com/99203/fiesta-tacos-con-carnitas.html I'm not a big pesto qua pesto fan -- not even I like olive oil that much. But as we all know, fresh basil just doesn't keep in the refrigerator very well, so pesto is, I have found, a great way to keep and use fresh basil (minus the pine nuts, which are a later addition, and purely filler). Make it, then add a couple of tablespoons to your next tomato sauce. http://www.grouprecipes.com/98680/seasoning-pesto.html Adapted from The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia, one of those oversized books I picked up on one of the perpetually on sale shelves at Barnes and Noble (check those out, by the way — there are often great cookbooks with great recipes there). This is not only easy and delicious, but it uses ingredients that are often on hand. Like I said, really delicious, and a great alternative to whatever warhorse Italian sauces you have in your repertoire. The original is for spaghetti, and perhaps that's traditional. Because this is rather a thin sauce, I'd serve it with a pasta that holds more sauce, like rotini. http://www.grouprecipes.com/98520/pasta-all-amatriciana.html Extremely moist chocolate cake. Needs no icing, but feel free. http://www.grouprecipes.com/94441/sour-cream-chocolate-cake.html A simple side for a Mexican meal. http://www.grouprecipes.com/86912/ancho-black-beans-and-rice.html First, about the walnuts. Black (AKA American) walnuts and English walnuts are two very different nuts. Black walnuts, which I love, are strongly and distinctly flavored, unlike the tamer, more mildly flavored English walnut, and are nearly impossible to find. I used half black walnuts and half English walnuts, because the black walnuts are strongly flavored enough to come through. Also, because I live with the president of the "I won't eat nuts in anything sweet if they're in pieces big enough to be detectable" club (don't ask, because it doesn't make any sense, just accept it and move on), I finely ground the walnuts. If you live with a rational human being, you can, of course, skip this step. Normally, I would just use regular Saigon store cinnamon (which is cassia, not cinnamon), but because this is going to be dessert for a Mexican meal, I used canela (true cinnamon). Now, on to the recipe. http://www.grouprecipes.com/86891/old-fashioned-walnut-spice-cake.html Another way to use all of that mole rojo you made. http://www.grouprecipes.com/86500/pork-roasted-in-mole-rojo.html