Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

When Jacques Pèpin has leftover cooked meat from a roast or a stew, or even leftover steak, he often chops it and uses it to make stuffing, chili or meatballs like these boulettes ("small balls")—a staple in every French housewife's cooking repertoire. You can serve the boulettes on their own with a salad, or brush them with barbecue sauce and serve with mashed potatoes. Here, they're topped with a quick-cooking tomato sauce dotted with tangy green olives.

Naomi Pomeroy, an F&W Best New Chef 2009, regards eco-activist Alice Waters as "the center of the vegetable-driven universe." At Beast in Portland, Oregon, Pomeroy serves her version of the salsa verde in Waters's 1996 book Chez Panisse Vegetables, adding toasted hazelnuts and doubling the herbs. The salsa is a vibrant addition to simple grilled hanger steak.

This pancake recipe has been adapted from The New Joy of Cooking (1953).

"A great hamburger starts with great ground beef," says David Walzog, executive chef at SW Steakhouse at Wynn Las Vegas. He advocates ground-to-order beef with at least 20 percent fat content, seasoned generously with salt and pepper. To make the juiciest burger possible, Walzog says to shape the patty gently and make a small indentation in the center; this ensures even cooking as the burger swells during cooking.

Instead of using butter, chef José Andrés prefers to add richness with olive oil and Manchego cheese. His tip: "Add the olive oil slowly to the potatoes because if you dump it in all at once, you'll get streaks of oil."

These incredibly simple pickles have just the right amount of garlic and dill and are intensely crunchy and refreshing right out of the refrigerator.

This exceptionally creamy ice cream relies on two unexpected ingredients: cornstarch (to help thicken it) and cream cheese (to make it more scoopable).

This silken frozen pie is adapted from Clancy's, one of David Guas's favorite New Orleans neighborhood restaurants. (Recipe adapted from DamGoodSweet.)