Rice Pudding

This sweet Persian rice pudding called sholeh zard is made with three distinct ingredients: saffron, cardamom and rosewater. It's delicate in flavor but so deeply aromatic that it's hard to stop eating it.

This vanilla-flecked rice pudding is exceptionally easy and exceptionally delicious, thanks to the tangy rhubarb. Krista Desjarlais, the chef-owner of Bresca in Portland, Maine, gently poaches the stalks in red wine, sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon. Perfect on the pudding, the rhubarb would be equally good with Greek yogurt.

Arborio rice is great for Stephanie Prida's pudding, because the plump grains stay perfectly firm and chewy.

As kids, Mateo Granados and his sisters loved to make this creamy rice pudding. To update the recipe, Granados likes to add chewy bits of dried fruit such as apricots, cherries or golden raisins.

The arborio rice in Joe Bastianich’s lightly sweet pudding provides complex carbohydrates for energy.

This pudding is made with finely milled rice flour, seasoned with cinnamon and caraway and garnished with walnuts, pine nuts and slivered almonds. Known as meghli, it is traditionally served at birthdays and holidays, including Christmas. Rita Nakouzi is eager to make it for her own children one day. "I’ve been attempting my family recipes more now that I’m pregnant," she says. "Because my kids will be born in America, and their dad’s American, I think food will be a great way to teach them about Middle Eastern culture."

For centuries, farmers have been growing rice in Senegal, on the western coast of Africa, where it's a staple food. Here, Marcus Samuelsson uses it to create an utterly luxurious pudding, brightening the creamy flavor with grated lime zest, vanilla and cubes of fresh mango.

Nadine Redzepi’s creamy, fluffy and addictive rice pudding is good enough on its own, but it’s even better with two great sauces: a fruity and tangy sweet cherry sauce, as well as a creamy caramel sauce.