Tips for Rescuing the Most Humble Dishes

By Food & Wine
Updated March 08, 2017

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Meat Loaf with Red Wine Glaze

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This meat loaf is extra-delicious, thanks to a red wine glaze that caramelizes as it bakes.

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Cashews with Crispy Sage and Garlic

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Tossing cashews with fried sage and garlic elevates this classic snack.

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Three-Cheese Mini Macs

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Anything big made small is ultrafun for cocktail parties, and these quick, one-bite mac and cheeses are the ultimate example. Cooked in mini muffin pans, the mini macs can be assembled early and baked just as guests arrive.

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Cornmeal-and-Ricotta Waffles

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These waffles, from chef Michael Mina, go far beyond the ordinary. Cornmeal makes the waffles crispy; ricotta keeps them moist.

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Vanilla Bean-Whipped Sweet Potatoes

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Here, sweet potatoes get a boost from fragrant vanilla beans.

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Toasted Spaghetti with Clams

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Ferran Adrià credits the idea for this dish to one of his acolytes, Moreno Cedroni, the hyper-creative Italian chef at La Madonnina del Pescatore in Italy’s Marzocca di Senigallia. The method is very similar to risotto, but spaghetti fills in for the arborio rice: Adrià toasts it in a pan with a little oil, then adds hot clam juice until the pasta is fully cooked and loaded with briny flavor.

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Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dogs with Avocado

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It may not be an obvious combination, but topping a bacon-wrapped hot dog with avocado and sour cream yields delicious results.

8 of 10

Chicken Soup with Jasmine Rice and Ginger

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Ginger lends terrific flavor to this warming chicken soup.

9 of 10

Cocoa Nib-Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Chocolate with cocoa nibs adds an ingenious twist to the classic chocolate chip cookie.

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Bloody Mary Cocktail Meatballs

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The Three-Pepper Bloody Mary in the meatball gravy acts like a tomato sauce and becomes a terrific, spicy glaze.

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