TASTElist

Ah, the fried egg taco, favorite of the early-morning protein seeker and the late-night fridge raider. In this healthy twist, you start by sautéing shallots and quickly wilting some arugula. Then fry your eggs, transfer to warm corn tortillas, add your favorite red salsa, and you’re done.

Using the slow cooker allows you to get baby back pork ribs incredibly tender, but you’ll need to cook them in a sauce with tons of flavor so they’re not boring. For these easy, tasty ribs, you make a bacon-bourbon barbecue sauce for marinating and simmering the ribs. After 4 or 5 hours, when the ribs are tender, you brush them with more sauce and give them a quick turn in the broiler.

This fun, slightly wacky twist on the chile relleno calls on everybody’s favorite savory snack food—ramen noodles—to stuff poblano chiles. Simply boil the noodles, then mix with Jack cheese, bacon, and mushrooms, and stuff away. Since the starchy element (the ramen) is already inside the peppers, you can bypass dipping the stuffed chiles in batter and frying. Just bake and enjoy.

Fish offers a wide canvas for tacos: grilled, battered and fried, ceviche-cured. Here, boneless fillets are seasoned, floured, and pan-fried so they’re crisp at the edges, moist and tender inside. A simple fresh pineapple salsa spiked with lime and jalapeños gives the tacos brightness and a little bite. What to buy: Tilapia is a fish that’s affordable and readily available, but check to make sure the fillets you buy are from a source that practices sustainable aquaculture.

A five-minute turn in a stovetop smoker gives instant ramen noodles a depth of flavor that tastes like it took hours. You start by steaming eggs in the shell, before placing them in the smoker with the noodles. Then make the instant ramen in the usual way, and serve the smoked egg on top. It’s simple, comfortingly complex, and satisfying all at once. Special equipment: You’ll need a stovetop smoker for this recipe—our favorite is the compact and affordable model from Camerons.

Instant ramen noodles become an edible art installation with this dessert born out of scanning the cupboards for something crispy and sweet one late night. Spread the cooked noodles out on a baking sheet and crisp them in the oven, then drizzle with an easy white chocolate sauce. Voilà: dessert!

In German, the language of beer, radler means “cyclist.” In beverage terms, a radler is a kind of beer-based “sports drink”—lager mixed with a soft drink, similar to an English shandy—a refreshing pick-me-up for guzzling when you stop at a kneipe, a countryside tavern. It’s simple and cooling, even when you’re not cycling the Alps. What to buy: You’ll need a pale lager with hoppy bitterness, like Weihenstephaner.

We love the sweet, pull-apart breakfast treat known as Monkey Bread, so—inspired by a suggestion from our Home Cooking community board—we devised this savory version with mozzarella and a hint of fresh chiles. The recipe calls for store-bought pizza dough, so apart from letting the dough rise for an hour and assembling everything, it comes together pretty quickly. Serve the monkey bread warm, with marinara sauce for dipping.

Nothing opens our eyes in the morning like breakfast tacos, especially ones that hold something bold and spicy. Here, we combine sautéed poblano chile strips with ham under a fried egg, served in a warm corn tortilla. Up and at ’em!

The calzone—pizza dough lavished with a handful of cheese and other toppings, folded over, sealed, and baked—is the perfect self-contained meal. Here we fill ours with cheese, ham, and sliced jalapeños, and because we start with store-bought pizza dough, it all comes together in a flash. What to buy: Premade pizza dough is available bagged in 14- or 16-ounce portions at well-stocked groceries. If you’d like to make your own, you’ll need two-thirds of our Basic Pizza Dough recipe.

In this adaptation of a classic coffee-table snack, the usual mix of almonds, cheese crackers, cereal squares, and oyster crackers turns extra-crisp and savory as it slowly cooks in a smoky soy-sauce-and-paprika seasoning blend. It takes a bit of minding, but once it’s done, you’re good for hours of party snacking.

Skip the bun and wrap it up pigs-in-the-blanket style with this ridiculously easy yet whimsical jumbo-sized rendition. Just roll out store-bought pizza dough and cut it into strips that you use to spiral-wrap the hot dogs. Bake and serve with beer and caraway seed mustard, spicy yellow mustard, or whole grain dijon mustard. If you’d like to make your own pizza dough, you’ll need two-thirds of our recipe for Basic Pizza Dough.