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Pressure Cooker Lamb Meatballs
This recipe for lamb meatballs with a Greek-inspired tomato sauce, adapted from the cookbook author and pressure-cooking maven Lorna Sass, comes together in well under an hour.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortellini Tomato Soup
This satisfying soup is an excellent one-pot dinner to come home to after a long day. It takes only 10 minutes to throw it together in the morning and 10 minutes to finish it in the evening. If you plan to be away for eight hours or more, set the cook time for four hours, then set the slow cooker to auto-switch to warm for the remaining time. (This prevents overcooking.) If you’ll be home when the soup is done and can remove it from the heat, it’s best to cook the chicken for five to six hours. Add only the tortellini you will eat right away. Leftover tortellini will get mushy.

Pressure Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs
Spaghetti and meatballs isn’t necessarily any faster when made in an electric pressure cooker, but it does take away a lot of hands-on work. And it can all be done in one pot instead of the usual two to three it would take on the stove. Here, the meatballs, which are not fried but cooked entirely in the sauce, are gently spiced and very tender — the height of kid-friendly cuisine. The ricotta topping is optional, but it makes the whole thing especially creamy and rich. If you have some homemade marinara sauce in the freezer, or a favorite store-bought kind, you can substitute 3 1/4 cups of it here. Olive fans take note: Adding 1/4 cup sliced pitted olives to the sauce will probably make you very happy come dinnertime.

Pressure Cooker Chicken Tortellini Tomato Soup
This comforting soup is a one-pot meal-in-a-bowl. The key to its deliciousness is the way in which the pressure cooker makes the soup taste as though it’s been simmered for hours when, in fact, it’s been only about 30 minutes. (You could also make the slow-cooker version of this recipe, if time is on your side.) Quick-cooking baby spinach works beautifully, but you can choose a different green if you prefer: If you use a heartier green, like chopped kale or chard, give it a few more minutes to get tender before adding the tortellini. If you’re planning for leftovers, add only the tortellini you will eat right away. Left in the soup, they will overcook. Be generous with toppings; they make the soup even more delicious.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup
While the origins of tortilla soup (also known as sopa Azteca or sopa de tortilla) can be traced to central Mexico, it has many variations, often characterized by a brothy chicken base flavored with puréed roasted tomatoes, chiles and garlic, and topped with fried leftover tortillas and other garnishes. In this nontraditional slow-cooker version, tomatoes, onion, garlic and chile are charred under the broiler (on a foil-lined sheet pan, for easy clean-up), then go straight into the slow cooker, where they add savory depth to the chicken soup. (No slow-cooker? Use the stovetop version of this recipe.)

Slow Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs
Using a mixture of uncased sausage and ground beef is the trick to achieving tender, flavorful meatballs without a lot of work or extra ingredients. These three-inch meatballs are oversize, so they can stay moist and tender after cooking for an extended period. This way, they also fit in the slow cooker in one layer, which helps them cook evenly. Choose any kind of turkey sausage you like best; sweet or hot Italian are both great choices. (Pork will work too, but will make the sauce a little oily.) Fear not, the spaghetti is cooked separately, so you can serve these meatballs over any long noodle for a traditional take, or spoon them over polenta or tuck them into hero rolls.

Slow Cooker Shrimp in Purgatory
This recipe is inspired by eggs in purgatory, a Southern Italian dish in which eggs simmer in a spicy tomato sauce. Shrimp aren’t commonly thought of as slow cooker material, but here, the sauce simmers for several hours, and the quick-cooking shrimp is dropped in just a bit before you want to eat. (You can use frozen shrimp; just thaw them first.) Cooking the sauce on high allows the onion and garlic to tenderize and melt into the sauce. The tomatoes and roasted peppers caramelize slightly as they simmer, so when fully cooked, the sauce should be a shade darker than when you started. The sauce holds well on the warm setting. Serve the shrimp in shallow bowls on its own, or over orzo, couscous or polenta and with crusty bread. Find a skillet version of this dish here.

Slow Cooker Spicy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili
This nourishing, smoky vegan chili is perfect for cold weeknights. Mix everything in the slow cooker before the chaos of the day begins, then just toss in some frozen corn a few minutes before you’re ready to eat. As with any chili, toppings go far. Feel free to throw on what you have and what sounds good, like tortilla chips, cilantro or vegan cheese. The recipe calls for either coconut oil or vegetable oil. If you’d like a mild coconut flavor — which plays well with the orange juice in the chili — choose unrefined or virgin coconut oil. For a neutral flavor, choose refined coconut oil or any vegetable oil. Use one chipotle chile for a very mild chili, and four if you like yours very spicy. (Get the stovetop version of this recipe here.)

Slow-Cooker Kofte in Tomato-Lime Broth
While you’re at the beach, at work or doing anything at all, these bright, light, brothy meatballs can be stewing in the slow cooker. They are made in the style of kofte (from the Persian word meaning “grind”), in which ground meat is combined with lots of herbs and ground spices. Yogurt adds moisture and tang, but you don’t need another binder or to brown the meat first. As the meatballs slowly cook, their juices mingle with the tomatoes to create a rich but tart broth. Eat with grains (bulgur wheat, farro, rice), couscous, noodles or pita. For a stovetop version, see the Tip.

Slow-Cooker Tomato Compote
This savory compote — a typically sweet, slow-simmered fruit preserve — is a delicious way to eat cherry tomatoes, especially those that are on the verge of being too soft. But it’s also a great way to intensify the flavor of middling supermarket cherry tomatoes in the winter. Either way, the sweet-tart tomatoes can build super-quick meals: Put them on top of ricotta or avocado toast, or squish them into a grilled cheese. Toss them with hot or cold pasta. Use the oil and juices in salad dressings and the tomatoes in the salad itself. The compote can be used right away, but it’s best the next day and will keep in the fridge for at least a week. Feel free to throw in any hardy, woody herbs you like, but don’t add very delicate herbs like basil, chives or dill before cooking. You can add a handful of those softer herbs before serving, if you like.

Slow Cooker Pork Puttanesca Ragù
This hearty ragù has all the punchy, briny flavors of traditional puttanesca (tomato, anchovies, capers, olives and red-pepper flakes), and introduces pork shoulder to the equation, making a particularly rich and meaty Sunday sauce. Deep flavor is built by starting the dish in a skillet, searing the pork and caramelizing the tomato paste until concentrated. The mixture might look dry as it gets transferred to the slow cooker, but as it cooks, the pork tenderizes and releases its juices. Before serving, add more tomato, along with lemon and parsley, to balance the deep, long-simmered flavors with fresh ones.

Slow Cooker Ribollita With Smoked Mozzarella Toasts
This classic Italian vegetable soup is a wonderful way to use up stale bread and leftover vegetables — and can be prepared in a pot, in a pressure cooker, or in a slow cooker. With the exception of sliced sandwich bread (which is too flimsy), any crusty bread will work here: sourdough, ciabatta, multigrain and so on. (Since you’re toasting it, it’s not necessary for the bread to be stale, but it certainly can be.) The olive-oil-rich sautéed vegetables melt into the soup as it simmers, but you can throw in other leftover cooked vegetables at the end, with the greens.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tinga Tacos
Tinga is a Pueblan dish of braised chicken or pork in a chipotle, tomato and onion sauce, traditionally served on crisp tostadas and finished with toppings like crema, avocado and shredded lettuce. Some versions braise the meat directly in the sauce, while others call for chicken or pork that’s already been cooked to be warmed in the sauce. (Some variations include chorizo, too.) The dish is widely popular because it’s affordable and versatile, and tastes complex even though it is easy to make. For this slow-cooker adaptation, the bulk of the cook time is hands-off braising. Fresh corn is not traditional in tinga, but it’s delicious, adding pops of sweetness and a flavor that echoes the corn tortillas or tostadas. Add one chipotle for a mild spice level or three for a more intense result.

Slow Cooker Chickpea, Red Pepper and Tomato Stew
This easy vegan stew is inspired by romesco, the Spanish sauce made from roasted red peppers, tomatoes, almonds, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. Here, those flavors come together in a stew that pulls from the pantry, with fast prep and little waste. Instead of stock, this stew relies on the thick liquid from the canned chickpeas, sometimes called aquafaba. And the marinating oil in jarred sun-dried tomatoes is often delicious, augmented with herbs and vinegar. Give yours a little taste to make sure you like it, and then throw that in, too. (If you don’t like it, make up the difference with regular olive oil.) The smoked almonds on top are key, adding necessary crunch and richness, so be generous with them. (If you would like to make this stew on the stovetop, just sauté the onion then add the remaining stew ingredients and simmer until the flavors are blended, about 30 minutes. If using a pressure cooker, you can use this pressure-cooker version of the recipe.)

Slow-Cooker Sunday Sauce
Whether it’s called red sauce, sugo or gravy, you’ll find a big pot of the rich tomato sauce simmering all Sunday long in many Italian-American households. Every family has their own version, but this recipe includes shreddy pork shoulder, sausage and meatballs. This slow-cooker version lets you simmer it overnight or while you’re not home, and without splatters and stirring (though you can also make it on a stovetop). Once the sauce is done, coat pasta in the sauce, spoon the meats on top and serve it with a green salad, crusty bread and red wine. Sauce can be kept refrigerated for up to one week and frozen for up to three months.

Grilled Corn, Asparagus and Spring Onion Salad
In this cookout perfect salad, corn, asparagus and spring onions benefit from the deep flavors of the grill. Their outer layers get a rustic char, their full sweetness is released, and they go from raw to cooked while maintaining a crunchy bite. Still warm, they’re doused in one of Mexico’s most fun ways to dress grilled vegetables or potato chips, an easy-to-eat sauce where umami, citrus and heat converge. The mixture is typically referred to as salsa preparada, meaning you simply mix these sauces together to “prepare” your food. You may wonder if the soy, Worcestershire and Maggi sauces compete, but each has a different character of sazón, which is whisked with plenty of fresh squeezed lime juice and a punch of chile oil. If more heat is desired, you can add a splash of your favorite hot sauce. This salad is great solo as an appetizer, but it is even better served right next to grilled meats.

Sheet-Pan Chicken Chilaquiles
Chilaquiles are a traditional Mexican breakfast dish of fried corn tortillas simmered in a red (roja) or green (verde) sauce and often topped with cheese and fried eggs. The green sauce features tomatillos, while the red version uses tomatoes. Here, the quick salsa roja gets a flavor boost from charring the components under a broiler, resulting in a sauce that is pleasantly spicy, bright and smoky. While this dish is usually made in a skillet, this version is cooked on a sheet pan, making it a breeze to feed four people in just one batch. Guajillo chiles have medium heat and an earthy sweetness; for a milder sauce, New Mexico chiles are an excellent choice.

Sheet-Pan Chicken With Jammy Tomatoes and Pancetta
In this relatively speedy sheet-pan dinner, boneless, skinless chicken thighs are seasoned with a savory, cumin-scented spice mix and roasted with whole garlic cloves and cherry tomatoes, which turn soft and sweet in the oven’s heat. If you have ripe summer cherry tomatoes, you can skip the brown sugar. If you’d rather use boneless chicken breasts, reduce the cooking time by about 5 to 7 minutes. This makes a light meal on its own, but you can add rice or crusty bread, and maybe a salad, if you need something more substantial.

Sheet-Pan Ratatouille With Goat Cheese and Olives
Cooking ratatouille on a sheet pan in the oven isn’t just easier than cooking it in a pot on the stove, it’s also better: richer and more deeply caramelized in flavor. To make it, the vegetables are slicked with plenty of olive oil, then roasted until tender and browned, their juices mingling and condensing. Toward the end of the cooking time, goat cheese and olives are sprinkled on top. The cheese melts and becomes creamy, while the olives heat up and turn plump and tangy. Serve this as a meatless main dish, with crusty bread and more goat cheese, or as a hearty side dish to a simple roast chicken or fish.

Sheet-Pan Italian Sub Dinner
The Italian sub, a deli sandwich that piles some combination of cheese, cured meats and preserved vegetables onto a soft roll, is an Italian-American classic. But toss those fillings onto a sheet pan and hit them with a little heat, and they caramelize and crisp into a complete dinner with loads of character — sweet and spicy, bitter and briny. In this recipe, salami, red onions, pepperoncini, tomatoes, radicchio and chickpeas get tossed with an oregano-garlic vinaigrette before roasting. The radicchio and red onion mellow, the tomatoes sweeten and the salami releases fat and seasonings that add even more flavor and richness. (You can swap in cauliflower florets, cubes of squash or halved red potatoes for the radicchio.) Serve with a plop of ricotta for creaminess (or provolone and Parmesan, for a more traditional take), more vinaigrette and crusty bread for sopping it all up or piling it into a sandwich.

Burger Plate
Inspired by German Hamburg steak and other patties of the world, including Danish frikadeller, Japanese hambagu and Korean hambak steak, this lunch-counter meal of ground beef is seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, nutmeg and grated onion. The rest is mere assembly, arraying fresh, crunchy accoutrements to accompany the tender burgers: Tomatoes lend juiciness, dill pickles provide zing and sweet raw onions cut through the richness of the meat. Though you could sandwich all of these ingredients between two slices of toasted bread, eating them as a casual plate lunch lets you appreciate each part separately. If you’d like, replace the ground beef with a plant-based ground meat substitute.

Bricklayer-Style Nachos
Bricklayer-style beef, or puntas al albañil, made with tender pieces of beef, salty bacon and sometimes chorizo in a chunky fire-roasted salsa, is a beloved taco filling in Mexico. Once a common snack available near construction sites in central Mexico, it became popular beyond street food stands, expanding into homes and restaurants over the years. Here it’s used as the foundation for nachos, topped with mounds of melted cheese, tangy queso fresco, creamy avocado and crunchy scallions for a hearty, delicious meal.

Salmon With Salsa Fresca
There was a time when the appearance of the first ripe tomatoes would have inspired me to make the southern Italian sauce of raw tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil. These days, I turn to a Mexican-style salsa fresca: tomatoes, white onion, chili and loads of cilantro and lime. I love salsa with fish, and since it is wild salmon season, the marriage seems opportune. Halibut and swordfish, whether grilled, broiled, roasted, or even steamed, are equally fine. Though the salsa is quick to prepare, it's best if allowed to sit for 15 to 30 minutes before serving. The tomatoes' juices will run, and the flavors will mingle. No more than an hour, though.

Tunisian Shakshuka With Shrimp
The Arabic word shakshuka loosely translates to “all mixed up” in English, and rightly so, as the dish usually includes a colorful array of ingredients that are traditionally served in a cast-iron skillet. Made with eggs poached in a bright, peppery tomato sauce, it is a staple of Tunisian home cooking. Shrimp shakshuka is popular on the Mediterranean Coast, where shrimp are fresh and plentiful, but you could substitute merguez or skip the protein entirely for a vegetarian option. It is easy to make and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner.