One of the oldest dishes in the comfort food playbook, the gratin is at once unapologetically rich and refreshingly simple. Take a handful of basic ingredients, suspend them in a creamy sauce and bake everything to perfection under a golden brown crust. Perhaps the best part? Cheese isn’t only welcome in most gratin recipes, it’s practically demanded.

To make your own candied apples, all you really need are a few things: apples (there are great local and heirloom apples in season at farmers and other markets now), popsicle or other fancy sticks, a few common ingredients and a candy or digital thermometer. And the process is surprisingly simple: cook your sugar base to the required temperature, flavor it (I like to use vanilla extract and sometimes a touch of cinnamon oil), and color. Then dip the apples and watch the candy coating dry to a brilliant lacquer. That’s it.

What I love most about chili is it’s a wonderfully simple, no-fuss dish. Neither soup nor stew, chili is in a category all its own. And like most comfort foods, chili’s flavors only improve with time, almost like a fine wine. And it takes well to improvisation. This chili recipe draws from North African inspiration, incorporating Merguez sausage and harissa. The flavors are rounded out with fresh ginger and lemon, cinnamon and turmeric. And unlike some traditional recipes that call for cooking tough cuts of meat for hours on end, this recipe comes together in a little over an hour. Fix a bowl and top it with fresh cilantro and feta cheese, along with an extra dab of harissa if you like it spicy. The flavors are bright and fresh, balanced with subtle but intense heat. And they only improve with time.

Freshly-chopped chives, basil and tarragon. Bright lemon vinaigrette with a hint of garlic. Crunchy shallot rings and vibrant radishes sliced paper thin. All tossed with tender lumped crab meat and colorful micro greens.

It’s one of my favorite go-to dishes in my easy dinner recipes playbook: thick tuna steaks marinated in a handful of seasonings, ready to be cooked up in minutes. And the method couldn’t be more simple, the tuna flavored with ingredients I almost always have on hand. Marinate thick tuna steaks in a simple blend of soy sauce, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, garlic and a sprinkling of brown sugar for 30 minutes or so, then cook. Some nights, I sear the steaks in a hot pan until the outer surface is nicely browned, other nights I like to grill the steaks, the sugars in the marinade caramelizing over the live fire for rich, robust flavor.