I reside squarely in the fancy pizza camp. I like pizza featuring everything from figs and Brussels sprouts to chorizo and bacon, and I do not apologize for this fact. I see pizza dough as a blank canvas on which I get to experiment with flavor combinations.

That said, there is an old-school combination I often find myself coming back to: the margherita. Simply fresh tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil after baking, it’s a true classic. There are 2 keys to making a perfect pizza margherita: use the freshest ingredients available and be sure to show restraint with them—this is not supposed to be a goopy, overly-cheesy pizza.

My parents love to tell a story wherein I, at age 14 months, was given a bite of spicy Mexican mole (what kind of shoddy parenting is that, one might ask) and did a dance known as “the chicken,” shrieking at the top of my lungs, due to the excruciating pain my sensitive baby tongue was experiencing. Recently I discovered that there are photographs of this incident.

Anyway, this delicious, easy mole dish is perfect for a crowd, as it serves up to six people, but it is also a great dish to cook on Sunday night and eat for the rest of the week. The first night I make it, I serve it with steamed rice and then with warm corn tortillas, chopped onions and Mexican crema for all the days thereafter. Vegetarians should use vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth and swap in seitan or tempeh for the chicken.