DINNER: CHANGING THE GAME

Each recipe in New York Times columnist Melissa Clark's Dinner is meant to be dinner - one fantastic dish that is so satisfying and flavor-forward it can stand alone - or be paired with a simple salad or fresh bread on the side. This is what Melissa Clark means by changing the game.

Organized by main ingredient - chicken, meat, fish and seafood, eggs, pasta and noodles, tofu, vegetable dinners, grains, pizza, soups, and salads that mean it - Dinner covers an astonishing breadth of recipes. There is something for every mood, season, and the amount of time you have: sheet pan chicken laced with spicy harissa, burgers amped with chorizo, curried lentils with poached eggs, to name just a few dishes in this indispensable collection. Here, too, are easy flourishes that make dinner exceptional: stir charred lemon into pasta, toss creamy Caesar-like dressing on a grain bowl.