Harissa rigatoni with kale, sausage & pine nuts: $2.10/serving

Harissa, a North African spice paste made with dried peppers, seems to be having a moment. I hadn’t even heard of it five years ago, and all of a sudden it seems to be everywhere—on TV shows like Top Chef, on restaurant menus…even on the shelf at Williams-Sonoma. In fact, any gourmet store likely to carry a jar of the stuff is probably going to charge anywhere from $9 to $13 for it. Which is too bad, because it’s quite versatile as a condiment—spread on sandwiches, stirred into soups, added to pizza, and tossed with pasta, such as in this quick-‘n’-healthy weeknight dish. Making your own harissa from scratch only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish (most of it passive time soaking the peppers) and is less than half the cost of the store-bought stuff, so it’s easy to make up a batch on a weekend and freeze it in little bags for future use.

Chicken & pomegranate stuffed shells with Gorgonzola and pine nuts: $2.34/serving

Now, the first thing you might be thinking upon seeing this picture is, Who on earth thought to combine chicken, pomegranates and two kinds of cheese, and what kind of drugs were they on? Sadly, I don’t have the answer to either of those questions, but I’d really like to know the latter, because the combination totally works. This isn’t the first time I’ve made this dish, either, so rest assured I’m not blinded by the novelty. It is a little fussy to prepare with so many different components, but it’s an ingenious way to use up the remains of a pomegranate, as was my purpose in making it, and is definitely fancy enough for company.

Butternut squash risotto with spinach & pine nuts: $2.28/serving

Not an easy week this is, with so many dinners over $2. However, some meals are worth surviving the rest of the day on bread and coffee for, and this is one of them. Butternut squash used to be a hard sell for me (texturally, it still kind of is) until I had it in a risotto at a restaurant not long ago, in which the sweet chunks of squash against a savory background made me a believer. That particular risotto, though, was so heavily loaded with butter and cheese that it took me nearly two days to find the strength to even walk the dog. To say I felt disgusting is to describe the Republican-candidate debates as mildly alarming. Good food needn’t always be an assault on your system; this version gets big flavors from stock, vegetables, and cooking technique, not fat.

Farfalle with Kalamata olives, pine nuts, & sun-dried tomatoes: $2.40/serving

Photogenic issues aside, odds are you’ve had this dish—or something similar—at a faux-Tuscan sponge-painted restaurant located next to a Bed, Bath & Beyond or a Sports Authority. There may or may not have been unlimited breadsticks, or the word “Grill” in the name. Anyhow, this is a quick and easy crowd pleaser that, considering you have the ingredients lying around, can be thrown together at the last minute. It may not be the cheapest meal you’ll ever make, but it sure beats $12.95 a serving.