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.

Sausage and Dijon polenta: $1.65/serving

I do not, have never, and will never understand people who buy those tubes of pre-made polenta. It’s cornmeal—the same stuff you can get at the bulk bin for like 25 cents a pound. You want it sliceable? Cool it in a loaf pan lined with plastic wrap and invert it. You want it soft and creamy? Eat it right away. It’s versatile, filling, and can be as gourmet or lowbrow as you want to make it. This particular version happens to be an extremely flavorful last-minute way to use up some on-sale ($1.99/lb. kielbasa at Grocery Outlet!) or about-to-expire sausage—just add a cup of cornmeal, some stock, and some extras you probably already have kicking around your fridge, and you’ve got a meal.

Spaghetti with sausage ragù: $1.45/serving

If you’re lucky enough to have access to a Grocery Outlet (I believe they’re only ubiquitous in California, Oregon and Washington, although other regions of the U.S. probably have something comparable), here’s a tip for you: Check the frozen-foods aisle for sausage. They have it in the regular meat area, but it’s nowhere near as cheap as the frozen stuff—several times now I was able to find Johnsonville Italian sausage for $1.79 a pound. At this rate it’s cheaper than beef or pork, and it makes a superb pasta sauce. It’s not quite as quick and easy as the bacon and tomato cream sauce I posted a few days ago, but it’s amazingly flavorful and allows you to stretch less than $2 worth of sausage into almost 6 servings.

Baked bean, apple & sausage strata: $1.13/serving

Because I don’t like eggs by themselves (scrambled, fried, deviled…they all taste overwhelmingly of farts to me), brunch can be a frustrating meal. If a non-egg option even exists on the menu, which it often doesn’t, it’s either something disgustingly sweet, like powdered sugar with a side of French toast, or gut-bombingly fatty, like biscuits and gravy. (Nothing against biscuits and gravy, mind you—I would probably eat this happily every day, right up until I had to buy a new pair of pants.) This strata is a great solution for people like me: a brunch dish that’s egg-free yet flavorful, inexpensive, and a little easier on the waistline. It’s also great for dinner, or as a side dish at barbecues or potlucks.

Baked pasta with sausage, spinach, and sage: $1.59/serving

I admit, this is pretty much exactly what it looks like: a hot mess casserole. The recipe even came out of Faith Durand’s “Not Your Mother’s Casseroles.” But it’s a light casserole, as far as these things go, and the flavors are a little more sophisticated than what you’d expect, with caramelized onions and just enough cheese to hold the whole thing together. To further convince myself this was actually wholesome, I served it with a side salad of assorted mesclun. (And by “mesclun” I mean “the miniature leaves of the only harvestable things in the garden right now,” which would be oak-leaf lettuce, bok choy, and Japanese purple mustard. By way of postscript, for the love of god, don’t put the latter two in a salad. Ever.)

Fried chicken & Andouille gumbo: 99 cents/serving

I’ll come right out and say that while this is most likely going to be the best gumbo you’ve ever tasted, it’s not a recipe for the impatient, unskilled, or faint of heart. It’s taken me several years and several handfuls of blisters to learn how to make a proper roux (and even then, my definition of “proper” is probably open to interpretation. I’m no Southerner, nor have I ever lived in the South; I just like the food), and the tedium of waiting for the stock to finish and the chicken to get tender enough to fall off the bones is enough in and of itself enough to torpedo a weekend. But if you find yourself in fearless pursuit of the real thing, not to mention the real thing for under $1 per serving, look no further.

Rye berries with tomatoes & Andouille: $1.99/serving

Rye berries are, like oat groats, the whole-grain version of their respective flour or meal. This was my first encounter with rye berries after reading Maria Speck sing their praises in “Ancient Grains for Modern Meals,” and I have to say, I found them more or less indistinguishable from farro (emmer wheat)  in appearance, taste and texture. Which isn’t to say they’re not worth using if they’re readily available, but I’m guessing you’ll have an easier time finding farro. In any case, the flavor of the sausage and tomatoes against the texture of the whole grains is the star in this risotto-like dish, but most things are interchangeable—different sausages, different types of tomatoes, different types and amounts of liquid—so feel free to use whatever you happen to have on hand. If I made this again, I’d probably bake it instead of cook it on the stove, so if anyone tries this, let me know how it turned out.

Guest Post: rice-cooker jambalaya: $1.54/serving

Note: This is another guest post by my husband, B. If I had come across this recipe on my own I probably would’ve rolled my eyes at the canned soup and “jambalaya” classification (because I’m an asshole, you see), but not only does this dish hold sentimental value for being the first of three—now four—things he’s ever cooked for me, it’s actually really good, and really easy. Probably easier than any recipe on this entire site.

Guest Post: sausage, bacon & mushroom calzones: $2.03 each

Note: This is one of approximately three times my husband, B., has cooked in the entire history of our relationship, and not only did he volunteer to do it (and write a post about it), the result was embarrassingly better than whatever I would’ve made with the same ingredients. Not only is the gig up on his “I can’t cook” excuse, the status of his being cooked for seven days a week is officially in jeopardy.

Maple-Dijon roasted sweet potatoes, apples & sausages: $1.51/serving

I offer little by way of explanation for the quality of this photo, other than to say the accompanying audio track, if it were to exist, would consist of me shrieking hysterically after the last clean cooking utensil in the entire house had just fallen into a crack between the oven and the counter. To put it mildly, the past few days have not been going very well for me. But instead of running out to McDonald’s, here I am, BY GOD trying to throw something—anything—together to create some semblance of a home-cooked meal for under $2 a serving. Sincere apologies to Frugal Feeding, whose beautiful roasted celebration squash and sausage dish served as something of an inspiration.