The line between "Italian" and "Italian-American" cuisine can be blurry at times—some dishes, like lasagna, inhabit both worlds, though you may find major differences in preparation between the two versions. But there's one thing that pretty much all Italian-American dishes have in common, and not all Italian ones do: They're comfort foods. They don't judge.

They're not meant to be eaten in the company of anyone who wouldjudge you, whether you've got a dribble of melted cheese dangling from your chin or a fleck of spinach stuck to your teeth, whether you're taking third helpings of manicotti over a bad breakup or crying into your pizza crust over a lost job. They're family-and-friends foods, and as such, many of these dishes—often, very specific versions of them, made by our parents or grandparents or at the fern-bedecked red-sauce joint of our youth—hold a cherished spot in our memories.