Stone Fruit Caprese

A standout caprese starts with great fruit. You need ripe tomatoes to weep juices, which then mingle with grassy olive oil and milky cheese to make your dressing. Basil adds freshness, black pepper and flakes of sea salt add crunch, and that’s it, a perfect combination. But if the stone fruit options are looking better than the tomatoes at the market, you can use them instead. They’re similar in flavor to tomatoes, but need cajoling to relinquish their juices. By letting sliced fruit macerate with salt, sugar and lemon juice, their fruitiness becomes more electric and their juices pool on the plate. Start with fruit you can smell and pair it with equally quality ingredients. Caprese is more about shopping than cooking.

20 min

Taco Salad

This Mexican American classic has roots at Disneyland. Charles Elmer Doolin, a cofounder of the Frito Company, created an edible cup out of Fritos and served it at his Disneyland restaurant, Casa de Fritos, in 1955. It was the size of a teacup, filled with ground beef, beans and sour cream, and called the Ta-Cup (a portmanteau of taco and cup). The creation was a hit, with recipes for taco salad made with various corn chips proliferating in the ’60s, becoming a staple in school cafeterias, and eventually growing into the jumbo version added to the Taco Bell menu in 1984. (The menu item was retired in 2020.) You can use any corn chip for this recipe, and there’s no need for it to be in cup form, but opt for Fritos, if you want that authentic taste. 

35 min

Greek Salad

While diner-style Greek salads made with chopped romaine, crumbled feta and often grilled chicken have become ubiquitous in American restaurants, a traditional Greek salad, or horiatiki salata, is a simpler affair. An assembled salad of large-diced vegetables with Kalamata olives and sometimes capers, this salad has no greens at all, and the feta is served sliced on top of the salad rather than crumbled and tossed into it. A traditional Greek salad dressing usually consists of olive oil and red wine vinegar; this recipe adds garlic and oregano. To make the salad into a satisfying vegetarian main course, throw in a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas.

15 min

Fruit Salad

A bit of sugar and lime makes a standout fruit salad: The duo accentuates fruit’s flavors and sweetness while creating a syrup to gloss the fruit. Massage lime zest into the sugar so its oils release, then stir mixed fruit with the lime sugar and some lime juice. Taste and tweak until the result is electric. You could also add chopped mint or basil, ground cinnamon or coriander, vanilla bean seeds, chile flakes or grated fresh ginger.

20 min

Polpette di melanzane – aubergine fritters

This Calabrian polpette (meatball) recipe doesn't actually contain any meat, containing a simple mix of aubergines, bread and pecorino cheese instead.

Penne all'arrabbiata

A quick and simple classic, this penne all'arrabbitata recipe is a great go-to pasta dish.

Sweet Cinnamon Tamal

Baking a single large-format tamal may not be traditional, but it produces a similarly tender, moist, barely sweet cake with pudding vibes.

Schlutzkrapfen – pasta filled with spinach and ricotta

This semi-circle shaped pasta is typical of the Trentino-Alto Adige region of north Italy and is filled with spinach, ricotta and potato. Tossed with nutty brown butter and topped with Grana Padano cheese, this moreish dish is well worth making pasta from scratch for.

Creamy Lemon Pasta

This Creamy Lemon Pasta is an ode to the sweet, fragrant lemons that grow all along Italy’s Amalfi Coast. It’s a signature dish of L’Antica Trattoria in Sorrento. Get the recipe at Food and Wine.

20 min

Mustard, Kale and Cheddar Pull-Apart Bread

These mustardy monkey bread rolls boast lots of cheddar cheese and garlic, making them ideal with soup or pasta.

3 hr 5 min

Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts

Butternut Squash Polenta | Epicurious

Butternut squash melts into the polenta as it cooks for this creamy make-ahead dish. Once transferred to a baking dish, pressing chunks of creamy Fontina cheese into the polenta ensures that once baked it will be full of gooey pockets of cheese throughout.