Recipes

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

This is less a recipe for a sundae bar, and more a recipe for for the two sauces that accompany, crunchy bittersweet chocolate (essentially a homemade chocolate shell) and salty tahini caramel. Both can be made and stored for at least a month (for whenever the craving strikes). It’s hard to beat the creamy subtlety of vanilla ice cream to pair with them, but any ice cream of your choosing will work.

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

At its core, kugel is a casserole. It comes in both savory and sweet varieties, often made with egg noodles and vaguely sweetened. This version, made with potatoes, is decidedly salty and savory, with onions in the mixture and chives to finish. It can best be described as something between a Spanish tortilla and a giant latke; the potatoes are shredded, not sliced, there are eggs but no flour, and it’s got crispy edges and a creamy interior. Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? The most annoying parts of this kugel are also the most important: grating the potatoes (I use a box grater, but you can use a food processor with the shredding blade) and wringing out their moisture. For that, I use my hands and a colander or strainer to save a kitchen towel or a cheesecloth, but you can use those, if you like. Traditionally made in a casserole-style baking dish, this kugel starts off in a cast-iron skillet, but a stainless-steel skillet would do the job, and honestly so would a baking dish, just know yo

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

I’m just guessing here, but I feel like “chopped liver” will never be my most popular recipe. I do love to eat it, and for those who feel the same way, "Hello, nice to meet you!" It’s not much to look at, but at least one of you will become a fan after spreading this funky, savory mixture onto a salted matzo with a sprinkle of parsley and lemon juice. (I’m hoping that person is you.) It won’t keep very long (it’s best within 24 hours), but that’s why this version makes the perfect snackable amount.

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

Tradition is a beautiful thing, unless it requires you to make something you don’t enjoy making or eating. For me, that’s charoset. Classically, it’s an apple-walnut mixture (occasionally including a touch of cinnamon or dried fruit, or a combination) that ranges from chunky-relish to chunky-paste, and it’s never been my favorite thing on the table. I’ve always wanted it tangier, crunchier and, well, I wanted a salad. This is that salad. It’s meant to be more acidic than sweet, but adjust with vinegar and honey as needed to suit your preference. A note: Nearly everyone who ate this salad said it was their favorite part of the whole meal, which bruised my matzo ball ego, but I thought you should know.

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

This bright, sweet and salty recipe for braised short ribs will work with bone-in or boneless meat, as long as the short ribs are thick (at least 1 ½ inch), and not the thinly sliced Korean style. Seasoning your meat with salt and pepper at least 24 hours in advance will greatly improve the flavor of the finished product. And, if you can spare an extra 24, making them a day ahead of serving will make them even better, with all that braising liquid flavoring the meat as it sits. Finishing with herbs and lemon are hardly a revelation in the braised meat department, but they are especially welcome here. The fresh lemon juice at the end transforms the braising liquid into a bright, brothy, spoonable sauce good enough to drink.

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

Greater than the sum of its parts, matzo ball soup is a wonderful combination of three very simple things: chicken broth (golden brown, deeply savory, lightly seasoned), matzo balls (tender, eggy, schmaltzy dumplings made with ground matzo) and garnish (celery and fresh dill, lots of it). The key to keeping the chicken juicy, tender and something you’re excited to eat is by gently simmering the stock (which will also keep the broth crystal clear rather than muddied). You can pick the meat from the chicken and add it back to the soup if you like, or save for next-day chicken salad. For the matzo balls, matzo meal is preferred for its fine texture, but know that you can also grind your own from matzo boards in a food processor.

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

I have always been the one at the Seder table to eat the parsley dipped in saltwater with enthusiasm. “You going to finish that?” I might ask my neighbor at the table when I see they have left theirs untouched after just a nibble. This salad is an obvious nod to the Seder plate, including both parsley (karpas) and fresh horseradish (maror, or bitter herbs), except it’s less ceremonial and more just a very delicious salad. I love, love parsley and think a well-seasoned bowl of it is something that most tables can benefit from, especially if those tables include braised pots of red meat. While parsley and fennel can be prepared ahead of time, the salad itself is best dressed right before you eat.

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

This is one of the few occasions when overcrowding the skillet is a good thing. These carrots are cooked in fat (schmaltz, olive oil, butter), with a pinch of something spicy (red-pepper flakes, cayenne, even hot paprika), sort of half-steaming on top of each other until just tender (no mushy carrots here, please). At the end, they are seasoned with a bit of finely grated or chopped garlic off the heat, which quiets the garlicky punchiness without extinguishing it entirely. Like a sandwich cut into triangles, the fact that the carrots are sliced into rounds makes them taste above-average delicious.

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

Boiled potatoes are great to keep on hand for out-of-hand snacking and as a quick addition to things like a skillet full of chicken fat or a midday lunch salad, but also excellent as a foil for rich, fatty, tinned fish. In this recipe from “Nothing Fancy” (Clarkson Potter, 2019), the potatoes are crushed because it allows the chunkiness (which lends texture) to coexist with the more broken-up pieces (which lends creaminess). Plus, those exposed craggy edges are here for maximum lemony, scalliony, salty dressing absorption.

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

This versatile (coincidentally vegan) soup can be customized with most quick-cooking vegetables — thinly sliced asparagus could easily be thinly sliced turnips or radishes — and whatever tofu you have access to. If tofu isn’t your thing, this soup would also be a great place to add any leftover chicken to warm through or shrimp to cook in the broth. The lemon at the end will breathe a lot of much-needed life into this broth built mostly from pantry staples, but a splash of rice wine vinegar would also do the trick.

Alison Roman · NYT Cooking

A staple of any fast-casual restaurant, broccoli-cheddar soup has somewhat of a cult following on the internet. Thicker than cream of broccoli, this roux-thickened soup can be puréed completely smooth or left chunky and rustic. Either way, be sure to use the sharpest Cheddar available (white or orange work here). It’ll provide richness in addition to a necessary acidity.

Craig Claiborne · NYT Cooking

This gentle, earthy soufflé first appeared on the menu of Chez Panisse, Alice Waters’s groundbreaking restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., and was brought to The Times by Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey, who called it “splendid.” That it is. (The New York Times) Craig Claiborne And Pierre Franey

Leslie Land · NYT Cooking

This adaptation of Alice Waters’s lemon meringue pie, which came to the Times in a 1987, takes a little time, but your efforts will be rewarded with a spectacular centerpiece dessert: a cloud of toasted meringue atop a pool of buttery and bright lemon curd in a light and flaky crust. If you can’t find Meyer lemons, which aren’t as tangy as regular lemons, and have a spicy, floral note, regular supermarket lemons will make a worthy substitute. This recipe makes an elegant pie with a restrained ratio of lemon curd to meringue, but if you want more of a showstopper — the towering kind you might find in a diner or at a church picnic, for instance — you can double the filling as some of our readers do, and as we did for the photograph above. (Although you certainly could, we did not double the meringue. If you don't, save the leftover egg whites for another use.) Leslie Land

Nancy Harmon Jenkins · NYT Cooking

Nancy Harmon Jenkins

Nancy Harmon Jenkins · NYT Cooking

Nancy Harmon Jenkins

Trish Hall · NYT Cooking

Trish Hall

Molly O’Neill · NYT Cooking

Molly O'Neill

Elaine Louie · NYT Cooking

Elaine Louie

Amanda Hesser · NYT Cooking

Amanda Hesser

Julia Reed · NYT Cooking

Julia Reed

Patricia Leigh Brown · NYT Cooking

Patricia Leigh Brown

Pete Wells · NYT Cooking

This sherbet reminds me of long-ago Creamsicles and Orange Juliuses at the mall, but it has a bright juiciness I don’t remember from my childhood. Pete Wells

Christine Muhlke · NYT Cooking

This uncomplicated lemon pie is a variation of one attributed to the Shakers, a religious community best known for their simple living philosophy and exquisitely designed furniture. It is said that Shaker cooks waste nothing, and if that is true, this tart is a perfect example of that ethos. The entire lemon (minus the seeds) is used – sliced thinly and macerated with plenty of sugar overnight – then baked with eggs and melted butter in a soft, flaky pastry. The end result is delicately-flavored and bright without the lip-puckering quality of most lemon desserts. (This recipe calls for Meyer lemons, which are milder than standard lemons, but the traditional variety will do – the thinner-skinned the better.) Christine Muhlke

Christine Muhlke · NYT Cooking

There is perhaps no better salad to represent the coming of age of California cuisine than this one, which began at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, where Alice Waters was looking for something to do with what was then a new ingredient on the American plate: goat cheese. It’s best with little gem or other, delicate and young lettuces. Christine Muhlke