Recipes

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

Oozy and crisp, a patty melt is always a treat to eat, but not so much to cook: The process can be splattery, and it can be tricky to make them for more than two people at a time. The grill not only solves these problems, but imbues the simple components — ground beef, bread, cheese and onions — with a hint of smoke. Grill the onions until golden, then the patties, mostly on one side, for a chargrilled exterior and medium-rare inside. While that’s happening, toast the bread and melt the cheese on the cool side of the grill. Serve with a pickle and mustard alongside to cut through the richness.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

While this weeknight-friendly recipe has the DNA of a broccoli-rice casserole, each element shines on its own: The rice is buttered and oniony sweet; the broccoli florets are tender, still-green and not mushy; and the cheese is broiled on top for a mix of gooey and crisp bites. Together, they make a dish that’s tempting enough to eat on its own. Or to make it a fuller meal, eat it alongside rotisserie chicken or pork chops or stir in a drained can of beans or tuna when you stir the rice.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

You can’t go wrong with rice, beans and gooey cheese swaddled in a warm flour tortilla. But this streamlined bowl version of the burrito delivers more texture and color in just a few steps. Cook rice and beans together in a skillet, then melt cheese on top. Spoon into bowls, then top with a big chunk of avocado and a quick corn salsa, which can be made with fresh or canned corn. If your fresh corn is sweet, use its kernels raw, or cook it by microwaving the cobs in their husks for three minutes before shucking. Feel free to add tomatoes, pico de gallo or radishes to the bowls as well.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

Silky salmon, chewy noodles, crisp vegetables: These cold noodle bowls are refreshing and satisfying, and don’t require much effort. Inspired by zaru soba and udon — cold noodles served with dipping sauce — this recipe uses supermarket stars to deliver flavor fast. Coating the salmon with toasted sesame oil and seeds accentuates the fish’s richness, while ponzu, a sauce of citrus juices, soy sauce and dashi, brightens straight from the bottle. If you like, add a kick with wasabi, grated ginger, shichimi togarashi, yuzu kosho or thinly sliced serrano pepper.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

It takes fewer than 10 minutes for the broiler to deliver a complete meal of molten, salty feta, sweet corn and smoky shishito peppers. While grilling cheese with vegetables is common in Mexican and Mediterranean traditions, this indoor, sheet pan rendition catches all the juices and oozing cheese as the feta slouches and chars and the vegetables plump and caramelize. Red onion quick-pickled in lime juice and a flurry of herbs cut through the richness. Serve it straight from the pan with warm pita, tortillas, quinoa, orzo, avocado, tzatziki or refried beans. For a kick, add thinly sliced jalapeños or serrano to the red onions, or top your plates with pico de gallo or hot sauce.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

This easy sheet-pan meal starts by roasting pork, cherry tomatoes and chickpeas with nothing more than oil, salt and pepper. No need to brown the meat first; you’ll get plenty of flavor from the punchy combination of oregano, garlic, oil and vinegar that is poured over everything after roasting. As the pork rests, its juices mingle with the vinaigrette and roasted tomatoes to form a sauce for the tender meat and plumped chickpeas. Serve it alongside a green salad, grains or orzo, a spoonful of Greek yogurt, crumbled feta or a pita warmed in the hot oven.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

Creamy, tangy and full of pep, this quick snack brings new life to your cottage cheese. Scallions, capers and everything bagel seasoning are stirred into cottage cheese, then torn arugula is scattered on top for a peppery crunch. Scoop into it with any combination of crackers, pretzels, toast and raw vegetables like cucumbers or celery — or eat it on a toasted bagel or English muffin. A batch, minus the arugula, keeps for up to two days in the fridge, so keep it on hand for anytime you need a pick-me-up.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

This is a special pot of brothy beans with ingredients reminiscent of porchetta: shreds of pork shoulder, wedges of tender fennel, and a broth heady with herbs, black pepper and garlic. Eat it as you would any braised white bean, such as over pasta or alongside sautéed broccoli rabe or kale and crusty bread. For a slow-cooker version, see here.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

Braising stew meat with dried beans ensures a rich broth no matter what else is in the pot. Here, white beans and pork shoulder are cooked with the heady flavors of porchetta: garlic, fennel, sage, rosemary and black pepper. While fennel seeds or pollen are used in porchetta, this recipe opts for the bulb and its stalks, which soften into silky strands. Round out the meal with sautéed broccoli rabe or kale and crusty bread. For a stovetop version, see here.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

With sweetness and brightness from citrus, and woodsy warmth from sage and black pepper, these roast chickens are elegant, yet unexpectedly effortless. By spatchcocking the chickens and roasting them on a sheet pan, you can roast two chickens in under an hour. That said, be sure to dry-brine them overnight for juicy meat and crackly skin fragrant with seasonings. This dish is a worthy stand-in for Thanksgiving turkey, but it would be just as welcome at Sunday dinner with a big green salad and roasted vegetables.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

Inspired by Hawaiian pizza, this sweet, salty and spicy appetizer skewers together fatty, soft cured ham with juicy pineapple and the bright kick of pickled jalapeño. Because whole pineapples can vary widely in ripeness, go for the pre-cut, refrigerated chunks if available — they’re typically juicier and sweeter. These three-ingredient bites can start many a meal or party, especially with Champagne, rosé, beer or something stronger like a margarita or gin and tonic.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

When blended in a food processor, grainy ricotta becomes an ethereally light dip. Here, it’s a mild and milky backdrop to swirls of honey and chile. Feel free to use whatever chile paste or oil you have. Serve the lightly sweet, spicy and creamy dip with something starchy — like crostini, crusty bread or pita chips — as well as slices of pears, apples, peaches or persimmons.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

For an elegant appetizer that’s so easy even a toddler could make it, stuff sharp and tangy blue cheese inside caramelly dates, then press a candied nut on top. Sweet, salty, savory and creamy, these three ingredients deliver everything you crave in a pre-dinner snack. The recipe is adaptable to any size get-together: Scale it up or down, serve right away or assemble it ahead and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 hours. Let the stuffed dates come to room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

There is absolutely nothing wrong with unadorned scrambled eggs, but here are two luxurious yet simple twists to consider: One, brown the butter in the pan, as dark as a dark chocolate, before adding the eggs. This will bring out the nutty sweetness of the butter. Then, to keep the eggs from veering too buttery, dot the finished scramble with vinegar. It provides the tang of hot sauce in a subtler way, so as not to distract from our main character, those silky eggs.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

This cozy yet reviving rice bowl pairs Thai red curry-stained rice with tender chicken and a citrusy slaw. To fire up the red curry paste, toast it with the raw rice before adding broth. Then, place chicken breasts on top of the rice, where they will steam tender. While the rice rests, mix together a salad with a nuoc cham-inspired dressing, pre-shredded slaw blend, citrus, peanuts and herbs.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

If you like the pucker of fresh citrus and the punch of raw ginger and chile, this orange chicken-inspired dish is for you. Skip making a glaze and instead let the cooked chicken and broccoli rest in a sauce of tangerine juice, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, ginger and chile. The chicken will come out juicy, even if you overcook it a bit, since it rested in the sauce. This dish is as good warm over rice or soba as it is cold over iceberg lettuce for lunch the next day. Swap in any quick-searing protein or vegetable — steak, tofu, asparagus, bell peppers — as you like.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

A few choice additions can make the common breakfast of fruit and cottage cheese anything but ordinary. Drizzles of tahini and honey give the bowl a rich, nutty, savory and creamy edge, while toasted sesame seeds double down on the sesame flavor and add a delicate crunch. It’s hard to think of a fruit that wouldn’t be good here: Pile on bananas, berries, stone fruits, melons, apples and pears, grapes, citrus, persimmon or pomegranate seeds.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

In this lively and satisfying weeknight pasta, nutty whole-wheat noodles and rich sardines are dressed in a sauce of lemon, garlic, chile and olive oil drizzled straight from the sardine tins. Because the sauce isn’t cooked, its ingredients stay punchy and bright. Arugula adds a peppery crunch, while shavings of Parmesan lend nutty umami. When every ingredient is bold in flavor, you have less work to do, so dinner can be ready in just 30 minutes. The pasta is also good cold the next day; add the arugula right before eating.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

Humble in parts yet rich in textures, this combination of flaky tuna, creamy beans, juicy raw onion and hearty kale makes a satisfying and quick lunch. Massaging the kale and onion with lemon juice and salt softens and seasons so that the kale remains toothsome but not tough, and the onion spicy but not prickly. The salad can be made up to two days ahead and is amenable to improvisation: Add cooked grains, thinly sliced tomatoes or cucumbers or leftover roasted vegetables.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

As gentle to make as it is to eat, this soup brings together the soothing properties of chicken soup and braised beans and greens. The soup is sweet and smooth from onions, garlic and herbs softened in butter, chickeny from poaching boneless breasts in chicken broth and silky from smashed beans. Feel free to top bowls with a squeeze of lemon, grating of Parmesan or slice of crusty bread. You could also add cooked rice or pasta to bowls. This is a soup that’s there for you.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

Here’s a glorious pot of crispy shredded pork, silky-soft peppers and brick-red drippings to spoon over hero rolls, polenta, pasta, rice or sautéed broccoli rabe or kale. For fork tender meat with lots of browned edges, don’t cover the pot: Instead, cook it with a small amount of liquid uncovered in a low-temperature oven, so it simultaneously braises and roasts. The liquid here is a combination of water, vinegar and the pork and pepper’s juices, which concentrate into sweet, rich and subtly tangy drippings. If you’d like a bit of heat, add hot chiles, too.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

In this one-skillet meal, silky salmon and greens grow rich, sweet and spicy as they roast with a mixture of dried coconut, garlic and crushed red pepper. The dish is inspired by thoran, a Keralan dish in which vegetables are stir-fried with fresh grated coconut and warm spices. Here, the vegetable is chard, and instead of stir-frying it, it’s roasted, which allows the coconut, chile and garlic to infuse the greens as their leaves soften and crisp. Instead of chard, you can use kale, but remove and discard its ribs and stems first. Lime-zested salmon cooks next to the greens, accentuating the tender and buttery qualities of the dish.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

In this fast, single-serving soup inspired by shin ramyun and kimchi soondubu jjigae, ramen noodles cook in a ferociously red broth of kimchi, gochujang, sesame oil, soy sauce and gochugaru. To temper the heat, eat the soup with soft tofu or crack an egg into the pot — its yolk adds some creaminess to the broth. For more vegetables, add chopped leafy greens or broccoli with the ramen, or fill bowls with roasted squash or sweet potatoes.

Ali Slagle · NYT Cooking

While there are many ways to make a hearty soup of pasta and beans, this version of pasta e fagioli is tomato-rich and thick enough to coat a spoon, like some Italian-American renditions. While it usually includes sautéed celery, onions and carrots, on hurried nights, skip the meticulous chopping: A little cured meat, whether bacon or pancetta, and garlic build a savory base on their own. You could also add a green vegetable by stirring torn kale leaves or baby spinach into the soup in the last three minutes of simmering. The pasta will guzzle the broth as it sits, so thin leftovers with more broth.