What to Cook

Spiced Zucchini Soup

Serves 4 The bulk of this soup here is zucchini (two whole pounds, which could be anywhere from two large to five small zucchini…the mystery of summer squash…), but the thickening power comes from the addition of either lentils or rice, cooked beyond individual grains to a soft tender

Buttered Oat Cake with Summer Fruits

Makes one 9" cake This is a cake meant to be eaten over the course of many warm summer days, sliced off in thick or thin pieces, either slathered with softened butter or on top of a napkin while standing in your kitchen in a bathing suit. It’s

Spring Pasta with Peppered Peas

The goal is a sort of spring-y Alla Gricia (pork fat + lots of black pepper + spring vegetables), so this pasta is ideally made with guanciale, green garlic, pea shoots and fresh peas. But know that even if made with olive oil, regular garlic, arugula and frozen peas, it’ll still be so lovely.

Blueberry Muffins

The recipe, requiring only two bowls and a whisk, is among the easier things you can bake in your kitchen and frankly, they might even be better the next day. Part Entemann’s and part Costco muffin, they are, quite possibly, the best I’ve ever had.

Pasta with Sausage, Browned Butter and Broccoli Rabe

This is a simple recipe, but an important one. Take the measurements and ingredients with a grain of salt, knowing that at the end of the process you should end up with a skillet of saucy, porky pasta laced with as many greens as it can handle.

Lemony Turmeric Tea Cake

This cake is so good and so simple to put together, you might come to call it “house cake,” which is, of course, cake to keep in your house at all times.

A Bowl of Salted Chocolate Pudding

Not unlike my vanilla pudding, this salted chocolate pudding should be left alone, simply celebrated for what it is, which is a bowl of melted chocolate made spoonable and consumable by a LOT of dairy.

Crispy Sausage Stuffing with Kale

If you’ve made a stuffing recipe of mine before, it’s probably this or a variation of this. It’s perfect and I don’t see the need to change it just because we’re in a new calendar year.

Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie

The custardy filling melting slightly into the spiced cookie crust, softening where the two meet, giving way to a crunchy bottom layer — three glorious textures in one spectacular pie.

“The Cranberries”

I love a can of cranberries for its jellied texture and too-sweet flavor — it feels good to be bad, no? But I love a DIY sauce for the punch of acidity and undeniable, much needed hit of freshness.

Kale Salad with Honey’d Walnuts

Kale salad, how 2013, I know. But it’s undeniably a great candidate for a meal like this. It’s sturdy, almost masquerading as a side instead of a salad, it’s one of the only salad greens that get better with age and can even be saved as a leftover with little to no consequences.

Peppered Squash Gratin

The crushed garlic and salty parmesan really curb the sweetness of the squash while the cream, absorbing into it to completely tenderize while also caramelizing around the edges for texture, brings it back ever-so-slightly.

Anchovy Apple Apricot Artichoke Arugula Asparagus

Bacon Banana Beans & Legumes Beef Blue Cheese Blueberry Bread Brisket Broccoli Broccoli Rabe Buttermilk

Cabbage Capers Carrot Cauliflower Celery Chicken Chickpeas Chiles Chocolate Cinnamon Citrus Clams Coconut Corn Cornmeal Cranberries Cucumber

Dates Dill

Egg Eggplant Escarole

Farro Fennel Feta

Grapefruit Green Beans

Harissa Hazelnut Hominy Horseradish

Kale

Labne Lamb Leek Lemon Lentils Lettuce Lime

Maple Syrup Matzo Mushrooms Mustard

Olive Onion Orange

Panko Parmesan Parsley Peach Peas Pecan Pecorino Pepperoncini Pickles Pistachio Plum Pork Potato Puff Pastry

Radicchio Radish Red Onion Ricotta Rutabaga

Sage Salmon Sardines Sausage Scallions Sesame Shallot Shrimp Squash Steak Strawberry

Tahini Tarragon Tofu Tomatillo Tomato Tortilla Trout Tuna Turkey

Walnuts

Zucchini