721 recipes. Page 2 of 31
Pasta, steak, and other Western recipes
No straw here: tip the glass, and the cold cream on top arrives in the same sip as the espresso underneath. The cream, sweetened with a little sugar and vanilla, is whipped only until it slides slowly off a spoon, and the coffee itself gets no sugar at all.
Chicken thigh charred over high heat and cold cucumber yogurt go into a warm pita together. Hot meat against cold sauce in the same bite is the whole point of the wrap, and it is eaten the moment it is rolled. The cucumber gets a light squeeze before it meets the yogurt, which keeps the sauce from turning thin.
The potatoes are baked whole in their skins, not boiled, and the flesh is scooped out and mashed into the soup, keeping the toasty taste of a baked potato. Some of the crisp bacon and cheddar is held back to go on top of each bowl with sliced scallions.
All of the heat in this penne comes from the peperoncino, so adjusting that one teaspoon sets the spice level. The chili gets only 10 seconds in the garlic oil before the tomatoes go in; blackened garlic or chili leaves a bitter streak through the sauce. Simmered uncovered for 8 minutes, the tomatoes thicken enough to coat the outside of each tube and fill the hollow. A pinch of sugar rounds off tomatoes that taste too sharp.
Chewy barley grains carry crisp bell pepper and cucumber, sharp red onion, and plenty of parsley in a simple lemon and olive oil dressing. The barley should stay slightly firm at the center; cooked soft, it turns porridge-like once dressed. Letting the barley cool completely does more for the result than any seasoning tweak: warm grains pull water out of the vegetables and thin the dressing.
Rather than cubes of beef stewed for hours, this pot holds ground beef, tomatoes and dry elbow macaroni that cook together in the same sauce. The pasta drinks up the seasoned liquid as it softens, and its starch turns the sauce from loose to spoonable. A broad pan evaporates faster than a narrow one, so the reserved water stays nearby rather than going in at the start. A splash of water revives leftovers better than more tomato paste, since the macaroni keeps absorbing sauce after it is made.
No butter, no oil, no yolks: this tall white ring cake rises entirely on whipped egg whites folded with cake flour and sugar. It likely appeared in late 19th-century America as a way to use whites left over from custard making. The top has a slight marshmallow chew over a cloud-light crumb. The pan goes upside down the moment it leaves the oven, because cooling right side up lets the delicate foam sink under its own weight. Fresh berries and whipped cream are the traditional companions.
Rice, sautéed onion and carrot, chicken stock and cream all go into one baking dish, with chicken thighs laid skin side up on top. As they roast, their fat drips down into the rice. The foil has to be crimped tight; if steam escapes, the rice in the center stays hard.
Vanilla wafers start out crisp and, after a night in the fridge, turn soft and cakey from the custard around them. That change is the point of this Southern American layered dessert, which needs only a saucepan for the custard and no oven at all. The bananas need to be fully ripe; underripe ones leave an astringent edge against the sweet cream.
Espresso poured slowly over the back of a spoon floats on cold tonic, leaving a clear, fizzy layer below and a dark coffee layer above. The quinine bitterness in the tonic meets the bitterness of the coffee, and a little syrup plus orange and lemon peel keep the finish bright.
Lemon, olive oil, garlic, and dried oregano give these Greek thigh skewers a sharp, slightly bitter herbal edge over the char. Thirty minutes of marinating works, but a night in the fridge goes deeper. Serve with plain yogurt, or tuck the chicken into warm pita with tomato and onion.
Barley soaks up the stock as it swells, and the whole soup turns thick and hearty. The grains grow to two or three times their size while cooking and keep drinking liquid into the next day. Leftovers need a splash of extra stock when reheated.
Wide lasagna sheets get stacked two or three times over with meat sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella, then baked under a layer of Parmesan. Ricotta softens the acidity of the tomato, while melting mozzarella glues the layers together. A 10-minute rest before cutting keeps the hot cheese from running and the stack from slumping. If the top browns too fast, a sheet of foil goes back over it. The whole dish can be assembled ahead and refrigerated, which makes it easy to bake for guests.
Wrapped in foil and roasted, the beets keep their juice and come out sweet and tender, with much of their raw earthiness gone. Tangy goat cheese meets that sweetness, while peppery arugula and toasted walnuts round out a classic French-style starter. A dressing of balsamic, honey, and olive oil brings a sweet-tart edge that pulls the separate parts together. With beets of different sizes, a toothpick sliding easily into the center tells you more than the timer does. Peeled beets should cool fully before slicing for clean edges, and the goat cheese goes on just before serving so it keeps its texture.
In Venezuela and Colombia, arepas play the role of everyday bread: griddled discs of pre-cooked cornmeal dough with a golden crust and a soft center. They trace back to pre-Columbian peoples who ground maize on stone, and street vendors in Caracas and Bogota still sell them around the clock. This version splits each one into a pocket and fills it with mozzarella that melts against the warm corn. The dough uses only masarepa, water, salt, and butter, with no yeast, so the flavor stays toasty and lightly sweet from the corn. Dough that cracks needs a little more water, and edges smoothed with wet hands are less likely to split on the griddle.
Diced apple is scattered over the brown sugar and cinnamon filling before the dough is rolled, so the baked swirls are studded with soft, juicy bits of fruit. The rolls bake pressed together in the pan, and their sides tear apart tender when you pull one off.
Most of the time goes into the onions, cooked in butter for eight minutes or more until the edges turn brown. Rush them and they only lose water without turning sweet, and the sauce ends up flat. The beef is cooked just until it changes color, then tomato paste, Worcestershire and flour turn the pan into a sauce that is spooned alongside the rice.
Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans created this dessert in the 1950s, and there the rum is poured into the pan and set alight. This version skips the flame. Bananas cook in a butter, brown sugar and cinnamon sauce, then go hot onto cold vanilla ice cream and reach the table still steaming. Start to finish, about ten minutes.
Thin lemon slices are tucked between the ice, then fresh lemon juice, simple syrup and a tiny pinch of salt go into the glass before the sparkling water. The sparkling water comes last and is barely stirred.
Five meats, picanha, pork belly, chicken thigh, chicken hearts, and linguiça sausage, go onto separate steel skewers seasoned with nothing but coarse salt. Each kind gets its own skewer because thickness and cooking speed differ, which lets whatever finishes first come off the grill on its own. Picanha is sliced thick against the grain and folded into a U before skewering. Shake off loose salt just before grilling so the crust does not turn too salty.
Beets sautéed separately in butter with a splash of vinegar hold their deep red color even after simmering with the rest of the soup. The base is a broth from slowly cooked beef shank, filled out with potato, carrot, onion, and cabbage, and a bowl eats more like a meal than a starter. Sour cream is spooned onto each bowl rather than into the soup, and stirring it in turns the broth pink, tangy, and smooth.
Baked ziti borrows the meat sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella of lasagna but skips the layering: the tube-shaped pasta is simply tossed and spread in the dish, which cuts the work considerably. Only half the sauce and half the ricotta go into the pasta; the rest sits on top under the cheese, keeping the inside moist. The ziti come out of the water two minutes early because they keep cooking in the oven. Once the mozzarella and Parmesan bubble gold, a 5-minute rest lets portions cut cleanly.
Raw beet cut into very fine shreds keeps its sweetness and crunch, dressed the way a French carrot râpée would be, with olive oil, lemon and whole-grain mustard. A little sugar rounds off the acidity. The shreds need an even thickness so that a short 10-minute salting softens every piece to the same degree. Squeezing out the red liquid afterward keeps the beet crisp; left in, it makes the dressing slide off the shreds and collect at the bottom of the bowl. The fine shreds snap easily and are lifted and turned gently until the mustard seeds and a thin film of oil cling to every strand.
A griddled corn cake is split into a pocket, still joined along one edge, and stuffed with shredded chicken bound by mashed avocado and mayonnaise, with a few avocado slices tucked in. The dough uses precooked corn flour made for arepas, not ordinary cornmeal or cornstarch, which absorb water differently and will not hold the same disc. Pressed by hand, a good dough keeps its shape without deep cracks around the edge. A browned crust can hide a sticky center, and covering the discs, sometimes with lower heat at the end, cooks them through. Assembly waits until just before eating, with the creamy filling kept cold until then.