French Lentil Soup WIP

At Via Carota, the charming West Village restaurant run by the partners Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, the menu description for insalata verde does little to give away any details about what makes it so unbelievably, mouth-smackingly perfect. A visual inspection of the dish reveals only leaves of endive, butter lettuce, frisée and watercress all piled as high as gravity will allow, topped by a drizzle of dressing studded generously with shallots and mustard seeds. In truth, all the secrets of this otherworldly salad lay in the graceful, unlikely application of a flavorless one: water. First, the five carefully chosen types of lettuce are all triple-washed to yield what Williams called “a super happy salad.” Next, the minced shallots are given a quick rinse under cold water — instead of a long maceration in vinegar — to keep them shalloty and savory and prevent them from becoming too acidic, which could overwhelm the delicate lettuces. And finally, and perhaps most surprising, Williams adds a spoonful of warm water to the vinaigrette. “We add warm water to make it more palatable,” she explained. “Pure vinegar is just too strong — it assaults the taste buds. We want a salad dressing so savory and delicious that you can eat spoonfuls of it. We want you to be able to drink it!” This might just become your go-to vinaigrette. Spoon it liberally over everything from boiled asparagus to farro salad to steak and fish and roast chicken. It’s so good that you might even be tempted to pour it into a glass and top it off with sparkling water.

Via Carota’s Insalata Verde Recipe

You don’t need a brick oven for this perfect roast chicken from the legendary chef Judy Rodgers — but you do need a hot one, and a day or so to dry-brine the bird before using it. If you don't have the time to dry-brine, don't. You'll still end up with one of the best roast chickens you've ever had. Just dry the bird really well with paper towels before seasoning and dab it again before putting it into the sizzling pan. Rodgers’s technique, which involves drying and seasoning the chicken, then flipping it while cooking, results in a wonderfully browned bird, with crackling skin and moist meat. Serve it over a bread salad, as she did, or with well-dressed greens and a baguette. You win either way.

Zuni Café Chicken Recipe

Get Savory Butternut Squash Crostata Recipe from Food Network

Savory Butternut Squash Crostata

A great potato salad needs to be plenty moist, creamy and flavorful. This Classic Creamy Potato Salad fits the bill!

BEST Classic Potato Salad

This Austrian-style potato salad is tangy, herby, and filled with amazing flavor and crunch.

Austrian Potato Salad

These potatoes combine the fluffy interior and crispy exterior of the best roasted potatoes with the crunchy cheese crust of Detroit-style pizza. The initial boil with aromatics adds herbal flavor to the potatoes, without the potential of burned herbs in the final roast, while baking soda in the water helps soften the surface of the potato, releasing starch. This starch combines with Parmesan and melted butter to form a flavorful slurry that crisps up and coats each potato chunk in a cheesy shell.

Extra-Crispy Parmesan-Crusted Roasted Potatoes Recipe

Quiche with Pancetta and FResh Herbs, Claire Ptak, The Guardian

Baking: To ensure that half of us aren’t missing out on this supremely savoury treat, we set the record straight with a trio of quiches thickly filled with smoky chorizo, spinach and ricotta, and a puff-pastry number with pancetta

Spinach and Ricotta Quiche with WW Crust, The Guardian, Claire Ptak

Serve this sweet-tart salad alongside a leafy green salad, turkey, or grilled meats and chicken.

Quinoa with Fresh Cranberry  (Whole Foods)

When I saw my mother making her apple turnover, I knew company was coming. I also knew the dough scraps would be my treat. She’d roll them in sugar and cinnamon, bake them and we’d enjoy the flaky, light, buttery morsels together with a cold glass of milk. My mom’s specialty was that apple turnover. Mine, apple crostata. I love its organic shape, and fact that it doesn’t require a dish or pie pan. And because the crostata is baked directly on a sheet pan, it retains its flakiness better than a pie.

Apple Crumb Crostata Recipe

There are quite a few legends within various Indigenous communities involving the three sisters: corn, bean and squash. The ancient and advanced farming techniques from the Cherokee and so many other tribes throughout the East Coast yielded countless strains of these ingredients, in many sizes, colors and flavors. These diverse seeds are not only a direct connection to the past, but a symbol of resistance to the destruction of our cultures. This recipe showcases the simplicity of these flavors and can stand alone as a vegan meal or can accompany bison pot roast, roast turkey or salmon with crushed blackberries.

Three Sisters Bowl With Hominy, Beans and Squash Recipe

On my first day in Lisbon, I became a statistic: I lost all my credit cards to a talented thief on the No. 28 tram. After “the incident,” I wanted to leave Lisbon, but instead, my husband Michael and I decided to tackle our must-taste list. It was on our last day in Lisbon that we tasted the cake at Landeau Chocolate. It was intense, but not overwhelming; truly chocolate, but somehow each layer’s chocolateness was different. I returned home and made this cake, my version of the cake that cured my pickpocket blues. It’s a dense-but-not-heavy, brownielike cake topped with a whipped chocolate ganache (think: mousse) and a substantial dusting of cocoa. Because this cake is completely about the chocolate, choose one you love.

Lisbon Chocolate Cake Recipe

If the idea of rubbing chicken cutlets with mayo before grilling them leaves you cold, I relate — I felt the same way until I tried it. Now I use mayonnaise as the base for nearly every marinade I use, whether I’m cooking on the grill or in a cast-iron skillet indoors. The magic of mayo is that it helps your other marinade ingredients spread evenly across the surface of the meat, delivering more consistent flavor, while improving browning. (Don’t worry, the cooked meat doesn’t taste like mayo.) In this recipe, that means chicken cutlets that cook through and brown in about four minutes, with deep chimichurri flavor enhanced by a post-grill drizzle of fresh sauce. This recipe will work with nearly any marinade, exactly as written: You could use pesto, salsa verde, bottled barbecue sauce, jarred Thai curry paste, teriyaki sauce or mole, all with equal success.

Mayo-Marinated Chicken With Chimichurri Recipe

Though an American cook (or even a French one) usually adds mayonnaise to the bowl when dressing canned tuna for a sandwich, Italian cooks invariably anoint theirs with olive oil instead. Capers, olives and anchovy often join the festivities; here they are combined with garlic and parsley to make a zesty salsa verde. Choose the best quality Italian or Spanish canned tuna—the extra cost is well worth it. The other essential ingredient is freshly baked bread, like a good crisp baguette or crusty ciabatta roll.

Italian-Style Tuna Sandwich Recipe

There’s nothing better than a recipe that gives you a feeling of promise, especially when it involves something as mundane as carrots. Yes, carrots. I mean, just when I thought I’d done…

carrot salad with harissa, feta and mint

Spicy and beefy jalapeño-marinated hanger steak is paired with salty cotija mayo, charred onions, and fresh cilantro, which come together in one incredibly flavorful sandwich.

Grilled Jalapeño-Marinated Steak Sandwiches With Charred Onions and Cotija Mayo Recipe

All the flavor of a bacon-wrapped jalapeño popper in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese Recipe

A summer pasta should be simple and fresh, ideally made with vegetables straight from the garden or market. Look for the best artisanal ricotta; top-quality ingredients make all the difference here.

Summer Pasta With Zucchini, Ricotta and Basil Recipe

Mucver (pronounced moosh-vair) are delicate, crisp zucchini pancakes popular in Turkey. This version has not just shredded zucchini, but also tiny clouds of feta and a sprinkling of minced fresh dill and scallions. They are crisp on the outside, tender within and subtly herbaceous. The trick to making the pancakes crisp and not soggy is to squeeze all the water out of the zucchini before mixing it with the other ingredients. A little brute force is required.

Melissa