Dinner party
Recipes
Chicken sausage and lemon, baked as a lasagna
A lasagna that went on holiday and came back with a tan and a lemon habit.
Pumpkin pasta with sausage and crisp sage
Tinned pumpkin, Gruyère and a sheet pan to crisp the lot.
Sausage lasagna spread thin for the crust
Lasagna with no layers, baked flat on a sheet pan, and an insult to nonnas everywhere.
Vodka rigatoni, baked till the tops crackle
Vodka sauce given a sheet pan, a jar of Calabrian chilis and a honey drizzle it did nothing to deserve.
Charred corn and halloumi panzanella with chili crisp
One bowl, mostly made in the morning, so the cook can sit down with the guests.
Zucchini parmesan, roasted not fried
All the comfort of the fried original, a fraction of the oil, and no pan spitting at you.
Zucchini pasta with crispy capers and pistachios
Half the zucchini melts into the sauce and the other half comes back fried and sharp with vinegar.
Chicken parm sliders, twelve at once
The whole slab of rolls stays joined until the end. You bake it as one object and cut it into twelve at the table.
Pierogies in a green chile moat
The chile goes around them and never over them. That is the whole rule, and it is the difference between dinner and soup with dumplings in it.
Chicken parm, pounded until it is honest
Quarter-inch thick, no more. A breast at its natural depth cannot cook through before the crust burns, and everyone has eaten the result.
Ditalini, corn and a great deal of miso
Half the corn charred and half of it raw, held together by miso and thick yogurt, in a bowl you eat with a spoon.
Four hours on the counter, then pasta
Ripe tomatoes left out until they slump and make their own dressing, and hot pasta tipped in to drink it.
Shawarma seasoning, seven jars into one
Earthy, red and pepper-forward. The one you already make every time you make the oven shawarma, finally written down.
Tzatziki that won't go watery
Thick, cold and loudly garlicky. The salt does the work, not your fists.
Mark's hummus
Sharper than the hummus you know, and built to hold up under everything you pile on it.
A lasagna with a short fuse
The golden lasagna's wilder sister, all smoky sausage and charred poblano with a chipotle streak, cooled by a lime drizzle.
Golden lasagna
A carrot lasagna so light you could eat the lot and still fancy pudding.
Spatchcock chicken over leeks and greedy bread
One bird on a bed of leeks, and torn baguette underneath drinking up every drop.
Bagna cauda for the anchovy-shy
The warm garlic and anchovy bath that quietly wins every party. Melting, not fishy and gone before the coats are off.
Five-minute harissa yogurt
Smoky, cooling and quick. The yogurt does the calming, the harissa does the talking.
One-pot Pugliese sausage and potatoes
Peasant food that minds itself in the oven, as happy on a Tuesday as it is at a three-hour lunch.
Salsa verde, anchovy and all
Sharp, briny and green. The Italian one, not the tomatillo one.
Grated tomato and Calabrian chili
Grated tomato with a Calabrian kick and a lemon lift. Sauce or dip, your call.
Za'atar yogurt with sumac
Herby, tangy and green-flecked. The cooling spoon for anything off the grill.
The Last Word
Gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime in equal measure. Nothing else.
Pegu Club
Gin, orange curaçao and lime, with two bitters doing the quiet work.
French onion gnocchi
Onions taken all the way down, crisp gnocchi folded in, a lid of Gruyère melted over the top.
Cherry and heirloom panzanella with burrata and prosciutto
Roasted and raw cherries, two tomatoes, one dressing built from what they weep.
The long way to Bolognese
Milk first, then wine, then the laziest three-hour simmer there is.
Red-lacquered chicken and winter vegetables
Gochujang does the glazing and a quick pickle talks back.
Roast chicken over hot-headed chickpeas
Harissa gets two minutes in a pan and a whole new attitude.
Miso peanut hibachi chicken
A Hawai'i grill number with peanut butter in the band.
Burnished miso chicken
Miso butter under high heat. The skin turns to amber glass.
Spaghetti squash under a Parmesan lid
The vegetable that does a passable impression of pasta, finally dressed for company.
Oven shawarma, no rotisserie in sight
All the spice and crisp of the street cart, none of the six-foot spit.
Harissa bolognese, baked in one pan
Bolognese that ran off to Tunis and came back smoking.
Hipster BBQ, a drink not a dinner
Vodka, lime and a salted beer chaser that tastes, absurdly, of a grill.
New Mexican hot dish, stacked not rolled
Enchiladas that gave up on rolling and lay down in layers instead.
Baba ghanouj, minus the mashing
The dip's more glamorous sister, who refuses to be puréed.
House dressing you'll eat by the spoon
The one you make once and then put on absolutely everything, darling. Do keep up.
The potato salad that forgot the mayonnaise
Bright, herby and unbothered by a jar of anything beige.
Smothered green beans that skipped the can
Everything the beige holiday casserole wanted to be, finally.
Tahini and Parmesan, an unlikely pasta salad
A pasta salad with sesame where the mayonnaise should be, blistered tomatoes through it.
Baked feta dip with hot honey
The block of feta that went viral, finally behaving like a dip.
Roasted cauliflower under a tahini-parsley flood
The cauliflower is fine. The sauce is the reason you came.
Corn bake with ideas above its station
Too soft to slice, too rich to be bread. Bring a spoon.
Coq au vin for a filthy night in
Chicken, a bottle of Burgundy and an afternoon. This is what Sundays are for.
White port and tonic
Portugal's answer to the gin and tonic, and arguably the better one. Three things, two minutes.
Beeritas, no apologies
Limeade, lager and tequila by the pitcher. The margarita's lawless cousin.
Chicken tamale pie from the church-supper canon
A Jiffy-box cornbread drowned in enchilada sauce and piled with chicken. Zero shame, full flavor.
Fish house punch, older than the republic
Rum, Cognac and a lemon-oil syrup in one bowl. Colonial Philadelphia could drink.
Corn salad that skips the vinegar
Raw corn straight off the cob, seasoned by the tomatoes and nothing else.
MSG martini
Savory, filthy and faintly illegal-feeling. Stir, don't ask.
Greek panzanella with crispy pork
The benchmark bread salad gone Greek, with pork that crackles.
Shatta white bean dip
Creamy white beans under a blistered Parmesan lid, shatta streaked through the middle.
Featured
Tomato sauce so simple you'll die
Marcella's three ingredients, one of which you bin, and a fourth she never sanctioned.
A ricotta pasta that begs to be messed with
Stir it in a bowl while the water boils, then fiddle until it tastes like yours.
Gnocchi baked with corn and a goat cheese heart
A whole round of goat cheese goes in last and collapses into the sauce.