Simmer

Like many long-simmered sauces, this one, perhaps the most delicious of all the Italian meat sauces, is more flavorful and balanced the following day.

Use this rich, creamy Italian white sauce for lasagna, gratins, and mac and cheese.

This garlicky, gingery soup is a heartier take on classic chicken and rice, thanks to the addition of sweet potatoes.

The sour cherry relish can be used in a similar way to cranberry sauce. Its tart, fruity flavor is perfect with pork, but it’s also great with ham or turkey.

Fresh shell-on peanuts are available only at harvest time and are hard to find, but unroasted shell-on peanuts work just as well and can be found in many supermarkets and online.  

When 5:15 p.m. hits and there’s still no dinner plan, Deb Perelman makes this Instant Pot soup. While the beans cook you can prepare the taco fixins, manage life’s last-minute chaos, and take a load off.

Take the time to really cook the onion and garlic in this recipe until they’re completely soft—this encourages them to release even more flavor into the velvety-rich tomato broth.

We did it! We wanted to make dinner for one where the cleanup is just washing out a few bags and that’s it.

Cool yogurt, crunchy seeds, and herbs turn lentils into a lunch salad you’ll actually be excited to eat. Serve it with warm pita for swiping up the garlicky yogurt.

This all-purpose chile crisp—which is tangy, spicy, and addictive—will give your other condiments an inferiority complex. You’ve been warned. Put it to good use on eggs, meat, seafood, or hearty salads.

If you’d like, soak the beans overnight before cooking; it will help them cook more quickly and evenly.

Double-down on the dairy by tossing torn pieces of mozzarella in a bowl with sour cream, lemon juice, and salt to make an extra-rich, luscious topper for this greens-and-grains salad.

Turmeric, chiles, and chewy-nutty cooked grains balance the sweetness of fresh corn in this loose vegan riff on creamed corn.

This chilled rice pudding pie is adapted from the popular dessert at MeMe’s Diner in Brooklyn, NY.

Other quick-cooking shellfish, such as mussels or medium shelled shrimp, can be substituted for the clams, but you might need an extra splash of pasta water to loosen the sauce.

Use the biggest beans you can buy for this Greek-inspired dish—baby limas are easy to find, but gigante beans are amazing too.

Originally, this curried soup was served cold. Given the winter chill in the air, however, we tried it hot and discovered it to be even better.

Apples, blueberries, and almonds make this a filling, satisfying, healthy breakfast.

This curry is redolent with big spices like star anise and garam masala—you’ll be thrilled by how well they play against the sweet meatiness of the carrots.

This spring brodo is fully equipped with a lemony broth, bright green asparagus, and fresh pea shoots. The slice of olive oil–fried bread on top stays crunchy on the edges and gets custardy in the center.