Recipes By Ali Slagle
497 recipes found
Olive Oil-Fried Egg
This method for making fried eggs lies somewhere between the techniques for Spanish fried eggs and for classic sunny side up: The edges are crispy and golden, the whites are set, yet the yolk is still runny. To achieve this contrast in textures, the eggs are cooked in a thin layer of rippling-hot oil. While this recipe is written for four eggs, it will work with any number. (Adjust the pan size and oil accordingly). Avoid touching the eggs until the bottoms and edges are lacy and crisp. Once that happens, spoon some of the oil onto the whites until cooked through. The yolk remains untouched, ready to be sopped up by toast or potatoes, or with yogurt.
Tomato-Ginger Chicken and Rice Soup
Chicken and rice soup is meant to be gentle, and this one is. But it’s also subtly spicy from fried ginger, and a little sweet from tomatoes used twice: in paste form to build a caramelized base and in fresh, bright bursts. The final additions of fish sauce, lime and sesame or chile oil make the soup reminiscent of sizzling rice soup and tom yum, and allow you to adjust how robust you need the soup to be. Add less for a calming, mild soup and more if you need something powerful and pungent to clear your mind and congestion.
Pork Chops With Jammy-Mustard Glaze
Fruit and mustard are two classic accompaniments to pork, and really, a juicy chop doesn’t need much more than that for a sweet and tangy sauce. Mix together water, grainy mustard and any fruit preserve that’s good with pork like cherry, fig, peach or apricot. Sear bone-in pork chops mostly on one side to prevent overcooking, then pour the fruit-mustard mixture into the skillet while they rest. The pork will stay moist, and its juices will have time to mingle with the sauce. Then just slice the pork and drape it in the velvety two-ingredient glaze. Eat with mashed or roasted potatoes and a green salad.
Pasta With Sausage, Squash and Sage Brown Butter
Whether you’re after a night in with your special someone or your sweatpants, this is your pasta: a cozy combination of spicy sausage and squash that’s glossed with nutty, sage-spiked butter and Parmesan. It’s inspired by the cavatelli with sausage and browned sage butter at Frankies 457 Spuntino in Brooklyn — the most ordered dish on dates, according to the owners, but appealing no matter the occasion, according to us. The key to making the dish sing is the unsexy color (brown). You'll want to get a hard sear on the sausage and the squash, and let the butter bubble until brown and toasty. If you’re looking for a vegetarian option, omit the sausage. The meat will be gone, but the comfort won't be.
Meatball Subs
In this classic Italian American sandwich, tender meatballs drenched in tomato sauce are tucked into crisp rolls then buried under a blanket of gooey cheese. It’s a messy sandwich no matter how you build it or bite into it, but wise construction can help: First, hollow out the rolls a bit so the meatballs have a place to sit. Then, use the leftover crumbs to make the meatballs, which will keep them light. Finally, toast the rolls to prevent them from getting too soggy with sauce. Of course, some crispy-gone-soggy bites are welcome, just as the cheese pulls, sauce drips and messy fingers are, too. They’re all part of the experience.
Chicken and Rice Soup
This soup is simultaneously cozy and fresh. It’s just the kind of thing you want to eat when you’re sick and seeking something that’ll perk you up and get you through it. The soup simmers long enough for the rice to start to break down so it thickens the soup. If you prefer a brothier soup that’s predominantly chicken and rice floating in broth, cook just until the rice is tender. Or if you want thick porridge, just keep simmering. (You can’t really overcook chicken thighs.) Lemon juice adds brightness, as does the lively mix of parsley, lemon, garlic and celery leaves strewn on top.
Puppy Chow
This delightfully messy Midwestern treat is simple enough for kids to make: Just toss crispy cereal with melted peanut butter and chocolate, then dust with lots of confectioners’ sugar. The recipe’s origins are murky, but puppy chow, or muddy buddies, can probably be traced back to recipe pamphlets and community cookbooks from the 1960s. Unlike the version on the back of the Chex cereal box, this recipe calls for a whole box of cereal and for cooling the chocolate-coated cereal a bit, which encourages clusters to form and helps the sugar stick. The cooled cereal is then tossed with confectioners’ sugar on a baking sheet for even coverage. There are many additions to consider: popcorn, chocolate chips, pretzels, nuts, mini marshmallows — the list goes on.
Pasta With Creamy Herb Sauce
This cozy pasta is the perfect place to use up any hard-stem herbs like sage, thyme or rosemary that are languishing in your fridge. Add the herbs and a cinnamon stick to a pot of heavy cream. As they bubble together, the cream takes on a surprising but subtle herbaceousness. Use it to sauce pasta noodles and winter greens. If you don’t have the herbs listed, leave them out or swap in marjoram or bay leaves, or even dried chile, lemon peel, garlic, shallot or leeks. The method of infusing cream with flavorings, then using it to sauce pasta, is open to adaptation. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Slow-Roasted Tomato Sauce With Pasta
Instead of standing over a bubbling cauldron all day long, wondering how many dots of sauce you can collect on your apron, let the oven do all the work. You’ll want to use canned tomatoes here, rather than fresh ones, because you can trust that the canned ones were picked at peak season, their flavors amplified by being preserved in a can with a little salt. By roasting them in a low oven for a few hours, you’re effectively adding umami to an already umami-packed ingredient. Well, the oven is. You’re not doing a thing except boiling some pasta, and eventually, marveling at how such a rich red sauce came from such humble, any-season ingredients.
Thai-Inspired Chicken Meatball Soup
This stellar soup is reviving and cozy, made in one pot, and ready in 30 minutes. It starts with ginger-scented chicken-cilantro meatballs that are browned, then simmered in a fragrant coconut milk broth that’s inspired by tom kha gai, a Thai chicken-coconut soup seasoned with lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime leaves and chile. A heap of spinach is added for color and flavor, and a squeeze of lime adds brightness and punch. The soup is brothy, so serve it over rice or another grain to make it a full meal.
Mini Meatball Soup With Broccoli and Orecchiette
The little meatballs in this cozy soup are just half-teaspoon bits of Italian sausage that needn’t be rolled or browned before being plopped in. As the meatballs cook, the soup takes on the sausage's spices. This recipe is very adaptable: It calls for carrots and broccoli, but use whatever vegetables you wish. For the pasta, the tiny meatballs fit snugly in orecchiette, but feel free to use your favorite shape.
Vegetarian Skillet Chili With Eggs and Cheddar
This soul-warming weeknight chili is made in a skillet because the shorter sides of the pan allow the liquid to evaporate more freely, encouraging it to thicken faster than it would in a traditional pot. Eggs are nestled right into the chili, so the whites cook and the yolks stay molten, in a preparation similar to a shakshuka, another popular eggs-for-dinner dish. Shower the chili with Cheddar, simmer for a few minutes and there you have it: a hearty vegetarian meal. Serve with any toppings you like and something starchy like tortillas to mop everything up.
Spicy Chorizo Pasta
Macaroni and chorizo is classic Spanish comfort food. While iterations abound, it typically starts by frying smoked chorizo with a little onion, adding canned or fresh tomato and maybe some oregano, then letting it simmer into a thick tomato sauce. It’s often topped with cheese and baked like a mac and cheese. Instead of fresh tomatoes, this recipe uses highly concentrated tomato paste, which is made by cooking down tomatoes for ages so you don’t have to. The paste fries in the chorizo’s rendered drippings for a very fast, silky, smoky and spicy sauce. When shopping for this recipe, look for Spanish chorizo, a shelf-stable sausage usually found near salami and other cured meats in the grocery store. Mexican chorizo is sold fresh and is made with different chiles and spices.
Avocado and Onion Salad
Avocado, onion, oil and vinegar are all that’s needed for ensalada de aguacate y cebolla, with rich, creamy avocado against the assertive crunch of onion, plus oil and vinegar accentuating the contrast. According to “Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America” (W. W. Norton, 2012) by Maricel Presilla, this combination is found in many Caribbean and Andean traditions, served as a starter or alongside almost any dish but especially rich stews and meats. Florida avocados are larger and can taste greener than buttery Hass avocados; when they’re in season, use them for this salad. While sometimes embellished with tomato, watercress, tropical fruits or seafood, start with the simple recipe below, and see why it’s a mainstay on so many tables.
Watermelon and Grapefruit Salad With Tahini
This fruit salad is simple to make but thrilling to eat because it hits all the marks of a good salad in surprising ways. The base is crunchy-sweet watermelon and tangy-tart grapefruit. (If you can’t eat grapefruit, substitute orange sprinkled with lemon or lime juice.) These two fruits look similar, but taste different, and that is part of the fun of eating them together. Tahini is used like a nuttier, richer oil, and honey mellows the mix. The balance really depends on the quality of your ingredients, though, so adjust to taste until each bite races between sweet, savory, juicy and creamy.
Quick-Braised Chicken With Greens
There’s a family of dishes that are both tangy and cozy: hot and sour soup, braised collard greens, puttanesca, brisket and now, this pot of braised chicken and greens. Its bite comes from hot pickled peppers and their brine, while the comfort comes from browned onions, tomato paste, cumin and chicken broth — and the knowledge that you can make this dish quickly with boneless thighs and any dark, leafy greens in your fridge. Eat the stew on top of something starchy to soak up the broth; it’s especially good with crunchy olive oil-fried toast (see Tip).
Corned Beef Hash
A jumble of salty meat, crisp potatoes and sweet onions, corned beef hash is a satisfying and hearty breakfast, lunch or dinner. The New England classic is also pragmatic, borne as Julia Moskin wrote “on leftovers from endless boiled dinners of beef, cabbage, potatoes and onions.” This recipe doesn’t require already-cooked potatoes, though you can swap them in if you have them. And instead of corned beef, use 1 1/2 cups bite-size pieces of another cooked protein, such as pastrami, roast beef, sausage, bacon, chicken or tofu — or omit for excellent home fries.
Cauliflower Adobo
Chicken adobo, the national dish of the Philippines, is made by braising chicken in a salty, sour and sweet mixture of mostly soy sauce and vinegar. In this vegetarian version, cauliflower, rather than chicken, is caramelized on one side, then simmered in the pungent but not prickly sauce until toothsome yet tender. The simmer mellows the vinegar and soy sauce into a sauce interlaced with pepper, garlic and something herbal but not immediately traceable — that’s the bay leaves. Serve the cauliflower and sauce over rice or another grain with something green on the side.
Cauliflower Popcorn
Small florets of cauliflower look a lot like popcorn, and when coated with classic popcorn seasonings, they can be just as snackable. Roast pieces the size of popped kernels until deeply tender and frizzled, shower with panko bread crumbs seasoned with nutritional yeast, then return to the oven to toast. The panko mimics the airy crispness of popcorn, while nutritional yeast adds a cheesy, salty flavor. Adjust seasonings based on what you like: Add wet ingredients, like hot sauce or soy sauce, to the cauliflower before roasting, and dry ingredients, like Old Bay, furikake or Tajín, when you add the panko.
Baked Tilapia
Tilapia has a flaky texture and a sweet, mild taste, so it welcomes assertive seasonings. This baked, sheet-pan recipe coats the fish with butter, lemon, garlic and parsley, but feel free to switch up the flavor as you like; paprika, Old Bay, ginger, lime and tarragon would all be great. Keep in mind that there are environmental issues around tilapia farming, so use resources such as Seafood Watch when selecting fish. This recipe also works with trout, flounder or other thin filets.
Salami Pasta Alla Gricia
Pasta alla gricia is among the most versatile Roman pastas, and arguably foundational: Add tomato for amatriciana, add egg for carbonara or remove the pork for cacio e pepe. As one origin story goes, shepherds in Amatrice brought guanciale, pecorino and pasta on their journeys, and made these dishes for sustenance. Guanciale (cured jowl) isn’t especially common in the United States, so, in the spirit of the shepherds using what was available to them, this recipe uses salami. Like guanciale, salami gives off deeply flavored fat to build the pasta sauce on. But salami provides even more crispy bits of meat to stud this rich, silky, deceptively simple pasta.
Vegan Kale-Pesto Pasta
This silky sauce is a lovely mash-up of kale sauce, basil pesto and cashew cream. Thanks to a simple pot of water and good timing, it doesn’t require soaking nuts for 30-plus minutes: Just boil the cashews with basil stems and kale stems (which are perfectly edible). Part of the way through, add the kale leaves, then right at the end of cooking, add a handful of basil leaves to lock in their color. Blend everything with garlic and red-pepper flakes, and watch in awe as rugged kale and cashews transform into a bright-green sauce that’s as light as air. The 3 cups of sauce will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge.
Salad Pizza With White Beans and Parmesan
Inspired by California Pizza Kitchen’s tricolore salad pizza, this pizza features a mountain of brightly dressed greens and beans atop a crisp Parmesan crust. Rolling the dough very thin takes some patience, but the reward is a snappy crust similar to that of pizza tonda, a thin-crust pie that’s popular in Rome. The salad is made of arugula, white beans and pickled pepperoncini, dressed simply with olive oil and the brine from the peppers, but any salad topping would do. (The C.P.K. original had radicchio, greens, tomatoes and a vinaigrette.) With an abundance of leaves atop, fold the pieces in half to eat, or embrace the mess — it’s all part of the fun. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Cold Rice Noodles With Coconut Milk, Peanuts and Lime
In this breezy recipe, rice noodles are tossed in a creamy-yet-light mix of coconut milk, fish sauce and lime, then garnished with plenty of salty peanuts, chile, lime zest and cilantro. Don’t bother picking the cilantro leaves from the stems; just chop the whole plant until you hit a firm, white stem. The green stems add crunch, and they pack more concentrated flavor than the leaves. Feel free to add whatever fridge stragglers or greenmarket celebrities that look good to you, such as thinly sliced vegetables, poached shrimp, pan-fried tofu, grilled chicken or pork. Because this salad teeters from savory to sweet, even pineapple, green apple or mango would do.