Recipes By Ali Slagle
497 recipes found
French Onion Macaroni and Cheese
This outrageously good macaroni and cheese fuses two classic comfort foods into one dish. Caramelizing onions can be a time-consuming affair, but here, the process is sped up by using high heat and and a little water to prevent scorching. The sauce is made with a combination of Gruyère, to remind you of French onion soup, and white Cheddar, to make it melty and smooth. Instead of topping the dish with a dusting of diminutive bread crumbs, it’s dotted with Gruyère toasts that become melty and crisp after a few minutes under the broiler. (You’ll want to slide a sheet pan underneath before baking, in case some of the sauce bubbles over.) This is over-the-top richness at its best.
Two-Ingredient Mashed Potatoes
These weeknight mashed potatoes taste purely like potato. The secret? Starchy water. Save some of it after you boil the potatoes, and after mashing, stir it back in, a tablespoon at a time, until they come together. Then, add with a little sour cream for tang. It's that easy — and creamy and light. Take it from Ma Ingalls of “Little House on the Prairie” fame: “There was no milk, but Ma said, ‘Leave a very little of the boiling water in, and after you mash them beat them extra hard with the big spoon.’ The potatoes turned out white and fluffy.”
Roasted Mushroom and Halloumi Grain Bowl
Like chickpeas and tofu, halloumi cheese is a sturdy vegetarian protein that browns and crisps when roasted in the oven. Its salty, chewy character is just one of the exciting bits about this grain bowl. Other highlights include crisp mushrooms, which roast alongside the halloumi; dollops of olive-studded yogurt; and whatever bright and crunchy herbs and vegetables you like or need to use up. To easily enjoy the full range of textures in each bite, instead of simply piling each element on top of the grains, layer them as if you are building nachos. It’s a small tweak, but one that makes for an even more satisfying bowl of grains.
Stuffed Shells
Of all the baked pasta dishes, stuffed shells are beloved for good reason: The fluffy ricotta filling, punchy tomato sauce, melted cheese and oversize noodles creates the ultimate comfort food, and the make-ahead aspect is equally compelling. The tomato sauce can be made and refrigerated five days ahead, or you can save time by swapping in three cups of your favorite store-bought marinara sauce. The shells can be assembled a few hours ahead, then baked from the refrigerator an hour before it’s time to eat. While some versions add frozen spinach, herbs or lemon, you really don’t need anything beyond the basics; this classic version is pure comfort. If you're craving greens, serve with a Caesar salad or a side of braised broccoli rabe.
Baked Alfredo Pasta With Broccoli Rabe and Lemon
One of the great things about baked pastas is that you can get two different textures in one dish. Take the typical pasta Alfredo that's prepared in a skillet: It’s delightfully creamy and lush, but the same, bite after bite. But add a green vegetable to that Alfredo pasta, pile it into a dish, top it with melty cheese and a crunchy bread crumbs, then bake it, and you get a vegetarian dinner that's got it all. If broccoli rabe isn't your thing, you can substitute cut asparagus or broccoli florets.
Marinated Grilled Vegetables
You’ll always want a batch of these around: From the vegetables you grill to the seasonings you use, this recipe is endlessly adaptable. It also keeps for a few days and has so many applications. After the vegetables come off the grill, they soak in a piquant bath of coarse mustard, shallot and vinegar, though you could adjust flavorings as you wish: Add fresh or dried chile; thyme or rosemary; anchovy or capers; or a protein like feta, cubed salami, tofu or chickpeas. Then, use these deeply flavored vegetables on sandwiches, grilled bread, salads, frittatas, alongside grilled meat or fish, and so on.
Cauliflower “Mac” and Cheese
Somewhere between macaroni and cheese, British cauliflower cheese and a cauliflower gratin is this burbling dish of tangy, creamy cauliflower. Cauliflower florets cut into noodle-size pieces step in for macaroni in this pasta-less macaroni and cheese; they’re roasted and draped in a mixture of melty Cheddar, heavy cream, garlic and cayenne. You could also add mustard, thyme or rosemary, or even caramelized onions, and swap out the Cheddar for Gruyère or another cheese. As the cauliflower cooks in the cream mixture, the cream thickens slightly and the cauliflower continues to brown. Serve it with a bright, crisp salad to offset the richness.
Parmesan White Bean Soup With Hearty Greens
Whatever you do, don’t throw away your Parmesan rinds: Within those waxy rinds is enough rich umami and salty cheese flavor to carry an entire soup’s broth. Collect and store them in an airtight container in the freezer (or purchase a container of them at your grocery store). Once you have about 10 ounces of rinds, simmer them with aromatics as you would to make chicken or bone broth. (For an easier cleanup, enclose the rinds in cheesecloth or muslin.) Use the broth to make risotto or minestrone, a pot of beans or this soup, which combines beans and greens with the garlic and lemon rind from the broth. Use whichever beans and greens you like, and mop up every last Parmesan-y drop with a hunk of crusty bread.
Red Cabbage Ragù
What ingredient is the base for many hearty meals, turns crusty-browned when seared, tender when slow-cooked and makes for a good ragù? Ground meat and pork shoulder, yes, but also cabbage. Its hidden sweetness shines when seared in plenty of oil and braised until glazed and soft. In this vegan pasta sauce, cabbage slumps as its juices release and mingle with red wine and caramelized tomato paste. To ensure the flavors aren’t too diluted, use just a small amount of water and trust that the cabbage will release moisture as it cooks. Use this warming braise to sauce fat noodles, or eat it with polenta, mashed potatoes, beans, sausage or a fried egg. The cabbage can be cooked up to three days ahead.
Sunday Sauce
In many Italian American households, Sunday means there’s red sauce simmering all day on the stove. It might be called sauce, sugo or gravy, and surely every family makes it differently, but the result is always a tomato sauce rich with meat. This recipe (which you can also make in a slow cooker) follows a classic route of using shreddy pork shoulder, Italian sausage and meatballs. Once the sauce is done, coat pasta in the sauce, spoon some meat on top and share it with the whole family alongside a green salad, crusty bread and red wine. The sauce can keep refrigerated for up to one week and frozen for up to three months.
Spiced Butter-Basted Pork Chops
These pork chops are juicy inside, crusty outside and draped in a smoky butter sauce, but they won’t set off your fire alarm. They’re cooked low and slow with a few key ingredients. First, thick chops are coated with salt and sugar, which promotes browning, then they’re cooked over moderate heat. Smoked paprika and fennel seeds season the butter that’s added, but feel free to swap in dried herbs or other ground or whole spices. Basting the chops with this infused butter creates a rich crust quickly so that the interior stays tender. The key is to watch the temperature of your skillet: Lower the heat if things are moving along too quickly, and the chops will achieve what you’re after in time.
One-Pot BBQ Pork and Beans
Two beloved barbecue staples are cooked together in one pot (or a slow cooker) for mutually beneficial results. As the pork shoulder braises, the pork juices flavor the barbecue sauce and the sauce tenderizes the pork. Beans are then added to soak up the deeply concentrated sauce. The recipe uses store-bought barbecue sauce enhanced with the smoky heat of canned chipotles in adobo and brown sugar, which helps glaze the pork. Because every barbecue sauce is different, taste and adjust yours as needed. (To mimic a North Carolina-style sauce, add apple cider vinegar with the beans, or yellow mustard for a South Carolina-style sauce, or even gochujang and soy sauce for a Korean-inspired take.) To serve, slice the pork or shred it into pulled pork. Cornbread, biscuits or Texas toast are great additions.
Grilled Chicken With Parsley-Olive Sauce
Boneless, skinless thighs are a boon to grilling because they’re almost impossible to overcook. Breasts are a bit trickier because they are low in fat and can dry out quickly. But this technique works beautifully for both. If you have the time, dry brine in advance (see Tips). When ready to eat, grill the chicken longer on the first side to get a little color (if the breasts are uneven in thickness, pound them until they’re even first), finish cooking on the other side, then plunge it into a bright sauce for up to 30 minutes for added juiciness. The sauce here is made with parsley, olives, chile, lemon juice and small bits of lemon rind for tartness and texture, but adjust flavorings as you wish. Serve the chicken with plenty of sauce, and perhaps a salad, grilled bread or vegetables. (Save some for the next day’s lunch, too; the smokiness will develop as it sits.)
Grilled Chicken With Tomatoes and Corn
While you could rest grilled chicken on a cutting board to ensure the juices don’t run out of the meat when it’s sliced, a more delicious option is to place the chicken on a pile of tomatoes, corn and red onion. The seasoned drippings act as a no-effort warm dressing, bolstering the flavor of the vegetables and softening their raw edges. Before grilling, the chicken is rubbed with chili powder, the spice mix that typically includes dried oregano, garlic, onion, cumin and ground chiles, for complex flavor with minimal effort. Fresh oregano, while optional, emphasizes the herbs in the chili powder. Use this technique of resting grilled proteins on fresh produce for many summer dinners: pork chops on peaches, steak on chopped scallions and ginger, sausages on radicchio and halloumi on citrus.
Grilled Salmon Escabeche
This recipe yields both tender salmon and crisp skin, while also solving for salmon’s tendency to stick and fall apart on the grill. First, cooking the salmon skin-side down the whole time protects its delicate flesh from the intense heat and gets the skin so browned that it minimizes sticking. Then, once it’s cooked most of the way through, the fish is transferred to a dish of quick-pickled fennel. Just the flesh is submerged in the brine so it cooks, while the skin above the liquid remains potato-chip crisp. This utilizes the age-old technique of escabeche, in which fish, meat or vegetables “cook” in a sauce of vinegar, oil and seasonings. Feel free to add coriander seeds, onion or other flavorings you like in your pickled vegetables. Serve the salmon and fennel with grilled bread, boiled potatoes, a salad or mayonnaise.
Braised Pork All’Arrabbiata
This spicy pork shoulder’s long-simmered flavor is one you’ll crave all season long. The browned pork shoulder braises with fire-roasted tomatoes, red wine and basil in the oven until it becomes fork-tender and breaks down into a rich ragù. The red-pepper flakes create a gentle heat, while basil adds sweetness. Serve over polenta or toss with tubed pasta, like penne or rigatoni. If serving with pasta, loosen the sauce with a little pasta cooking water to help the sauce coat the pasta.
Stir-Fried Green Beans and Scallions
While this dish may look like a pile of plain old green beans, look closer: Half of those slender green vegetables are scallions, contributing a sweet, gentle onion flavor to this fast side. Though scallions are often used to garnish, the use of cooked scallion segments is nothing new: You’ll find them sautéed, braised, grilled and eaten whole oftentimes with romesco or alongside meat. Here, scallions and green beans simultaneously steam and sauté in a hot, covered skillet, so the vegetables char and concentrate in flavor but remain juicy. Lemon brightens everything, but is strictly optional.
Frijoles Borrachos (Drunken Beans)
The method of cooking beans with beer originated in northern Mexico (Monterrey is the country’s brewery capital), then traveled with the cowboys on cattle drives. It’s easy to imagine a cauldron of beans simmering over a fire, the cook tossing in bits of meat from the grill, then pouring in beer to cover the beans, which might have been more convenient than water. According to “The Taste of Mexico” (Harry N. Abrams, 1986) by Patricia Quintana, the food of northern Mexico is often associated with grilled meats, but it is also epitomized by spicy beans like frijoles charros (or cowboy beans) and drunken beans. Bacon (or Mexican chorizo or other fatty meats) provide a rich base in which to cook vegetables like onions and peppers, while the beer makes the beans brighter and sharper but not boozy. Eat a bowl with grilled meats, flour tortillas or solo.
Gnocchi With Hot and Sweet Peppers
When fresh bell peppers, tomatoes and canned chipotles roast in plenty of olive oil, they become a sweet, smoky and spicy sauce. Use it to glaze gnocchi that have simultaneously crisped in their own pan and dinner is ready without much attention from you. Consider this recipe just a starting point: Add red wine vinegar for a tangy peperonatalike version, blend for a smooth sauce or top with nuts or cheese for protein. (Walnuts, hazelnuts and pine nuts, or feta, ricotta and Cheddar would all be good.) Or simply use the template for roasting vegetables with flavorings and oil to make any number of produce-heavy sauces for coating noodles, beans, grains or chicken.
Orange Creamsicle Ice Cream Cake
Refreshing and citrusy yet creamy and sweet, this stunning dessert is just like a Creamsicle, but in grown-up cake form. It’s also incredibly easy: Simply stack spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet into a springform pan and smoosh them down as you go. As for the crust, use whole vanilla wafers; They're less work, and crunchier than if you used crumbs. There are many ways to riff on this cake. You could try a different sherbet flavor, use frozen yogurt instead of vanilla ice cream, or trade the vanilla wafers for gingersnaps, shortbread or any other crumbly cookie. You could also add salted caramel, jam, nuts or pomegranate molasses in between the layers of ice cream.
Romesco Egg Salad
There’s mild-mannered egg salad, and then there’s this one, feisty with tang, crunch and smoke by incorporating elements of romesco, the Catalan sauce. Soft-boiled eggs are cut into chunks for pockets of richness, then tossed with oil, vinegar, smoked paprika, sweet peppers, almonds and parsley. Ingredients are left in hefty pieces for contrasting textures and bites, but if you prefer a homogenous salad to mound in a sandwich or onto your plate, just stir vigorously; the yolk and oil will emulsify and bind everything together.
Seared Salmon With Caper-Raisin Vinaigrette
In this rich one-skillet dinner, seared salmon and cauliflower are topped with frizzled capers, plumped raisins, browned butter and vinegar. For cauliflower with bite, sear florets until they’re caramelized but still snappy, then toss with vinegar and raisins. Cooking the salmon skin-side down (and not flipping) ensures a crisp skin and tender fish that won’t dry out. Finish with a baste of brown butter, garlic and capers. Serve alone, with bread or over orzo or farro.
Skillet Meatballs With Juicy Blackberries
In this one-skillet dish, fresh blackberries collapse into a sweet-tart sauce alongside juicy meatballs studded with crunchy whole spices and thyme. For the meatballs, use ground pork or lamb as their plentiful, flavorful fat fortifies the pan sauce. As for accompaniments, creamy Greek yogurt or labneh is the ideal backdrop for this sweet-and-savory combination, but grains, cauliflower rice, polenta, mashed potatoes, warmed pita, wilted greens, roasted mushrooms or chickpeas would be good, too.
Spaghetti and Chicken Meatball Soup
Tomato soup meets spaghetti and meatballs in this one-pot, 30-minute crowd-pleaser. To keep chicken meatballs juicy and light, skip the bread crumbs (which can create dense or bland meatballs) and the browning (which can cause precious juices to evaporate). Instead, plop them into the simmering soup to cook through. Any juices they do release will be captured in the tomato soup, which is creamy from olive oil and Parmesan. Feel free to adapt this recipe to suit your preferences: Add chopped onion, crushed fennel seeds, dried oregano or chopped parsley or basil to the meat or the sauce. The pasta will absorb the soup as it sits, so it’s a dish best eaten right when it’s made.