Passover
269 recipes found
Matzo Lasagna
In this browned baked dish, matzo crackers replace the usual pasta for a rich, ricotta-filled lasagna that’s Passover-friendly and relatively easy. In this version, the ricotta is flecked with basil, and the marinara sauce gently spiced with garlic and a touch of red-pepper flakes. Feel free to use the recipe as a template to create your own combinations — adding vegetables, other herbs and other cheeses as you like. The heady tomato sauce and bubbling, golden mozzarella on top can frame whatever other ingredients you’d like to add. You can assemble the matzo lasagna the day before you bake it (store it in the fridge); just add a few minutes onto the baking time. If you are using handmade shmurah matzo, soak the sheets for 5 minutes in water before layering them. Supermarket matzo, which is lighter and more airy, does not need to be soaked.
Sephardic-Style Macaroons
Chocolate Macaroons
Parsley Salad With Fennel and Horseradish
I have always been the one at the Seder table to eat the parsley dipped in saltwater with enthusiasm. “You going to finish that?” I might ask my neighbor at the table when I see they have left theirs untouched after just a nibble. This salad is an obvious nod to the Seder plate, including both parsley (bitter herbs) and fresh horseradish, except it’s less ceremonial and more just a very delicious salad. I love, love parsley and think a well-seasoned bowl of it is something that most tables can benefit from, especially if those tables include braised pots of red meat. While parsley and fennel can be prepared ahead of time, the salad itself is best dressed right before you eat.
Flourless Chocolate Cake With Halvah Honey Sauce
Egg whites give this intensely rich cake its leavening and delicate texture, while a halvah honey sauce elevates it to something entirely new. It is an easy cake to make, and works beautifully even without the sauce, making it perfect for Passover. And it takes almost no time at all.
Crispy Potato Kugel
At its core, kugel is a casserole. It comes in both savory and sweet varieties, often made with egg noodles and vaguely sweetened. This version, made with potatoes, is decidedly salty and savory, with onions in the mixture and chives to finish. It can best be described as something between a Spanish tortilla and a giant latke; the potatoes are shredded, not sliced, there are eggs but no flour, and it’s got crispy edges and a creamy interior. Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? The most annoying parts of this kugel are also the most important: grating the potatoes (I use a box grater, but you can use a food processor with the shredding blade) and wringing out their moisture. For that, I use my hands and a colander or strainer to save a kitchen towel or a cheesecloth, but you can use those, if you like. Traditionally made in a casserole-style baking dish, this kugel starts off in a cast-iron skillet, but a stainless-steel skillet would do the job, and honestly so would a baking dish, just know you may be sacrificing that crunchy underside.
Walnut Cake
I have to thank a couple of people for this recipe: first, the chef Stevie Parle, of Dock Kitchen in London, who published the recipe to inspire this one, and second, the aunt of one of my recipe testers, who made such a standout interpretation that we all marveled over the leftovers the next day in the test kitchen. I just had to try my own version, and here it is, made a touch more celebratory with caramelized walnuts and lashings of whipped cream, both of which can be omitted if you prefer keeping it plain and dairy-free (thereby making it suitable for Passover). The cake is moist and delicious enough as it is. If baking for Passover, you should also be sure to use muscovado sugar (or dark brown sugar) and amaretto that are certified kosher for Passover.
Prepared Horseradish
Homemade prepared horseradish tastes fresher than store-bought varieties and is a surprisingly versatile condiment that will keep, refrigerated, for about three months. Start with fresh horseradish, which should be chilled to preserve its punch, and a box grater, a hand grinder or a food processor. Horseradish is potent, so make sure to keep the windows open or wear glasses to protect yourself from the fumes when handling the raw ingredient. Whisked into vinaigrettes, drizzled over poached fish or stirred into mayonnaise for a brighter egg salad sandwich, a spoonful of prepared horseradish wakes up whatever you're cooking.
Chocolate Caramel Macarons
There are American macaroons, usually generously sized, coconut-based confections. And then there are French macarons, diminutive and almond imbued. This recipe skews French, but with a twist. Instead of the typical buttercream or ganache filling, there’s a crunchy caramel candy layer in between the cocoa layers. These are fudgy little confections more like candy than cookies. They also happen to be both gluten-free and can be kosher for Passover, if you use kosher-for-Passover confectioners' sugar. You can make the macarons five days ahead, but don’t fill them more than a day ahead. Or serve them without the caramel for something slightly less sweet, but just as intense.
Provençal Veal Breast Stuffed With Swiss Chard
This Passover holiday recipe, an ancient jewel of Jewish Provençal cooking, feels modern with our new love of Swiss chard. It is traditional to use a whole veal breast with all the bones, but that makes for a giant roast by today’s standards. For this simplified but magnificent version, have a butcher trim, butterfly and remove the bones -- and save them to cook beside the meat, where they will add flavor and texture to the braise. The dish tastes best cooked a day ahead to allow the flavors to blend.
Almond Cake With Cardamom and Pistachio
This moist and springy Persian almond cake is generously spiced with ground cardamom (two full teaspoons). We like it with fresh berries. If you want to serve it for Passover, be sure to use kosher for Passover confectioners' sugar; you could also use a tablespoon of matzo meal in place of the tablespoon of almond flour, but the cake is delicious without it.
Salted Peanut and Caramel Matzo Brittle
This is a more advanced version of the popular chocolate matzo toffee, but it’s still easy to make: A layer of caramel bakes on top of then soaks into the unleavened bread, which next gets slathered with peanut butter and topped with crunchy peanuts. For those with peanut allergies — or those who do not eat peanuts at Passover — you can substitute any creamy nut butter and nuts. You can also use tahini and halvah; add snipped, dried apricots or dried cranberries for color; or keep it simple and stick with chocolate — preferably dark, to counter the caramel’s sweetness — as in the original recipe by baker Marcy Goldman in her book “A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking” (Doubleday 1998). Be aware: This dish is addictive.
Fried Artichokes
These deserve to be served as a separate course, eaten with your fingers. The basic method is the same for French fries — the first frying cooks and the second, hotter frying crisps. Roman cimaroli or mammole artichokes do not have the sharp thorns of our American globe variety and are picked before their chokes have fully developed, so I have made some adjustments to the original recipe to remove the choke here. Don’t let it intimidate you; the first frying and a grapefruit spoon or melon baller makes it relatively easy to manage.
Coconut Macaroon and Mango Bombe
This is a cheater's version of those fancy iced bombes from the ’80s, with two or three layers of bright-hued whipped frozen mousse packed into a decorative mold. Here, a layer of mango ice cream swirled with fresh mango sits beneath a layer of macaroon-studded coconut ice cream. It's a stunning dessert, perfect for a dinner party, and quicker to put together than the time you'll spend locating the macaroons at the supermarket.
Chocolate-Caramel Matzo Toffee
Matzo toffee is the Passover-friendly take on saltine toffee. A layered confection of matzo crackers, brown sugar caramel and melted chocolate, you can top it with practically anything you like, from the most elegantly minimal sprinkle of sea salt to a surfeit of nuts, dried fruit, potato chips, or a combination. This recipe, adapted from Marcy Goldman’s cookbook “A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking,” keeps well when stored airtight at room temperature — up to one week, if you haven’t finished it by then.
Matzo Toffee With Candied Ginger
Traditional matzo toffee — a Passover-friendly spin on saltine toffee — is an addictive three-layer confection of crackers, brown sugar toffee and melted chocolate. In this version, the chocolate gets a spicy boost from the addition of both fresh ginger juice and chewy candied ginger. Or substitute a topping of cacao nibs, sea salt and/or toasted, chopped nuts. Matzo toffee will keep for at least eight days, stored airtight at room temperature, which will take you through the holidays in the sweetest way possible.
Chicken With Artichokes and Lemon
If you like artichokes as much as I do, this recipe, often made at Passover by Jews from Morocco, is for you. You can use fresh or frozen artichokes, though trimming fresh artichokes is worth the effort for their delicate texture. To save waste, boil the trimmed artichoke leaves about 15 minutes until tender in water with a lemon, then enjoy them for lunch, dipping them into an easy sauce of yogurt spiked with a spoonful of Dijon mustard. Easily made in a frying pan, this tagine goes well with couscous, or a quinoa or bulgur pilaf, though that might depend on your Passover traditions, and Moroccan Jews do not allow rice or couscous. The dish can easily be made a day or two in advance and refrigerated or even frozen.
Coconut-Nut Macaroons
The reward of these classic one-bowl cookies far outweighs the effort of making them. They are so easy – just dump and stir – and you don't need any special equipment. Here, Mark Bittman adds a generous handful of pistachios for crunch and color. They are also gluten-free, and the perfect treat for Passover.
Almond-Walnut Thumbprint Macaroons
These cookies are less sweet and chewier than many traditional nut macaroons. The recipe is from Eileen Dangoor Khalastchy, an 86-year-old cook and baker who remembers her mother making something similar when the family lived in Iraq. Ms. Khalastchy moved from Baghdad to London in the 1970s, but she remembers her mother making cookies like these and then sending them to be baked in the public oven because there was no oven at home then. Ms. Khalastchy has tinkered with the recipe, substituting walnuts for some of the almonds and adding an egg yolk to the traditional whites.
Orange-Almond Mandelbrot
Mandelbrot (or mandel bread) is an Eastern European Jewish cookie, a variation on biscotti. The dough is baked twice: first in a log, and then again after it's been sliced into cookies. This recipe includes the smart trick of freezing the dough after baking it the first time, then cutting it into slices when still frozen before baking again. This makes for a thinner slice, fewer crumbs when cutting and a crispier texture. You can make it with matzo cake meal during Passover — a delicious variation.
Chicken With Eggplant and Swiss Chard
A version of this delicious Jewish-Middle Eastern chicken dish, adapted from Joan Nathan's cookbook "King Solomon's Table," dates to medieval times. You can make it in one day, but it's best to make the chicken a day ahead, then it refrigerate it overnight and remove the layer of fat that rises to the top. (If you choose to make it all in one day, you may want to use a fat separator to strain the sauce before serving.) For more heat, add a little hot paprika or cayenne.
Tabbouleh With Apples, Walnuts and Pomegranates
This grain-free tabbouleh, a perfect side for a Passover meal, comes from chef Michael Solomonov of Zahav.
Broccoli, Quinoa and Purslane Salad
Slice the raw broccoli very thin for this delicious salad. If you can’t find purslane you can substitute mâche.
Matzo Brei With Hot Honey and Feta
When it comes to matzo brei (rhymes with fry), preferences run deep. Do you like yours salty and peppery, with crispy edges, or softer and sweeter, served with a drizzle of syrup or shower of confectioners’ sugar? This version leans savory, dotted with pockets of creamy feta and dill, but a slick of hot honey added at the end is a nod to the sweeter — albeit spicier — side. Serve it for breakfast, lunch or dinner, during Passover and beyond. It’s a quick, satisfying meal with verve to spare.