Finding Comfort in a Marriage of Chickpeas and Pasta

In Tuscany, anchovies, herbs and olive oil transform chickpeas into the best pasta sauce

By J.M. HirschAugust 13, 2025

Coleslaw? No thanks. Char the Cabbage Instead!

At the Shaffa Bar in Tel Aviv, Shira Petel roasts cabbage until it chars and pairs it with a creamy, garlicky sauce

By Christopher KimballAugust 13, 2025

In Indonesian Cooking, Flavor is Found in Color

Getting to know the five spice pastes that anchor Indonesian food

By J.M. HirschAugust 13, 2025

Pasta with Stale Bread?

One of the best recipes in the world is spaghetti with breadcrumbs and parsley—this version from Calabria ups the ante

By Christopher KimballAugust 13, 2025

Sri Lankan Squash is Bathed in a Riot of Spices

In Colombo, we got a master class in layering flavors

By J.M. HirschAugust 13, 2025

Mexican Cowboys Make the Best Beans

Cowboy Beans, or frijoles charros, are built on a rich, deep foundation of four types of meats

By Christopher KimballAugust 25, 2025

Georgian Eggplant Gets Creamy Richness from Walnuts

A marriage of hummus, baba ghanoush and eggplant Parmesan

By J.M. HirschAugust 26, 2025

Soup From Nothing

The ultimate (and delicious) example of make-do cooking is Romanian caraway soup

By Christopher KimballAugust 26, 2025

Stéphane Jégo Reimagines Rice Pudding

Chef Jégo’s spectacular three-part rice pudding has made Paris’ L’Ami Jean an essential culinary destination

By Christopher KimballAugust 26, 2025

Yes, I Can Make Apple Strudel!

I stretched out a ball of dough to 2½ feet long and used a tablecloth to roll it up. Now it’s your turn.

By Christopher KimballAugust 26, 2025

I Let Chris Kimball Choose My Dinner

He did a pretty good job.

By Claire LowerSeptember 29, 2025

Cabbage and Chicken Salad with Gochujang and Sesame

Core ingredients in the Korean kitchen inject loads of flavor into simple cabbage and chicken salad.

Spicy Korean Braised Chicken and Vegetables

This flavor-packed stew, called dakbokkeumtang, counts gochujang, or Korean fermented chili paste, as one of its primary seasonings. The thick, bright-red paste usually is sold in plastic tubs or bottles in Asian markets or in the international aisle

Ziti with Sweet Peppers, Bacon and Paprika

Loosely inspired by Hungary’s ubiquitous pepper stew, lescó, this dish combines smoky bacon with stew-y bell peppers and onion, creating a luscious, vegetable-packed sauce. We use extra-starchy pasta water as a thickener, made by boiling the noodles i

Sausage Traybake with Apples and Onions

Wide, low-sided baking sheets are ideal for oven-easy dinners; they facilitate heat circulation for better browning. We pair savory sausages with sweet apples and onions, which get a flavor boost from spicy mustard; a glug of hard apple cider or beer

Shrimp and Feta Bake

This is an oven-baked version of garides saganaki, a classic Greek dish that combines sweet shrimp with tangy tomatoes and briny feta cheese. The tomato mixture spends about 45 minutes in the oven to soften the vegetables and concentrate their flavors

Scoop-and-Drop Vietnamese Meatball Soup

This scoop-and-drop take on Vietnamese canh taught us to stop fussing over perfectly formed meatballs. Canh is a style of light, brothy soups; ours features super simple chicken meatballs paired with tender-crisp baby bok choy. We use store-bought chi

Chickpeas and Pasta with Herbs and Anchovies (Ceci e Acciughe con Pasta)

In Tuscany, at Osteria Su Santa Trinita, chef and owner Vladimiro Gori taught us to make ceci e acciugati, or chickpeas with anchovies. Traditionally, it is a side dish of chickpeas cooked in olive oil infused with sage, rosemary and anchovies, with a

Spaghetti with Garlic and Walnut Breadcrumbs

This pasta dish was one of the best things we ate during our trip to Southern Italy. It was prepared for us by Giancarlo Suriano, whose condiment company specializes in preserving regional ingredients, such as Calabrian chilies and Tropea onions. He a

Soup from Nothing (Caraway Soup with Parsley and Walnut Pesto)

At Milk Street, this simple, comforting broth is affectionately known as “soup from nothing.” It is our adaptation of a recipe we learned from Oana Udrea, chef at Meșendorf 65 in the Transylvania region of Romania. The heart of the soup is a light but

Walnut and Parmesan Biscuits

These savory cookie-like biscuits are our adaptation of the ones Oana Udrea, chef at Meșendorf 65 in the Transylvania region of Romania, made to serve with her caraway soup. The dough, which comes together easily by hand, is formed into a log, then ch

Austrian Apple Strudel

In Austria, Eva-Maria Steinbichler and her daughter, Petra Steinbichler, showed us how to prepare a proper apple strudel. The result was a light, barely there pastry surrounding a buttery, sweet-tart filling. To build impressive gluten strength in the

Sri Lankan Winter Squash and Coconut Curry

In Colombo, Sri Lanka, home cook Mallika Fernando and her husband, Allan, taught us to make poosanikai kootu, an easy one-pot pumpkin curry in a rich, fragrant coconut base. Butternut squash works well in this recipe, but if kabocha is available, it’s

Indonesian Soy-Braised Chicken (Semur Ayam)

In Jakarta, chef Degan Septoadji taught us to prepare semur ayam, a simple, home-style chicken braise. The flavor base is a white spice paste called bumbu dasar putih, made by blitzing aromatics in a blender. The savory-sweet stew gets complexity from

Rice Pudding with Caramel Cream and Almond Praline

Riz au lait, or rice pudding, is the signature dessert at L’Ami Jean, a Parisian bistro known for its innovative takes on robust French fare. Rice pudding typically is heavy, but chef Stéphane Jégo lightens his with whipped cream and pairs it with a m

Mexican Cowboy Beans (Frijoles Charros)

Mexican frijoles charros, or cowboy beans, is a brothy stew of beans and a variety of meats, plus aromatics, tomatoes and sometimes chilies. The dish is said to originate with the charros, or cowboys, who worked on the ranches of northern Mexico and t

Georgian Eggplant with Walnut Sauce (Badrijani Nigvzit)

Georgian badrijani nigvzit consists of thin eggplant slices that are fried, then rolled around a filling of walnuts, garlic, herbs and spices. During a visit, we learned different interpretations of the dish from home cook Barbare Chabashvili, chef Me

Indonesian Spiced Beef and Lemon Grass Soup

This aromatic soup is our adaptation of the sop konro that home cook Nobita Budianti demonstrated for us in her kitchen in Jakarta, Indonesia. The blender does much of the heavy prep, pureeing many of the ingredients into a spice paste, called bumbu d

Braised Whole Cauliflower alla Diavola

We give a whole head of cauliflower the pot-roast treatment by cooking it in a Dutch oven with a spicy tomato, garlic and green olive braising liquid that becomes a flavorful sauce. When the cauliflower is almost fully tender, we dust it with pecorino

Charred Roasted Cabbage with Skordalia

This recipe is our re-creation of a small plate we enjoyed at Shaffa Bar in Tel Aviv. Cabbage wedges were roasted until deeply charred on the exterior and fork-tender inside, then paired with skordalia. The thick, creamy Greek dip is a puree of nuts,

Almond Praline

Thai-Style Dry Pork and Mushroom Curry

Unlike coconut-based Thai curries that are soupy and sweet, this khua kling curry from southern Thailand is sauceless and assertively savory. In Thailand, we learned a shortcut to making the dish: supplement store-bought Thai red curry paste with turm

Indonesian-Style Stir-Fried Red Chili Tofu with Peanuts

In Jakarta, at Warteg Gang Mangga, we loved the spicy, savory-sweet kering tempeh. Crisply fried nuggets of tempeh were tossed with bumbu dasar merah, a red spice paste made by pureeing aromatics, that was cooked to a thick, glaze-like sauce that coat

Three-Cup Cauliflower

Let’s give cauliflower a three-cup makeover. Three-cup chicken is a Taiwanese classic, named for the formula once used to prepare the dish: 1 cup each of sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine. We use cauliflower for a vegetarian version. The recipe work

Barley “Risotto” with Mushrooms, Kale and Gorgonzola

Barley makes a nutty, toothsome risotto-like dish when cooked with the right amount of liquid. We use sautéed cremini mushrooms as a base, wilt in baby kale (or spinach or arugula) at the end, then top it all off with cheese. To make prep go a little

Butter-Braised Tomato Soup

In “The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking,” Marcella Hazan shared her now-famous recipe for a sublimely delicious, remarkably simple sauce made with nothing more than tomatoes, onion and butter. This soup turns that sauce into a light meal. If you