Dinner party
Recipes
A lasagna with a short fuse
The golden lasagna's wilder sister, all smoky sausage and charred poblano with a chipotle streak, cooled by a lime drizzle.
Golden lasagna
A carrot lasagna so light you could eat the lot and still fancy pudding.
Spatchcock chicken over leeks and greedy bread
One bird on a bed of leeks, and torn baguette underneath drinking up every drop.
Bagna cauda for the anchovy-shy
The warm garlic and anchovy bath that quietly wins every party. Melting, not fishy, and gone before the coats are off.
Five-minute harissa yogurt
Smoky, cooling and quick. The yogurt does the calming, the harissa does the talking.
One-pot Pugliese sausage and potatoes
Peasant food that minds itself in the oven, as happy on a Tuesday as it is at a three-hour lunch.
Salsa verde, anchovy and all
Sharp, briny and green. The Italian one, not the tomatillo one.
Grated tomato and Calabrian chili
Grated tomato with a Calabrian kick and a lemon lift. Sauce or dip, your call.
Za'atar yogurt with sumac
Herby, tangy and green-flecked. The cooling spoon for anything off the grill.
The Last Word
Gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime in equal measure. Nothing else.
Pegu Club
Gin, orange curaçao and lime, with two bitters doing the quiet work.
French onion gnocchi
Onions taken all the way down, crisp gnocchi folded in, a lid of Gruyère melted over the top.
Cherry and heirloom panzanella with burrata and prosciutto
Roasted and raw cherries, two tomatoes, one dressing built from what they weep.
The long way to Bolognese
Milk first, then wine, then the laziest three-hour simmer there is.
Red-lacquered chicken and winter vegetables
Gochujang does the glazing and a quick pickle talks back.
Roast chicken over hot-headed chickpeas
Harissa gets two minutes in a pan and a whole new attitude.
Miso peanut hibachi chicken
A Hawai'i grill number with peanut butter in the band.
Burnished miso chicken
Miso butter under high heat. The skin turns to amber glass.
Spaghetti squash under a Parmesan lid
The vegetable that does a passable impression of pasta, finally dressed for company.
Oven shawarma, no rotisserie in sight
All the spice and crisp of the street cart, none of the six-foot spit.
Harissa bolognese, baked in one pan
Bolognese that ran off to Tunis and came back smoking.
Hipster BBQ, a drink not a dinner
Vodka, lime and a salted beer chaser that tastes, absurdly, of a grill.
New Mexican hot dish, stacked not rolled
Enchiladas that gave up on rolling and lay down in layers instead.
Baba ghanouj, minus the mashing
The dip's more glamorous sister, who refuses to be puréed.
House dressing you'll eat by the spoon
The one you make once and then put on absolutely everything, darling. Do keep up.
The potato salad that forgot the mayonnaise
Bright, herby and unbothered by a jar of anything beige.
Smothered green beans that skipped the can
Everything the beige holiday casserole wanted to be, finally.
Tahini and Parmesan, an unlikely pasta salad
Nobody asked for this pairing. Everybody wants seconds.
Baked feta dip with hot honey
The block of feta that went viral, finally behaving like a dip.
Roasted cauliflower under a tahini-parsley flood
The cauliflower is fine. The sauce is the reason you came.
Corn bake with ideas above its station
One bowl, one box of Jiffy and no shame whatsoever.
Zuni Café chicken
Four ingredients and two days. Trust the salt and do almost nothing.
Coq au vin for a filthy night in
Chicken, a bottle of Burgundy and an afternoon. This is what Sundays are for.
White port and tonic
Portugal's answer to the gin and tonic, and arguably the better one. Three things, two minutes.
Chicken tamale pie from the church-supper canon
A Jiffy-box cornbread drowned in enchilada sauce and piled with chicken. Zero shame, full flavour.
Beeritas, no apologies
Limeade, lager and tequila by the pitcher. The margarita's lawless cousin.
Fish house punch, older than the republic
Rum, Cognac and a lemon-oil syrup in one bowl. Colonial Philadelphia could drink.
Corn salad that skips the vinegar
Five minutes, six ingredients and no vinegar. The tomatoes season it themselves.
MSG martini
Savory, filthy and faintly illegal-feeling. Stir, don't ask.
Smashed cucumbers, bruised on purpose
The salad you'll make unprompted. Bring a heavy knife.
Greek panzanella with crispy pork
The benchmark bread salad gone Greek, with pork that crackles.
Tomato tarte tatin
Sweet, sharp and considerably more interesting than the version that started it.
Shatta white bean dip
The Parmesan crust does all the work. The shatta takes all the credit.
Featured
A ricotta pasta that begs to be messed with
Stir it in a bowl while the water boils, then fiddle until it tastes like yours.
Crispy spanakopita gnocchi
Spanakopita flavors massaged raw, over a cool swipe of chili-flecked yogurt.
Al pastor gnocchi
The crisp spit-roasted edges of al pastor, faked in a skillet. Pork, charred pineapple, a green pool of salsa verde.