Serves 6 to 8
- Salt and pepper
- paprika
- cornstarch
- water
- honey
- cider vinegar
- low-sodium chicken broth
- minced fresh thyme
Serves 8
In step 1, it is imperative that the cooked strawberry mixture measures 2 cups; any more and the filling will be loose. If your fresh berries aren’t fully ripe, you may want to add extra sugar to taste in step 2. Use your favorite pie dough or use our recipe. Chill the heavy cream in step 4 to help it whip more quickly.
- Filling:
- frozen strawberries
- lemon juice
- water
- unflavored gelatin
- sugar
- salt
- Topping:
- sugar
- vanilla extract
- heavy cream
For one 9-inch Single-Crust Pie
Vodka is essential to the texture of the crust and imparts no flavor—do not substitute. This dough will be moister and more supple than most standard pie doughs and will require more flour to roll out (up to 1/4 cup).
- table salt
- sugar
- cold water
Serves 8
Though you can make one large creme caramel, we find that custards baked in individual ramekins cook faster, are more evenly textured, and unmold more easily. You can vary the amount of sugar in the custard to suit your taste. Most tasters preferred the full two-thirds cup, but you can reduce that amount to as little as one-half cup to create a greater contrast between the custard and the sweetness of the caramel. Cook the caramel in a pan with a light-colored interior, since a dark surface makes it difficult to judge the color of the syrup. Caramel can leave a real mess in a pan, but it is easy to clean. Simply boil lots of water in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes to loosen the hardened caramel. Espresso beans ground in a coffee grinder will be too fine and impart too strong a coffee flavor to the custard. Instead, crush the beans lightly with the bottom of a heavy saucepan.
- Caramel:
- granulated sugar
- water
- corn syrup
- lemon juice
- Custard:
- whole milk
- light cream
- large eggs
- large egg yolks
- granulated sugar
- vanilla extract
- table salt
Makes one 9-inch loaf
This recipe uses a standing electric mixer; see related recipes for a food processor variation. You can hand-knead the dough, but we found it’s easy to add too much flour during this stage, resulting in a somewhat tougher loaf. If you don’t have bread flour, you can use all-purpose flour.
- table salt
- honey
Serves 4
Do not substitute no-boil lasagna noodles for the traditional, curly-edged lasagna noodles here. Meatloaf mix is a combination of ground beef, pork, and veal, sold pre-packaged in many supermarkets. If it’s unavailable, use 1/2 pound each ground pork and 85 percent ground beef. We recommend using either whole milk or part-skim ricotta here, but do not use fat-free ricotta, which has a very dry texture and bland flavor.
- olive oil
- Salt
- red pepper flakes
- meatloaf mix
- Ground black pepper
- chopped fresh basil leaves
Makes 3 cups, enough for 1 pound of pasta
This full-flavored tomato sauce takes only 15 minutes to prepare. High-quality canned tomatoes will make a big difference in this sauce. Our preferred brands of crushed tomatoes are Tuttorosso and Muir Glen. Grate the onion on the large holes of a box grater.
- unsalted butter
- dried oregano
- Table salt
- sugar
- coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves
- extra virgin olive oil
- Ground black pepper
Serves 4 to 6
If you’re short on chicken fat at the end of step 1, supplement it with vegetable oil.
- Salt and pepper
- all-purpose flour
- vegetable oil
- minced fresh thyme
- low-sodium chicken broth
- bay leaves
- Chopped fresh parsley
Serves 4 to 6 as a first course
Fresh pasta is the best choice for this dish; supermarkets sell 9-ounce containers of fresh pasta in the refrigerator section (see related article for tasting results). When boiling the pasta, undercook it slightly (even shy of al dente) because the pasta cooks an additional minute or two in the sauce. Note that Fettuccine Alfredo must be served immediately; it does not hold or reheat well.
- heavy cream
- unsalted butter
- Table salt
- ground black pepper
- fresh fettuccine
- fresh grated nutmeg
Serves 12 to 16
Let the dissolved gelatin mixture cool down for a few minutes, or the gelatin will seize when combined with the filling. We tested our cheesecake with several store brands of lemon sandwich cookies; all worked well.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
In a baked cheesecake, tart lemon juice is mellowed by the heat of the oven. For our Lemon Icebox Cheesecake, we needed to dial back the lemon juice to compensate. Lemon curd, a rich, tangy spread made from eggs, butter, cream, sugar, and lemon juice, added crisp lemon flavor without the undesirable “chew" of zest or the processed flavor of lemon extract. Using lemon cookies instead of graham crackers for the crust created an additional layer of lemon flavor.
- CRUST
- grated lemon zest
- CURD
- large egg plus 1 egg yolk
- sugar
- salt
- lemon juice
- unsalted butter
- heavy cream
- FILLING
- lemon juice from 2 lemons
- sugar
- salt