1-2-3-4 Yogurt Cake
If you hate dealing with multiple measuring cups and spoons, you’re going to love this cake. Inspired by the French gâteau au yaourt, it uses an entire container of yogurt then cleverly employs the empty container as the measuring cup for the flour, sugar and oil. It’s easy to throw together and a perfect recipe to make with children. It’s a forgiving, adaptable cake, so feel free to make it your own with citrus zest, extracts (like vanilla or almond), and any ground spice that strikes your fancy.
Roasted Whole Cauliflower with Feta
“I didn’t know cauliflower could taste so delicious,” one reader wrote of this surprisingly indulgent veggie dish. We slather a whole head of cauliflower with a mixture of olive oil, mustard, balsamic vinegar, honey and garlic, then roast it until it’s deeply browned—almost charred—and finish it with a swipe of mustard, barely melted feta, and fresh parsley. Slice it into wedges for easy serving as a side dish (it’s gorgeous with roasted chicken) or let it take center stage as a vegetarian-friendly main.
Mexican Sweet Corn Cake
This simple cake is ubiquitous in Mexican food markets, street stalls and restaurants. Called panqué de elote, pan de elote or pastel de elote, its texture lands somewhere between cake and cornbread while hinting at custard. In Mexico City, we had it for breakfast, as it’s commonly served, but finished with a dusting of powdered sugar, we think it also makes a casual, homey dessert. Cornmeal is not a typical ingredient in panqué de elote; we add a small amount to account for the fact that fresh Mexican corn used for making this type of cake is starchier and drier than the fresh corn available in the U.S.
Make this cake to celebrate summer, when sweet corn is in season—frozen kernels will give it a dense, gummy texture.
Roasted Mushroom Pizza with Fontina and Scallions
“I have been making pizza for over 40 years with random, mostly unsatisfying results,” Chris Kimball writes—until one muggy summer day, a happy accident resulted in a crispy, chewy crust with remarkable flavor. “It was the best pizza I had ever made.”. While heating the oven and pizza steel or stone to 550°F takes about an hour, we use this time to roast portobello mushrooms, which we combine with our fontina-Parmesan cream white sauce. The mushrooms can be prepped up to 24 hours ahead and refrigerated, and the sauce can be made and stored for three days. All you have to do is assemble and bake.
Thai Cashew Chicken
“This not only is unlike any cashew chicken I’ve ever eaten, it’s also wildly better,” writes J.M. Hirsch of this Thai cashew chicken learned from blogger Rawadee Yenchujit. "I tasted its harmony of sweet and spicy, tender and crunchy, fresh and savory, all of it pushing and pulling deliciously in my mouth one bite after another after another.” Our readers agree. “Everything they say about this recipe is true,” wrote one. “This is a fantastic dish,” wrote another. “I make a lot of Asian recipes and it’s easily in the top three.” Don’t skip Thai chili paste, or chili “jam” (nam prik pao, in Thai); it’s an important element in the stir-fry.
Milk-Simmered Mashed Potatoes
People went wild for these mashed potatoes on social media, with nearly 15 million plays on Instagram. Instead of boiling the potatoes in water and draining away the starch they release while cooking, we simmer them in milk, letting the starches mix with the dairy to make the creamiest cream-free mashed potatoes.
Fettuccine Alfredo
Made the Italian way, Fettuccine Alfredo bears little resemblance to the unctuous, cream-based pasta dish that’s popular in the U.S. There’s no heavy cream, only fresh pasta, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, butter and salt. Quality is of the utmost importance with so few ingredients; purchase a hefty chunk of true Parmigiano Reggiano—not the pre-shredded stuff. Trim off the rind (save it for simmering into soups and stews), then pulverize the cheese in the food processor into a fine powder, to help it emulsify into the sauce. For best results, use European-style butter, which has a higher fat content than American varieties.
Creamy, Garlicky Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup
This soup is luxe, velvety, and surprisingly creamy, especially when you realize it doesn’t contain a single drop of cream. It gets its texture from long-simmered pureed cauliflower and its flavor from a good dose of garlic and sharp cheddar cheese. (Readers tell us it’s great with everything bagel seasoning and Worcestershire sauce.)
French Apple Cake
This is the cake for apple pie filling lovers: French Apple Cake is less cake than a pile of sautéed apples, suspended in an airy, bouncy crumb that bakes up with a thin, crisp crust. “It is a last-minute dessert thrown together without a recipe,” Chris Kimball writes. “When one requests exact measurements, French cooks explain the process with a disdainful flick of the head, an exhalation of cigarette smoke and a phrase of discouragement: ‘N’importe.’”
Rigatoni with Roman Broccoli Sauce
TikTok dubbed our Rigatoni With Roman Broccoli Sauce “Shrek pasta”—not exactly what the Italians had in mind, but it does describe the glow. In this vegetal Roman rigatoni dish, broccoli pulls double-duty by flavoring the pasta water and as a fresh, silky sauce. Our editorial director J.M. Hirsch described it as “just simple, smooth freshness with rich, savory flavors lingering behind it.”
Hungry for more? Check out our entire collection of Milk Street’s 40 most popular recipes of 2023.
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