Melissa Clark

If you make this dish in tomato season, when colorful heirlooms are in markets everywhere just waiting to become dinner, you won’t really be surprised by its juicy profundity of flavors—a gorgeous mix of sweet, salty, pungent, and umami, all baked until golden and bubbling on top. But what’s so especially appealing about this dish is that it’s also amazing when made with, meh, out-of-season tomatoes, those hydroponic specimens that you buy because, well, waiting until July seems impossible. In both cases, the garlicky, lemony bread crumbs, anchovy oil, and Parmesan will work their magic, seasoning the vegetables while they roast. Serve this as a side dish, or make it the star of a light meal, with some crusty bread to mop up all those luscious, tangy juices.

A few years ago, a pastry chef named Dominique Ansel shaped croissant dough into a ring, fried it until puffed, and became the creator of the Cronut, one of the world's most copied pastries. He also became a master maker of lines, as in hours-long lines outside his bakeries around the world, people waiting for cronuts, frozen s'mores they light on fire, and mugs of hot chocolate where the marshmallows literally open up and blossom like flowers before your eyes. While Dominique’s made his name with these magical treats, his new book is for the non-magicians among us; it's called Everyone Can Bake and it's filled with the simple fillings and doughs that are his foundation. Our friend Melissa Clark met up with him to talk about these basic building blocks, some of which he gave us the recipes for: Vanilla Sable Tart Shell, Pastry Cream, and Chocolate Ganache.

This is a classic roast chicken—herb-scented and bronze-skinned—that’s been vamped out with crispy mushrooms cooked in the same pan.

One of my all-time favorites, this sheet-pan supper has it all—spicy harissa-laced roasted chicken; sweet, browned leeks; crunchy potatoes; plus a cool garnish of salted yogurt and plenty of fresh bright herbs. It’s a little lighter than your average roasted chicken and potatoes dinner, and a lot more profoundly flavored.

The summer is flying by. And while we can’t slow down time, we can take full advantage of summer vegetables in their full glory. Hetty McKinnon is an Australian cook and food writer with a passion for vegetables. She’s written a new book on the subject; it’s called Family: New Vegetarian Comfort Food to Nourish Every Day. Our lovely contributor Melissa Clark recently met up with Hetty to talk about some new ways we can incorporate all of those fresh seasonal vegetables into our weeknight cooking routines. Try your hand at the recipes for The Deconstructed Falafel Salad, Vegetable Pajeon (Korean Savory Pancakes), and My Great Aunt's Chana Masala

I knew that my first husband, Max, was a seafood lover beyond the likes I’d seen in the other men I’d dated. He noshed on gravalax and pickled herring like potato chips, spooned up salmon roe from the jar, sucked Swedish caviar spread out of a tube -- for breakfast, with coffee.

This is a departure from my usual tomato salad, which is composed of little more than carved-up tomatoes, torn basil, salt, and olive oil. Daniel and I eat this simple salad almost every night in tomato season, since it takes about twenty seconds to assemble and has a juicy purity of tomato flavor that I can’t seem to get enough of this time of year.

Spatchcocking chicken, also called butterflying, calls for cutting the bird along its backbone, then opening it up so that it can lie flat in the pan. Spatchcocked chickens cook quickly and evenly, turning gorgeously brown in the process. You can ask your butcher to spatchcock the chicken for you, but it’s not a hard thing to do yourself (see instructions below). Good, sharp poultry shears are all you need.

Whenever it’s served, a scalloped potato gratin is usually the best thing on the table. With tender potatoes suffused with cream and herbs, and a burnished lid of melted, buttery cheese, there are few things more delicious. That’s why I think you should make potato gratin the centerpiece of your meal, rather than as a side dish to a juicy steak or a roast chicken. Or, if you really want both meat and potatoes, why not mix things up and make the steak the side dish to the gratin?

Using a vanilla bean makes this creamy pudding extra special and aromatic. But if you don’t have one on hand, just stir 1 tablespoon vanilla extract into the pudding along with the egg yolks. Although rice pudding is traditionally served cold, I also like this when it’s still warm and a little runny, poured over sliced strawberries and raspberries, which add both juiciness and acidity.