Summer

Our 10 Most Popular Recipes Right Now

From one-pan pasta to a perfect peach tart, meet the summery dishes you loved most in July.

August  1, 2019

I'll be honest with you: I haven't cooked much this week—hardly at all, actually. One night I was struck with a sudden, random craving for a poké bowl; another, it was chicken tikka masala. (On both occasions, I turned to my friend Seamless, the takeout delivery app, for instant gratification.) Two of my friends were also visiting from out of town, and their primary agenda was to do everything but cook in my tiny N.Y.C. apartment.

Next week, though, I'm ready to get back in the groove and into my kitchen. I plan on starting off with Martha Stewart's one-pan pasta—it's so quick, so easy, and has a little bit of kick to it, which I love. Once hump day rolls around, I'll probably treat myself to some oven-fried chicken, maybe with a side of perfect pan-roasted potatoes.

And come Friday, I'm definitely putting the peaches that have been sitting on my counter for a little too long in a sweet, simple tart (our co-founder and CEO Amanda Hesser's, actually!) to enjoy throughout the weekend.

You might not have noticed, but these recipes all have one thing in common: Aside from being very tasty, they're just a few of our most popular recipes from July (full list below). Bookmark your favorites so you can make them too, and check out the other dishes—pies! panzanella! more pasta!—that Food52 readers loved cooking last month.


The 10 Most-Viewed Recipes on Food52

1. Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce With Onion & Butter

Will Marcella Hazan's iconic/famous/beloved tomato sauce with onion and butter ever cease to be popular? Probably not. Is that a bad thing? Heck no. This unfussy, yet oh-so-easy sauce packs a shocking amount of flavor considering its teeny-tiny ingredients list (summer tomatoes, butter, and onion—but I bet you already knew that) and is perfect for everything from spaghetti to pizza to chicken Parm.

2. Bill Smith's Atlantic Beach Pie

Any pie that's described "lazy and beachy" is an automatic winner in my book, but Bill Smith's crowd-pleasing Atlantic Beach Pie gets bonus points for the way its tangy-creamy-sweet filling (hi there, lemon juice and sweetened condensed milk) and salty cracker crust play off of each other.

3. Classic Nigerian Jollof Rice

"Spiced and stewed in a flavorful tomato broth," writes longtime community member Kitchen Butterfly, this much-loved West African dish can go from weeknight dinner to dinner party without blinking an eye. Serve it with fried plantains and crunchy coleslaw for an immeasurably delicious meal.

4. Simple Brine for Pork Chops

Keep this recipe on tab for all your summer grilling escapades. Because whether you've got two hours or 12, this simple brine from butcher and cookbook author Cara Nicoletti will take any pork chops from just average to quite possibly the best you've ever had.

5. Early Summer Panzanella

This contest-winning salad combines all of my favorite things: garlic (scapes, that is), lots and lots of bread, peak heirloom tomatoes, and other summer veggies like bell peppers and carrots for crunch. Everything works together to create a dreamy, herby, delightfully carby dish that I'm very grateful to be able to call a salad.

6. J. Kenzi López-Alt's 10-Minute Lime Cracker Pie

It doesn't get easier than this 10-minute icebox cake that'll remind you of classic key lime pie, but will require far less effort. Layer up the five ingredients (seriously, just five total) and ship this dessert off to the fridge where, after a few hours, it'll transform into a glorious tart-sweet-creamy-cakey pudding. Yum.

7. Martha Stewart's One-Pan Pasta

It should really come as no surprise that this nine-minute, one-pan pasta from domestic goddess Martha Stewart easily cracked our list of top summer recipes. It's got a nice touch of heat thanks to the red pepper flakes, and in the words of one reviewer is "simple and really good."

8. The Best Pan-Roasted Potatoes

"I wanted something in between oven-roasted and some kind of fried potatoes," writes recipe author Gretchen. "To my mind they require no butter or sauce. The trick is to exercise patience and restraint; let the potatoes fry until you are sure they are near burning—no peeking!"

9. Peach Tart

With almost 500 glowing reviews, how could this showstopping peach tart not crack our top-10-most-popular list this summer? Best of all, to make it you'll only need a knife, a bowl, and some kind of pan for baking—and soft, ripe peaches of course.

10. Judy Hesser's Oven-Fried Chicken

This Genius-approved fried chicken from Co-Founder Amanda Hesser's mom, Judy, is the best reason to turn on your oven during the hot summer months. Yes, it might heat up your kitchen a little bit, but we promise that it's simple, almost entirely hands-off, and certified crunchy-tasty.

What recipes are you cooking up this month? Tell us in the comments below!
Order now

A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).

Order now

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

Erin Alexander

Written by: Erin Alexander

Erin Alexander is the Managing Editor of Food52.

1 Comment

Eric K. August 1, 2019
That Jollof Rice, though...