This tomato risotto or “risotto al pomodoro” is the perfect recipe to make when your garden or CSA box is overflowing with summer tomatoes, but can also be made when you have none at all. It relies on passata, which can be made by processing plenty of tomatoes in a food mill or potato ricer and cooking the juices down for about fifteen minutes, or can be easily purchased from the store and kept in the pantry. On the off chance there are leftovers of this delicious dish, try breading and frying them into mozzarella-stuffed arancini the next day!

Creamy tomato risotto (risotto al pomodoro) made with passata, parmesan, and fresh herbs. A cozy Italian classic perfect for weeknight dinners or summer tomatoes.

Risotto Al Pomodoro

You’ve had miso ramen, you’ve had Alfredo—but have you ever had them together? Leave it to Chrissy Teigen to come up with a hybrid that’s as bold and comforting as it sounds. This spicy miso chicken ramen leans on her 

 for a shortcut that’s creamy, a little fiery, and packed with umami. All you need is a few pantry staples, a cooked chicken breast, and one soft-boiled egg to pull it all together. Consider dinner handled.

bowl of spicy miso chicken ramen on counter

Made with her Cravings Spicy Miso Alfredo sauce, this creamy, umami-packed bowl comes together fast for an easy weeknight win.

Chrissy Teigen’s Spicy Miso Chicken Ramen

In my opinion, more people should be cooking with whole grains, and rye berries are a delicious place to start. Once boiled, they have a firm and satisfying texture. This “rye-sotto” requires a slightly different technique than a traditional risotto made with arborio rice, but the end result is similar in creamy-richness with a little more variation in texture. Add in charred and simply marinated summer squash, and this makes for a delicious side or dinner in and of itself.

Summer Squash Rye-sotto

A honey deuce–the official cocktail of the US Open–is as Instagram-worthy as it is delicious. It’s made with vodka, fresh lemonade, a raspberry liqueur such as Chambord, and is of course garnished with a spear of honeydew melon balls to mimic tennis balls. 

To put my own fun twist on it, I made a homemade raspberry-ginger lemonade in place of the raspberry liqueur, and topped it off with a little prosecco. The cocktail itself is on the stronger side and is meant to pour over a glass full of ice, but you can always reduce the amount of vodka, or skip the alcohol entirely and mix the lemonade with seltzer.  


Big Batch Honey Deuce Spritz with Raspberry-Ginger Lemonade

“Fårikål”, translated directly to “mutton in cabbage,” is a warm and comforting one-pot dish made with mutton (a mature sheep) or lamb, cabbage, and whole peppercorns. It’s a very traditional Norwegian dish (so much so that it has its own day—the last Thursday in September) and may be one of the easiest and low-effort dinners you could make. 

We ate this a lot when I lived in Norway (specifically made by our good family friends), and although it’s technically a fall and cold weather recipe (and seeing as though cabbage isn’t realllyyyy in season anymore because well…it’s spring as I’m writing this), I feel like it’s perfect for any chilly or rainy day, no matter the season. The beauty of this recipe and why I want to share it now also lies within the simplicity of both its ingredients and instructions. You only need about 5 main ingredients, and although I do add a few extra steps, you can really just assemble it in the pot without searing the lamb first, turn on the stove, and let it sit until it’s done, the original way. 

I want to preface that this is a slight twist on the traditional version. I used lamb instead of mutton because it’s what I prefer (and it’s easier to get a hold of). I also seared the meat before building the dish, which truly isn’t necessary, and I added a splash of wine to add a bit of acidity. It’s a forgiving recipe and you can adapt it to however suits you best! 

With such few ingredients, salt is your best friend here! Sprinkle the meat generously with salt and do so ahead of time (2+ hours, if you have time). Once it's ready to serve, season to taste until you taste that "zing"–the salt will emphasize all the other flavors in the dish. 

It’s perfect for cozy, low-effort dinners, Sunday gatherings, or entertaining a crowd. It can easily be doubled, or you can halve it to serve less. It also freezes well in case you want to make it ahead. 

Because there are so few ingredients in the recipe, opt for high-quality meat with bones, fat, and lots of connective tissue, as they make the dish more flavorful and the meat more tender. It’s common to use cuts such as the shank, neck, and shoulder, but any bone-in cut will work well.  

The whole peppercorns will soften as they cook and add a nice spicy and sweet flavor, but if you prefer, you can contain them in a cheesecloth pouch.

I like to sprinkle flour between each layer to help thicken the broth slightly, but if you’re gluten-free or would prefer not to add it, you can leave it out without noticing too much of a difference. 

Instead of potatoes, you can serve it with roasted carrots, bread, or simply on its own. 

Using a heavy-bottomed pot with a lid, such as a Dutch oven, is important for recipes that require a long cooking time. This will prevent the food at the bottom from burning and will distribute heat more evenly. 

One-Pot Norwegian Lamb in Cabbage (Fårikål)

, a column by Food Editor Emily Ziemski where those small-but-mighty additions that instantly upgrade whatever’s on the table—ingredients, sauces, toppings—are the star of the show. Today, a zesty soup for changing seasons.

 My Polish family loves pickles. Dill pickles, kosher spears, bread and butter chips, pickled beets; you pickle it, we eat it. Generally speaking, Polish pickles tend to be more spiced and dill-heavy than non-Polish pickles. Briny upon first bite, the crunchy snap fades into a pleasant sourness that works as a palate cleanser for pierogi or between courses of golumpki (stuffed cabbage). The pickle represents endless possibilities. A classic side pickle, wrapped in a segment of parchment, is the perfect finish to a deli sandwich. A slice of pickle, sandwiched between bun and meat, is the ultimate tangy, refreshing foil to a burger. A pickle wrapped in cheese, filmed for a TikTok, is pure internet chaos. Today’s recipe certainly isn’t a viral internet sensation, but it’s sensational in its own way. Warm, slightly creamy, and super herbaceous, Polish Dill Pickle Soup is the ideal between-season food. As a New England kid living in New York City, I miss the prolonged spring slowly melting into summer, and for me, this soup captures that. Creamy, but not overwhelmingly rich; filling, but not too heavy. The leeks and pickles capture the bright promise that spring has in store, and the potatoes and carrots give us the heft we need to push through the last few cold days. Blending half of the soup until smooth provides a silky base for the remaining whole bits. Serve this warm with hunks of crispy bread, or cold as a funky little soup starter. 

Note: I use dairy-free sour cream for my version of this; feel free to do the same!

Polish Dill Pickle Soup (Zupa Ogórkowa)

Here at Food52, we believe in cooking thoughtfully, and with joy. Nothing makes us happier than finding a new recipe or method of cooking that expands our knowledge and creates a pathway to making our home cooking even better. With that said, we firmly feel that the best way to become a great home cook is to really nail down cooking basics. And what could be more of a building block than classic cooked water? Many of our favorite cooking memories involve standing at the stove with family, holding a wooden spoon for the first time, and watching a pot boil. Nothing brings us greater delight than seeing those tiny bubbles multiply and froth from the bottom of the pot, fueled by the insatiable heat of the stove below. Cooked water creates tender strands of pasta, perfectly hard-boiled eggs, blanched vegetables, and so much more. 

Note: if you don’t have time to make your own ice, store-bought can be sourced.

Our Best Cooked Water

As Erin writes in Savory Baking, "My mom was both a nurse and a very good cook. So when I was sick as a kid, I was taken very good care of— including a regimen of her chicken noodle soup, sometimes complete with homemade noodles. While the real remedy was surely to be found in the broth, the thing I remember are those wonderfully chewy noodles. You can whip up these noodles in less time than it takes for your favorite soup to simmer to flavorful perfection. These are also delicious boiled until tender, then sautéed in butter (I top mine with grated Parm and black pepper for the ultimate comfort food snack)." Recipe from 

Savory Baking: Recipes for Breakfast, Dinner, and Everything in Between

This post contains products independently chosen (and loved) by our editors and writers. As an Amazon Associate, Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to.Hear more about this recipe from Erin herself on our podcast 

Spicy Chicken (or Turkey) Noodle Soup From Erin Jeanne McDowell

When we started developing our test kitchen’s best turkey gravy, we focused on three key components: the giblets, drippings, and deglazing liquid from the roasting pan. Let’s delve into each. By “giblets,” we mean the turkey neck, heart, gizzard, and liver. In this recipe, we decided to skip the liver because its taste can verge on bitter and metallic in a stock or gravy. The rest of the giblets, however, are full of savory turkey flavor. We’re going to sear the giblets, and then use these to make stock. Stock may be the most important component of gravy. Of course, you could skip the homemade giblet stock entirely and replace it with store-bought stock (either turkey, chicken, or even vegetable). But, to us, the resulting gravy misses that tiny bit of magic. It would taste good, but today we’re going after 

. Drippings are the juices that caramelize in the roasting pan as the turkey cooks. Using these in the gravy is another reason why this is our ultimate turkey gravy. Adding a bed of sliced onions, carrots, celery, and herbs at the bottom of the roasting pan ensures your drippings won’t burn, and adds more flavor to the gravy. The last essential component of our gravy is deglazing When your turkey has finished roasting, the bottom of your roasting pan will be filled with caramelized turkey drippings. Add a splash of stock to the roasting pan and use a wooden spoon to unstick these browned bits. This captures tons of caramelized flavor and ensures a deeply flavorful gravy. But before you get started, make sure that you own a fat separator. This simple tool will help you distill the drippings into pure turkey flavor, while getting rid of excess fat. If you don’t own a fat separator, you can always use a ladle, but it’ll be a slower process. Some folks say that the drippings from a brined turkey can make your gravy too salty. But in this recipe, we don’t add any salt until the very end of the cooking process, which means that this gravy should work even for brined birds. When your gravy is thick and ready, taste it. For a brined bird, you may not need to add any extra salt. If you’ve roasted a non-brined turkey, you can then season your gravy to taste. Lastly, when it comes to gravy, many people want a smooth, silky texture, and dark, rich color. To achieve a silky texture with no lumps, simply add your liquids slowly, while whisking constantly. And the key to that deep rich color is cooking your roux until it turns a nutty dark brown color. Now, go forth and make gravy!

Turkey Gravy 

This soup breaks all the rules. And you still get a rich, summery vegetable soup all the same. This recipe is a great fridge clearer (and freezer stocker) for those last two carrots in the bag, that too-big zucchini, any random vegetables you've got. In 

, Jody writes: “I allow the vegetables to change with the season and use leeks and favas in the spring insead of the green beans and zucchini of summer. Whatever vegetables you use, this soup is always made with water, and topped with an ample drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and a generous spoonful of bright green basil pistou.” A few tips: You will need a large stockpot, ideally holding 8 quarts or larger, for the full batch of soup. If all your pots are smaller, scale down the recipe to fit (it doesn’t need to be exact) or divide between two pots. This soup is a wonderful destination for any random vegetables you’ve got, so don’t feel wedded to the exact list here. Depending on the age of your dried beans, your soup may take longer than one hour (older beans take longer to rehydrate). Beyond that, you can cook this as long as you like to get the texture you’re looking for: Jody loves hers slow-cooked until it’s porridge-like; at the minimum 1 hour, mine has always been brothier. Both are good, as long as you taste and adjust the salt carefully at the end, and especially once the pistou, olive oil, and Parmesan are swirled in. If you’d like plenty of pistou, consider doubling that part of the recipe (leftovers can be used on pasta or anywhere you’d use a mellow pesto). Recipe from 

This post contains products independently chosen (and loved) by our editors and writers. As an Amazon Associate, Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to.

Soupe au Pistou From Jody Williams

Tangy, bright, and citrusy, homemade cranberry sauce is a surefire way to make your kitchen smell oh-so-cozy. The best part is that it only takes a handful of ingredients (and less than 30 minutes) to come together. Whether it's for the holidays or you just have a craving for delicious cranberry sauce, this recipe will soon become your go-to. 

If you are not able to find fresh cranberries, frozen ones work just as well; just keep in mind that you will have to cook them slightly longer (about five more minutes). Adding salt—more than you might think—helps to bring everything together. Cranberry sauce often tends to be on the sweet side, but this recipe adds a savory touch. One of the best parts is that there's no thickening agent necessary: As they cook, the cranberries burst open, releasing tiny seeds that add just the right amount of jammy texture. The clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg provide warmth, ideal for the autumn and holiday season. But if you don't like these spices, feel free to leave them out, or add a sprinkle of floral ground cardamom or licorice-esque whole star anise (just be sure to remove once the sauce is cooled).

This simple cranberry sauce is simply the perfect side for your Thanksgiving meal. I suggest making a double batch, for leftover-turkey sandwiches the next day. It’s also wonderful swirled into oatmeal or breakfast grain bowls. Either way, this is a simple recipe that comes in handy at the holidays and all fall long.

Cranberry Sauce

This recipe has everything you could need (or want!) in a sandwich—juiciness, tanginess, heartiness, and texture. Crispy tempeh plays with creamy avocado, zesty mustard, crunchy lettuce, and a thick slice of tomato. It also has marinated beets, which, in my opinion, make any sandwich infinitely better—here, the hearty root vegetable complements and tames tempeh’s pungent qualities with its mellow sweetness and bright acidity, thanks to a simple apple cider vinegar marinade.

Usually I insist on marinating tempeh before cooking: Since tempeh is rather compact, it can be a challenge to get flavor into the center. But who has time for extra steps these days—especially when it comes to lunch? The solution: Thinly slice the tempeh and pan-fry it in coconut oil until golden brown, then season with tamari—the rich umami flavor goes well with sweet-tasting coconut oil. Don’t be tempted to make the tempeh ahead of time, though, as it will become dry the longer it sits. Warm the skillet while you gather the other ingredients; the pan-frying happens in a matter of minutes.

The marinated beets are an extra step, but they are well worth the effort, and the recipe makes enough for leftovers, which will last for up to a week in the fridge. Use them to dress up salads, grain bowls, or any meal that needs some brightness and color. 

I’ve made this sandwich on dense sourdough rye, a whole-wheat miche, and soft, warm pita—all with delicious results. As long as you choose good bread, you can’t go wrong ( I recommend toasting it lightly if it’s not freshly baked). As with most good sandwiches, this one is juicy, drippy, and potentially quite messy—be sure to have a plate at the ready.


Crispy Tempeh Sandwich With Avocado & Beets

All wontons are dumplings but not all dumplings are wontons. Wontons, specifically, are a special type of slippery, silky, and wonderfully uneven dumplings. The filling is simple and the wrapper is thin and generous. Because of their simplicity, they take wonderfully to soups and robust sauces, and lively garnishes. Almost every region of China has its own variation of wonton, each of which goes by its own name. For this video, we’ll focus on two wonton variations: one from the north and the other from the south. Northern wontons, hundun 馄饨, translate to “irregular dumpling” and are small dumplings wrapped in an excess of a slippery, silky white wrapper eaten similarly to how noodles are eaten: in copious quantities in an elegant broth. Southern wontons, yuntun 云吞, on the other hand, translate to “cloud swallow.” Southern wontons are plump, juicy affairs: whole shrimp and well seasoned minced pork are stuffed inside thin, yellow wrappers and served with noodles in a shrimp based broth. This video will demonstrate the basic construction and physics of wontons, how to store them, how to cook them, and how to eat them. We’ll feature a slew of related techniques: emulsifying meat fillings, sealing/wrapping, boiling dumplings, building clear broths, cooking noodles, and making finishing oils. As for the ingredients, you should be able to find most in a regular grocery store or specialty store that sells east Asian groceries (our favorite online store is Umamicart for this very reason!). 

 may be one of the harder ingredients to find, even in some east Asian markets, and can always be ordered online if needed. However, it’s an important part of the traditional recipe, so it’s worth searching for. In a pinch, you can use dried pollack. The other ingredient that you may struggle to find is Chinese laver seaweed, which is round seaweed sheets (rather than the usual rectangular), used to make Northern Wontons. If you can find these discs in the grocery store, you can 

Southern Wontons

"Supposedly, my first words were 'hum hum,' directed at the kufteh that my mother was tearing up and feeding me as a baby. Every time she tells the story, I feel like was a different dish. The point is, I loved food. Kufteh is Farsi for 'meatballs,' and they are made throughout Iran, in various sizes, like kufteh tabrizi, which are enormous—the size of two human fists—and with various fillings. In that spirit, these are tennis ball–size meatballs stuffed with herbs, rice, and turmeric, which get cooked in a bright, spicy tomato sauce that isn’t very Iranian at all, so I’m breaking tradition." —Reprinted from 

Kufteh, a Different Kind of Meatball

I channeled my inner dad for this recipe. When I was growing up, my father didn’t eat pork, so whenever we had a BBQ, we’d always get all-beef hot dogs. Also a jar of onion sauce from the supermarket, like the one that’s served at hot dogs carts. The hot dog itself is really simple, made with freshly ground chuck and lots of spices. If you’ve never made sausage from scratch before, it’s one of those processes that’s a lot easier after you see it. I’ve got you covered—just watch the video below first. Sauteed in a tangy tomato sauce, with vinegar and red pepper flakes, the dirty onions remind me of ketchup. It’s my favorite thing to get on a hot dog. Plus mustard, which yeah, you can make yourself. It’s fun. 

Beef Hot Dogs With Dirty Onions & Whole Grain Mustard 

I first came across this dish at the elementary school in Madrid, where I taught English, and where they served it for lunch. Filing into the cafeteria, some of the students would complain, “Que no me gusta el pisto!” (I don’t like pisto!), but I always looked forward to pisto day. Eventually, I learned to make the dish myself.

Ubiquitous throughout Spain, “pisto” is a stewy dish similar to French ratatouille or Israeli shakshuka. The essential ingredients are tomatoes, onions, and peppers. While the Manchego ("Manchego" = from La Mancha, from where the eponymous sheep's milk cheese also hails!) version, with zucchini and a pièce-de-résistance poached or fried egg, is arguably the most popular, each region has a distinct take on pisto. In the sunny southwest, Andalusians throw in eggplant, as do their neighbors to the east, in Murcia. In Rioja, a cook might finish her pisto by beating a few eggs directly into the mixture at the end. The Bilbaínos up north double the eggs, and it skews more toward a veggie-heavy scramble. 

I have my own version that I like to describe as a summer garden in a bowl—even better when it's topped with an egg. 


Pisto Manchego With Eggs

I hated haldi doodh growing up and frequently used it to water the plants while my 

 wasn’t looking. As an adult, it’s been such a fun journey to take the healing drink of my ancestors and evolve it into something delicious and that I actually crave. No chalky, bitter brew here—this is luxurious, just sweet enough, and like pure sunshine. It’s also 

Iced Haldi Doodh (Golden Milk)

I grew up with pickled beets in the fridge at all times. They were a staple in our household. I know beets can taste like dirt and be annoying to work with, but they’re worth it. Beets are high in natural sugars—higher than most vegetables—which gives them a characteristic sweetness hiding under those earthy notes. This gives beets versatility: They work in savory recipes, as well as sweet ones—like this beet jam. It’s sweet, earthy, slightly tart, and can be used in endless ways: cheese sandwiches, peanut butter toast, meat marinades, even ice cream. For the zest and juice, I especially like blood oranges here, but any kind works. 

Beet Jam

, this recipe is a little bit Scott Peacock and a little bit Edna Lewis. Stirred through the creamy grits, the shrimp paste goes further than a few pretty prawns piled on top ever could, pervading every spoonful with the pure essence of shrimp at its best and most seductive. The shrimp paste also makes a lovely spread for crackers and all-purpose flavor enhancer (just imagine stirring it into risotto, saucing fish, or filling tea sandwiches with it).

Edna Lewis & Scott Peacock's Shrimp Grits

Throughout Asia, taro is a popular ingredient used in savory cooking, but it’s also featured in many Asian desserts. Growing up in Hong Kong, I saw taro frequently on dessert menus: in baked taro pudding, taro and sago soup, taro frozen yogurt, and, my personal favorite, taro bubble tea. The best bubble tea shops in Hong Kong make their taro bubble tea with fresh taro paste and add tender cubes of the cooked tuber to the bottom of the beverage. In North America, taro can be challenging to locate if you don’t live near an Asian or Hispanic grocery store. Most bubble tea shops I’ve been to make their taro bubble tea with taro powder, which is available to purchase online. Although taro and ube are not the same, including a touch of ube extract helps to add vanilla notes, brings out the earthiness of the taro, and also gives the beverage a vibrant purple hue. 

I used PG Tips here, but you can use any black tea you like. I use 1 tea bag per 250 milliliters water, and steep it in boiling water for 4 minutes.

The tapioca pearls should be made and enjoyed fresh, as they do not keep well. The tapioca pearls should be kept in the simple syrup at all times, and if the pearls begin to harden, 30 seconds to 1 minute in the microwave should help bring them back to life. Hope you enjoy making taro bubble tea at home as much as I did.

Taro Bubble Tea

I’m Irish-American and grew up in a town with a large demographic of Irish descendants. We had an Irish festival in our town that my parents would bring me to every year as a kid. We’d watch step-dancing competitions, buy Celtic trinkets from vendors, and eat corned beef sandwiches on rye (my favorite part). For St. Patrick’s Day, my mother would boil a large pot of peeled potatoes, quartered heads of green cabbage, and enough corned beef to make a boiled dinner, sandwiches, and hash the next few days for breakfast for our family. I always loved this time because my father was in charge of making the hash, and I’d sit in the kitchen and talk with him while he cooked. He taught me to always leave it in the pan far longer than you would think to make sure you get the best browned crunchy edges. I lived most of my life thinking corned beef was as Irish a dish as they come, but I learned later on while living in NYC that corned beef is actually a dish that early Irish settlers learned from living in the same neighborhoods as Jewish immigrants. Having grown up eating far too many corned beef sandwiches on rye, and living in NYC over a decade eating corned beef on rye from Jewish delis, you would think I would have come to the conclusion sooner... So here we are, St. Patrick’s Day is coming up and I want to pay homage to my childhood by making my own corned beef and rye sandwiches, like my mom would make. Homemade corned beef is certainly not easier to prepare than the option you can buy at the store, but it's most certainly more delicious. Making it at home is not as daunting as it sounds, and I’ve got a few tips to speed up the lengthy brining process which makes corned beef the pink, flavorful, juicy meaty dish we’ve become accustomed to. If you want to make a traditional corned beef dinner, use 

2 pounds halved peeled Yukon gold potatoes

1 large head of green cabbage, cleaned and quartered with the core removed

18 ounces carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks

. After you return the brisket to the pot when removing the seasonings, simmer over very low heat for about 45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the potatoes can be pierced with a fork. *Traditionally the brisket needs to be brined for 10 days to get maximum flavor and tenderization. In my version, I dock or perforate the meat to allow the salt, sugar, and seasonings to penetrate faster and speed up the brining process. **TCM or pink curing salt should NOT to be confused with pink cooking salt. TCM or pink curing salt contains sodium nitrate and is very dangerous if mishandled and is toxic. You can withhold this from the recipe, but the meat will turn a brown/gray cooked color and won’t stay pink.

Quick-Brined Corned Beef Sandwiches

Catalan Food: Culture & Flavors from the Mediterranean

. Copyright © 2018 by Daniel Olivella and Caroline Wright. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC. Through opening B44 as one of the first Catalan restaurants in the U.S., I was able to showcase my heritage in a way that made my parents proud. It was there that my father began to see what I was doing, some version of what I had been fighting for as a kid. In Spain we were humble and never went to the one restaurant in town. Little did we know that, decades later, my dad—a man with whom I had very little in common as a kid—would go to his son’s restaurants and order everything off the menu. But the one dish he loved ordering most was my fidueà, a rich, briny reminder of home and everything we had left behind. 

 is similar to paella, but it is made with short toasted noodles called 

, which you can find at Hispanic markets. You can also toast the noodles yourself as described here. The dish starts on the stovetop just like paella, but then it is finished in the oven. You can tell it is done when you look into the oven and the noodles are standing up—or 

, as we say in Catalan, meaning “with an erection.” At its heart, Catalan cooking is down-to-earth home cooking, often done slowly while you relax and take care of other things around the house. Cooking authentic Catalan food is my own small way of continuing the revolution, I guess—through food.

Daniel Olivella's Fideuà (Fideo Noodle Paella)

The ultimate chicken soup, just like your Jewish mother used to make.

Joan Nathan's Chosen Matzo Ball Soup

Until recently, I had no idea what XO sauce was; I only knew that I loved it. (To get the Beyoncé puns out of my system from the top: I loved it like XO.)

The first time I tried it was at Chris Jaeckle’s Japanese-Venetian restaurant in Greenwich Village, All’onda. The fatty, briny, garlicky sauce was so delicious—and so different from anything I’d tried before—that I can’t even remember the vegetables (pasta?) it covered. But, as I’ve since learned, that’s the point of XO sauce—to be so overtly rich that it steals the show.

After reading through my trove of Google-sourced XO sauce recipes, some versions seemed too spicy-sweet, and others did not hold back on the garlic (and this is coming from a garlic-lover). I doctored my Franken-recipe (a mishmash of 6 to 8 recipes) to hit a happy medium, with vinegar-y Shaoxing wine balancing the sweet sausage, and put a kibosh on the Thai bird chiles. As Danny Bowien’s recipe recommends, I made note to stir in a fried element at the end. He adds fried garlic, but I pulled the fried onions from the back of my cabinet and a bag of scallions I’d bought on impulse in Chinatown.

The end result was delicious: fatty, briny, and garlicky, but also spicy, textured, and unbelievably addictive. In one dinner, I ate it three ways: In a pesto pasta in lieu of chorizo (yes, pesto—it worked and it was glorious!), with sautéed broccoli rabe, and straight from the pan.

This recipe is adapted from Danny Bowien's recipe in The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook and from Chris Jaeckle's served at the restaurant All'Onda, but also from a lot of trial and error on a Saturday afternoon.

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