How to Make the Best Berry Cake

Summer berries make us all look like great bakers. Their acidity effortlessly balances sweet cake and muffin batters, their juices saturate cobbler tops and trifles, and they willingly reduce into chewy jam at the edge of crisps and crumbles. I have half a mind to stop writing there, and to just let you follow any…

Pesto Pasta Bubbles!

In Melissa Clark’s “Dinner in One” cookbook — which is her collection of one-pot recipes, you’re welcome — Melissa shares that her family refers to pearl couscous as pasta bubbles. Pasta bubbles! Is there any better term for capturing the delightful chew and pleasingly spherical shape of this tiny pasta? (The “pasta bubbles” recipe, by…

Confirm or Deny: Diane von Furstenberg

Maureen Dowd: Anne Hathaway was conceived in a wrap dress. Diane von Furstenberg: Her mother told me that. You once went to a party at Brigitte Bardot’s house in Saint-Tropez. I did. It was pirate-themed. You and Barry gave Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez their engagement party. You think they should be married in outer…