A Superb Mixed Grill

Good morning. We’re hurtling through the season now, “the best of the summer gone and the new fall not yet born,” is how Sylvia Plath put it in her journal. “The odd uneven time.” We’re waiting on the corn from the patch by the harbor, for the better tomatoes to come in alongside the tiny…

Is This the Pie of the Summer?

Bacon and corn may not be as revered a summer pairing as fresh mozzarella and tomatoes or prosciutto and melon, but it has similar charms — at once savory and juicy, salty and sweet. It’s a combination I’ve used in countless chowders, pastas and quickly made salads. But for this tart, I’ve gotten slightly more…

Hot Cheese Summer

Do you ever feel the itch to rebel against summer cooking doctrine — the mandate to eat simply grilled fish and shaved vegetable salads — and just absolutely destroy a dish of something steaming, saucy and baked? Do you believe that melted cheese belongs to every season? Is the mozzarella stick your summer totem? I…

A Mixed Grill to Remember

We all have recollections of exceptional dining experiences that set a benchmark for flavor. It’s funny how a memorable meal lingers in the mind. Perhaps a home cook or a restaurant somewhere made the best (fill in the blank) and, tasting it, you were taken by surprise. It was a small epiphany, a window open…

This Is Your New Biscuit Recipe

Good morning. Tejal Rao introduced a radical new biscuit technique in The New York Times Magazine this week, and delivered a recipe to go along with it for a tomato cobbler (above) that you should absolutely make as soon as you can. It comes from the gifted mind of Nicole Rucker, the Los Angeles pastry…

The Rice Paddy at Ground Zero

Hundreds of people walked through the space between the Oculus and 3 World Trade Center, some pausing to glance up from their phones or conversations long enough to notice a recent addition: Two undulating wooden structures, one large and one small, containing what looked like stalks of grass. “I walk past this almost every day,”…