Shilpa Uskokovic

The best fruit pie, complete with a brown sugar streusel topping.

Some people want cake. Test kitchen editor Jesse wanted chicken.

Two of our all-time favorite desserts, now in one new classic.

What does “feel-good food” mean? It depends on who you ask. That’s why, each month, our Feel-Good Food Plan—with nourishing recipes and a few wild cards—is hosted by someone new. For July, senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic is cooking up a cruise-load of basil and discovering a less-smelly way to compost. I bake a lot, both for work and outside of it. Over the last few months alone, I’ve made caramel cake, gluten-free banana bread, cornmeal cake studded with figs, somewhat controversial…

Unlock spring with stalks of tender charred asparagus splayed on lemony tahini.

This fun take on tteokbokki is dinner in 20 minutes.

These dishes take the humble onion from background player to starring role. Onions are a cornerstone of our cooking—but how often are they actually the star? There’s a world of onions out there—red, white, Vidalia, pearl, and so many more—and when given the attention they deserve, these pantry staples can show off their broad range of flavors. From bracingly sharp when raw to silky-sweet when slowly cooked, these 31 recipes put onions on a well-deserved pedestal. Whether they’re frizzled crisp a…

Go-to ingredients get a makeover in this low-lift dinner. Inspired by Greek lemon potatoes, in this recipe chicken thighs are roasted to a crisp, leaching schmaltz and blessing the potatoes with flavor and shine as they cook. The end result is a rich, sticky meal that needs nothing more than a green salad alongside. Saving the lemon juice for the end guarantees a never-bitter hit of much-needed brightness. To switch things up a little, use crushed dried rosemary in place of the oregano, or quart…

By now many people know the purported origin story of red velvet cake—a nerdy tale involving a chemical reaction between natural cocoa powder and baking soda. While that may have been the case in ancient times, the red velvet of this century is defined by its startling color, a fire engine red so bright it stains your tongue for hours. Somewhere along the way the flavor began to matter less than the hue. Red velvet was no longer just a cake—it was a lifestyle. It was a cheesecake, an air freshen…

Barely cracked peppercorns toasted, almost fried, in a generous amount of butter create one of the easiest, best finishers for seared fish. The black pepper’s piercing heat fizzles down to reveal warm, leathery, fruit-like flavors, a good reminder that black pepper is much more than just a default seasoning. We love the Zanzibar and Robusta peppercorns from Burlap & Barrel. On the topic of fish, any thin fillets of white fish that catch your fancy will do well here—sole, turbot, even snapper.