Herbs & Spices

Anchovy lovers: This one’s for you. The combination of vanilla butter and anchovies is the perfect combination of sweet and salty.

Use this rich, creamy Italian white sauce for lasagna, gratins, and mac and cheese.

A make-ahead gravy that doesn’t rely on turkey drippings or a roux. The gravy’s depth of flavor comes from roasted poultry bones and—surprise!—a sprinkle of MSG, which has an umami-to-the-max effect.

This holiday-buffet-ready salad has bright Asian pear, salty aged cheese, a dynamic pecan dressing, and hardy radicchio that refuses to wilt.

This pesto variation is built on a combination of toasted nuts, creamy ricotta, salty Parm, and a little kick of raw garlic. You don’t need a food processor or a blender to make it; everything comes together in a single bowl.

An outer coating of sumac-sugar gives these slice-and-bake cookies a bright pop of flavor that balances the rich, buttery shortbread.

Sure, you could use just one kind of potato for this pomegranate-topped side dish, but we love to combine a few. Try orange and purple sweet potatoes plus Yukon Golds. 

This dish is triply aggressive, with sweet, sour, and spicy tastes strung together in an intense interplay. To make it your own, experiment with the balance of those three elements—you might make it more sour, or very, very spicy, depending on your palate and preferences.

For pork chops that cook in record time, we turn to an unexpected ingredient: sugar. A pinch helps the chops caramelize and develop an exceptional golden-brown crust.

Set up all of your mise en place before you start cooking. You’ll go from raw ingredients to a glossy stir-fry in the time it takes to make a pot of rice.

To make this dish extra crispy, sauté the ingredients separately and use cold, cooked rice. As you're stir-frying, toss the rice, pausing frequently to allow it to interact with the heat at the bottom of the pan—this will give it a nice toast.

This is a quick and easy-to-throw-together, eat-the-rainbow revelation.

Herby, tangy, nutty, and slightly salty, this Middle Eastern blend of herbs and spices elevates every dish it touches

Finely grating the aromatics in this Vietnamese-leaning marinade unlocks their flavor without endless chopping.

Pico de gallo, but make it roasted.