It’s no secret that Bon Appétit editors cook a lot for work. So it should come as no surprise that we cook a lot during our off hours too. Here are the recipes we’re whipping up this month to get dinner on the table, entertain our friends, satisfy a sweet tooth, use up leftovers, and everything in between. For even more staff favorites, click here.
August 7
Old Bay potato chips
I was on vacation in Idaho with my favorite Baltimoreans, and it was my night to make dinner. I wanted the menu to have a little Maryland in it, so I made a batch of Kendra Vaculin’s Old Bay potato chips for a playful mashup of Idaho’s famous potato and the iconic seafood seasoning. The process could not be easier: Toss a bag of kettle chips in the oven, then coat them with a mix of Old Bay and powdered sugar (do not skip it!) plus a hit of lemon zest. The sugar rounds out the salty spice in a way that makes the chips even more addictive than they’d be otherwise. Guests polished off the sunset-hued bowl before the burgers and dogs came off the grill, so I’d say the taste of home traveled well. —Olivia Tarantino, senior shopping editor
Gussied up store-bought potato chips and mayonnaise brings your average chips and dip to the next level—and with very little effort.
Pasta with no-cook sauce
I spent this past weekend on Martha’s Vineyard where adorable farm stands are selling plump cherry tomatoes at college-tuition-sized prices. I surrendered to the charm and bought a pint which I used to make Pasta With No-Cook Cherry Tomato Sauce. I squished the halved tomatoes into some olive oil with garlic and basil before stirring the mixture into buttery, cheesy pasta. The best part is the leftovers which, after resting, are somehow more tomatoey. —Sam Stone, senior editor
Soup for a rainy summer evening
Late summer thunderstorms call for late summer soup nights. They’re the perfect chance to turn on my stove (for just a little while), listen to rain tip-tap on the A/C unit jutting out of my window, and gently cook my market haul in a big pot of stock. My blueprint is recipe editor Liesel Davis’s Summer Vegetable Soup With Pistou. This time, I followed her instructions nearly to a T (roasting the tomatoes and corn is such a game changer for a hands-off infusion of depth), and made the fresh pistou while the soup bubbled. I did swap collards for spinach (personal preference), so I added the greens to the pot a bit early to ensure they had time to get wilty and tender. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior cooking editor
Celebrate the best of the season—zucchini, tomatoes, corn, and more—all in one pot.
Birthday menu
For my birthday this year, I wanted clams, clams, and more clams. The recipe was obvious: deputy food editor Hana Asbrink’s Spaghetti With Clams and Sun Gold Tomatoes. Sun Golds are finally in full swing at the farmers market, and my sweet neighbors have given me carte-blanche access to their backyard basil (thank you, Susie and Aron!). What I love about Hana’s recipe is it’s a white sauce with tomatoes, not a red sauce from tomatoes. IYKYK. It was bright and briny and buttery—a hit! For dessert, I made Smitten Kitchen’s Chipwich Ice Cream Cake, a concept I’ve been thinking about for a full year: two round blondies sandwiched with vanilla ice cream and bejeweled with chocolate. (I used chopped instead of chips because that’s what was around.) Also a hit. —Emma Laperruque, cooking director
Juicy Sungold tomatoes add a pop of acidity to these saucy noodles and fresh clams. Don’t be shy with the basil—it makes the dish taste like summer in a bowl.
French toast to cure all
I woke up after a night out feeling, candidly, hungover. A few too many spaghetts. I had bought Japanese milk bread the day before for an otherworldly BLT, so I decided to use the rest to make French toast. Not a bad food weekend if you ask me. I doused the bread in a combination of eggs, milk, sugar, and cinnamon, then sizzled the pieces in butter until the chubby bread had webs of brown on both sides. A pat of extra butter plus a dribble of maple syrup? Just what the doctor ordered. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor, cooking
A long soak is the secret to this French toast’s supremely custardy interior.
Yearly tomato galette
It’s not summer until I’ve eaten a few hot dogs, some juicy watermelon, and Andy Baraghani’s Tomato Galette. I have made it every summer since the recipe was published in 2019—it’s that good. The flaky, buttery dough comes together easily in a food processor, and is rolled out and crimped into a free-form round. Shingled with peak-season heirloom tomatoes, it’s the perfect excuse to buy every color, shape, and size you can find. —Ali Inglese, executive producer
Peak season tomatoes, garlic, and cheese, wrapped in a buttery, flaky crust.
