5 Staff-Favorite Recipes for the Week Ahead, Including Our New Favorite Baked Ziti (2024)

Welcome to What We’re Cooking This Week, a weekly love letter from our recipe developer Emma Laperruque, all about what the Food52 team is cooking and craving off-hours (with a few snacks for thought, too).

Last week, I made our Joy the Baker’s Olive Oil–Braised Chickpeas, for the umpteenth time. Opened the page, realized I didn’t need to go out for a single ingredient (that’s when you know a recipe really speaks to you), then turned on the oven. There is little more involved than sautéeing a chopped onion and tossing a bunch of things in a baking dish. These are as ripe for eating right away as they are for the leftovers. My plan is to let the chickpeas come to room temp while I boil a chubby-little pasta shape (maybe even orzo?), then toss the two together and call it a day. A happy day.

Here are the other recipes the team is cooking up:

As-Good-As-It-Gets Baked Ziti

The latest addition in Our Best Recipes series is a cheesy, saucy, crispy, gooey Baked Ziti, by way of Ella Quittner (when she’s not baking ziti, she’s frying eggs). The reasonable thing to do is make this the next time you’re having a big group over (tell your friends to bring the wine). But the smart thing to do is make it on a Saturday or Sunday, then reap the leftovers for lunch all week long.

Ginger Miso Dressing for the Week Ahead

Speaking of getting ahead, our senior retoucher Liz Andrew has a very good idea: “This Ginger Miso Dressing makes so much!” she messages me. “Super perfect if you need a batch that will last you for a handful of dinners.” Also good to know: The recipe’s author, Gena Hamshaw, “writes to use a blender, and I shouldn’t have skipped doing that [crying-laughing emoji].” Of course you could put this toward salads, but don’t hesitate to spoon it over grain bowls or slow-roasted fish or boiled vegetables.

Poached Eggs Go to Heaven

“I've been waiting for the perfect lazy weekend (praying it comes soon!) to make these poached eggs with pickled shallots and capers,” Associate Editor Erin Alexander tells me. “I am a hollandaise fanatic and this miso-browned butter version sounds like absolute heaven.” The recipe is from Mandy Lee’s cookbook, The Art of Escapism Cooking, which I want to cook from cover to cover someday.

Turmeric Soup to Make You Feel Better

This turmeric-glowy miso broth would welcome whatever feels comforting in the moment (or, you know, is about to go bad in the fridge). Think: cooked grains like rice, farro, or kasha; long noodles like ramen or soba, or teeny-tiny ones like orzo or ditalini; any vegetable under the sun; hunks of tofu or a pillowy poached egg. You could even just make the broth and slurp it out of a mug.

Flourless Chocolate Cookies

Our staff can’t stop, won’t stop making these Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies—a Genius cross between a crackly French macaron and gooey American brownie. Our senior video editor, Rob Strype, has recently made them twice: “Once by hand and once in a stand mixer. It’s a lot of work, but so worth doing by hand.” Go Rob! And our senior social media manager, Patrick Moynihan, also made them twice: “I can't stop,” he said. Which, for the record, I fully support.

I just started reading On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous for my next book club and the writing is staggering. For instance:

You once told me that the human eye is god’s loneliest creation. How so much of the world passes through the pupil and still it holds nothing. The eye, alone in its socket, doesn’t even know there’s another one, just like it, an inch away, just as hungry, just as empty.

What are you reading right now? And—for sipping alongside—which coffee roasters do you love? I’m familiar with Stumptown and Counter Culture, but am eager to know more. My husband and I are looking to upgrade our mornings. And aren’t we all?

Talk soon,
Emma