While polenta is often associated with wintery comfort foods, SAVEUR contributing editor Farideh Sadeghin decided to make a quick summery version. Homemade chimichurri and a simple tomato-onion salad offset the richness of the creamy dish. Throw an egg or some scallops or skirt steak on top or serve the polenta as is—either way, it’s bound to be one of the best things you’ll eat all summer.

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Brimming with fragrant aromatics and hearty vegetables such as eggplant, okra, and tomatoes, this curry recipe from knifemaker Joyce Kutty’s mother Kamala is a reflection of her Tamil family’s migration to Sri Lanka from the southern tip of India. 

Use a meaty fish that will hold its shape during cooking—the Kutty family is partial to mackerel—and be sure to ladle with care when serving so the chunks of fish don’t disintegrate into the curry. Look for fish curry masala and ginger-garlic paste online or at your local South Asian grocery store. If you can’t find ginger-garlic paste, sub in equal parts finely chopped garlic and ginger.

Featured in “Meet the Knifemaker Inspired by South Asian and New England Fishing Traditions” by Shane Mitchell.

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Whenever knifemaker Joyce Kutty brings home fresh mackerel from a fishing trip on the Rhode Island coast, her mother Kamala makes this curry she learned to prepare for her husband, who is originally from Kerala, India. Kutty explains that Malayalis love the sour dried rind of kudampuli, also known as brindle berry or Malabar tamarind, in their fish curries: “It’s one of the special ingredients that really makes it Kerala style.” When she talked to her father about the ingredient, Kutty learned her grandfather was a spice merchant who sold kudampuli. 

A tangy tropical fruit used almost exclusively in Sri Lanka and Kerala, kudampuli brings balance and depth to the region’s coconut-rich curries. Once harvested, the ripe pods are seeded and sundried until they turn from green or pale yellow to brown and leathery. Kutty recommends adding kudampuli to dishes with fatty fish: think kingfish, Spanish mackerel, or Rhode Island bonito (the Kutty family favorite). Look for kudampuli and fish curry masala paste online or at your local South Asian grocery store.

Featured in “Meet the Knifemaker Inspired by South Asian and New England Fishing Traditions” by Shane Mitchell.

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This recipe is brought to you by the SAVEUR Cookbook Club, our passionate community of food-loving readers from around the globe celebrating our favorite authors and recipes. Join us as we cook through a new book every month, and share your food pics and vids on social media with the hashtags #SAVEURCookbookClub and #EatTheWorld.

In her book, Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking, author Von Diaz takes a journey around the globe, capturing the creative and resilient cooking traditions of six different island nations. Ensaladang talong, a simple preparation of grilled eggplant, onion, and tomato, is a staple of the Philippines. It is often topped by the pungent, bright pink salted shrimp paste known as bagoong alamang, and served alongside steamed white rice and ripe mango. You can find bagoong alamang at Asian grocers or online, though it’s entirely optional for this dish. A little goes a long way, so Diaz suggests trying a dab with a slice of mango first to see how much you should add to your ensaladang talong. For a vegetarian alternative, Diaz recommends a paste of equal parts white miso and minced capers.

Adapted from Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking by Von Diaz, © 2024. Published by Chronicle Books.

Featured in “What Makes Island Cooking So Unique? Author Von Diaz Explains” by Jessica Carbone.

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This recipe for cong bao rou si, or stir-fried pork with leeks, is adapted from Taiwanese home cook, stir-fry expert, and former restaurant owner Pan Suefen. It calls for a “reverse” stir-fry technique, in which the vegetables are cooked before the meat. It tends to be forgiving for a novice stir-fryer, since vegetables release water as they cook and won’t stick the way that meat will if the wok isn’t quite hot enough. 

This pork and leek stir-fry also illustrates the importance of the knife in stir-fry cooking. Leeks are sliced on the diagonal to increase the surface area exposed to the wok; that way, they wilt and release their fragrance faster. The pork is sliced thinly so that it will brown quickly before it loses its moisture. The trick to precisely uniform pieces is chilling the meat in the freezer for 20 minutes—just long enough to firm it up—which makes consistent slicing a breeze. Spoon the finished stir-fry over steamed rice, and dinner is served.

Featured in “A Stir-Fry Education” by Lillian Chou.

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The Sichuan dish gong bao ji ding—often better known by its Americanized name kung pao chicken—is a dainty assemblage of small, plump chicken morsels, peanuts, and scallions, with just enough chiles to give it a kick. This recipe is adapted from China Club, a private club in Beijing that serves a thrilling menu of classic Chinese dishes: spicy Sichuan, delicate Cantonese, and rich Shanghainese, with refined versions of Beijing specialties as well.

Featured in “The Revolution is a Dinner Party” by David Sheff.

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Early summer brings an underappreciated and short-lived bounty along with the tomato harvest. Garlic scapes—the tender, green stalks that rise from hard-neck garlic—are an aromatic, herbaceous, and mellow way to add garlicky flavor to your dishes. Roasting the scapes with tomatoes and red onion sweetens the alliums’ heat and enriches their flavor; toss with pasta, lemon juice, and arugula for a simple summer meal.

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This recipe for summer bolognese has all the comfort of the classic pasta but without the heaviness of a red sauce, instead embracing the season’s bounty of gorgeous tomatoes and fresh basil. The simple yet stunning dish is adapted from Australian cookbook author and magazine publisher Donna Hay’s The New Classics. It‘s quite literally the kind of recipe that makes you want to jump up and start cooking immediately.

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This recipe is brought to you by SAVEUR Cookbook Club, our passionate community of food-loving readers from around the globe celebrating our favorite authors and recipes. Join us as we cook through cookbooks new and old, and share your food pics and vids on social media with the hashtags #SAVEURCookbookClub and #EatTheWorld.

Vegetables are far too often an afterthought when it comes to weeknight dinners. Playing second fiddle to the meat and starch, they’re like an addendum that makes the meal legal. But celebrated British cookbook author Nigel Slater aims to change that with this fast, unfussy take on broccoli, which turns the oft-maligned veg into a main course with wonderful complexity in flavor and texture. It calls for just a handful of ingredients to boot.

Reprinted with permission from A Cook’s Book: The Essential Nigel Slater by Nigel Slater, copyright © 2023. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

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Welcome to One Pot Bangers, Benjamin Kemper’s weeknight cooking column, where you’ll find our freshest, boldest ideas that require just one pot, skillet, or sheet pan. Busy week? We’ve got you covered with these low-effort, high-reward recipes from around the globe.

I don’t attend many funerals in Georgia, which is why it took me so long to taste one of the country’s most comforting—yet shockingly little-known—dishes: shila plavi, a peppery Georgian lamb pilaf similar to risotto that’s traditionally served to the bereft. But a few months ago, while visiting my friend Sopo Gorgadze’s farm and restaurant in Kakheti, I found what would become my favorite version of the dish. Made with arborio instead of the usual long-grain rice, and with so much black pepper and caraway that their quantities look like typos, Sopo’s shila plavi is al dente and extra-aromatic, with chunks of juicy lamb and shards of salty cheese on top. 

Nobody knows how shila plavi came to be associated with funerals—even Georgian food historians are stumped. But if Occam’s razor is to be believed, it’s probably because the dish is so deeply soothing that it makes a wonderful balm against hardship and grief. So live a little, and eat Georgian funeral rice.

Note: An equal weight of ground lamb, though nontraditional, may be substituted with excellent results.

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When cookbook author Frankie Gaw made Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese recipe for the first time, he discovered pure bliss—an expression of beef and tomato completely transformed after a “lazy simmer,” as she liked to say. Tasting Hazan’s slow-cooked dish also reminded Gaw of his Taiwanese grandma’s fragrant simmered pork sauces poured over fresh noodles or rice. Inspired by Hazan and his grandmother, this rice cake Bolognese recipe highlights the commonalities between different cultures and is a love letter to both Italian and Taiwanese tradition. Look for packaged rice cakes in the refrigerated section of your local Asian grocery store. Gaw prefers to use medium-lean ground beef and pork—sometimes labeled 80/20 percent—for this dish, but any good-quality ground meat will work.

Adapted from First Generation: Recipes from My Taiwanese-American Home by Frankie Gaw. Photography by Franklin Gaw copyright 2022. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Featured in “Fried Chicken Gua Bao and Rice Cake Bolognese Star in Frankie Gaw’s Standout Debut Cookbook” by Megan Zhang. 

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