Nut-Free

This weeknight pizza introduces the topping you didn’t know you were missing: creamed corn. Blitzing raw corn kernels with ricotta, Parmesan, heavy cream, and olive oil creates a quick and lush creamed-corn sauce. Spicy, salty, and smoky pepperoni complements the creamy sauce, while smoked mozzarella brings an even deeper dimension to the pizza (but regular mozzarella also works). Be sure to top the finished pizza with plenty of bright basil for a super-fresh hit. Although this recipe works best with fresh corn, thawed frozen corn is a fine substitute.

This sour-salty soup was made for using up sweet, late-season tomatoes.

When a recipe calls for sopping up sauce, these breadsticks are your sopper-uppers of choice. Topped with Kalamata olives, garlic, red onion, and Calabrian chiles, they’re also just as good on their own—serve them straight from the oven and let everyone rip them off with their hands. This recipe comes from Bryan Ford and is based on his Master Bread Dough. Feel free to customize them with whatever finely chopped toppings you desire; just be sure to press them into the dough so that they stick.

This cheesecake has a vanilla pound cake base, because why the hell not? You bake the cheesecake first, then the pound cake on top, and flip the whole thing over before decorating and serving. Room temperature eggs, cream cheese, and butter are vital to an evenly mixed cheesecake and fluffy pound cake. If you’re in a hurry, place the eggs in a bowl of hot tap water and zap the butter and cream cheese in the microwave in 10-second increments to quickly warm them up.

Buttery cornbread and salty salami, when placed on a fork with a piece of turkey and rich gravy, is the perfect bite.

Pavochon, a mash-up of pavo for turkey and chon for lechón, is the centerpiece of a Puerto Rican Thanksgiving.

Hibiscus is used in drinks throughout the African diaspora but most notably in Jamaica. Inspired by sorrel—a festive Caribbean punch—this sauce is sweet, tangy, earthy, and the perfect complement to the peppery profile of Jamaican jerk. Rum, allspice, and fresh ginger add a level of warmth and richness of flavor that is the signature of Caribbean cuisine. Serve with Jerk Turkey Sheperd’s Pie. 

A creamy custard pie with an extra-milky flavored meringue.

Tart and sweet individual cranberry pies from Amanda Mack of Crust by Mack in Baltimore.

“Like Jamaica itself, this is a mash-up of cultures and flavors and ideas—all together in one delicious savory pie,” says chef Tiffany-Anne Parkes.

This recipe is based on a traditional dish of the Ohlone tribe indigenous to California’s East Bay.

Our Thanksgiving 2020 cover star turkey is grilled and topped with a zippy chile-spiked vinegar sauce.

These melt-in-your-mouth dinner rolls from Claire Saffitz are even more tender and pillowy than the classic Parker House rolls.

This tahdig is dressed up with cranberries and woody herbs for a Thanksgiving-y, festive feel.

Flaky, nutty, buttery paratha you can prep ahead.

Ginger and orange juice give this raita a holiday feel. Treat it like cranberry sauce–it goes with everything.

This refreshing drink Sohla El-Waylly often uses to break fast during Ramadan gives all kinds of holiday vibes.

Make this on a Monday and show Garfield what’s up.

This is the cake you bake on the weekend and then eat a slice of every evening (or morning) throughout the week. It’s called meal prep.

If you’re looking for a simple recipe for a tender sandwich bread—the kind of loaf that’d be great turned into a grilled cheese or crunchy croutons—this is it. This recipe from Bryan Ford is his Master Bread Dough, rolled into a tight log and baked until golden brown. We recommend slicing it and then freezing in a resealable plastic bag or airtight container for instant toast.

The secret behind many great breads is something called a preferment, a portion of the dough that ferments separately from (and for more time than) the rest of the ingredients. A preferment increases the strength of your dough (improving its final crumb structure) and contributes to aroma and flavor. In baker Bryan Ford’s cookbook New World Sourdough, the preferment is a sourdough starter; in this recipe, however, his preferment is the lower-maintenance poolish—a mixture of flour, water, and active dry yeast that grows overnight. Mix the poolish with more flour, water, and yeast as well as a touch of olive oil, sugar, and salt, and you get a resilient, flavorful dough that can be used in a nearly infinite number of ways. This is an instance when you really do need a kitchen scale—Ford encourages all bakers, especially beginners, to use one. The master dough can also be scaled up or down as desired.

Crunchy chicharrones are ideal for soaking up bright tomatillo salsa, taking on an ultimate crispy-gone-soggy chewy texture. 

This fragrant Cambodian salad is a multisensory experience—a combination of crispy shallots, juicy citrus, fresh herbs, and tender, grilled fish.

This Persian stew of tomatoes and spiced eggplant is just the warming dish you need on a cool, fall night.