Cheese

Crisp tostadas topped with cheesy sautéed poblanos and mushrooms, charred cherry tomato and serrano salsa, and fried eggs.

Creamy, cheesy potatoes with crispy edges, tender middles, and just a whisper of heat—need we say more?

Okay, it's basically a giant mozzarella stick. 

From the always-sunny brain of Flour Shop’s Amirah Kassem, this colorful, festive cake with a surprise filling is about as celebratory as it gets.

This is a “necessity is the mother of invention” kind of recipe, born from isolation, scant ingredients, an oversupply of kimchi, and sheer hunger. Yet this unconventional one-pot approach also happens to be one of the simplest ways to prepare mac and cheese. 

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.

Salvadoran quesadilla is a sweet-salty cheesecake that’s often eaten for breakfast with coffee, but Popoca chef Anthony Salguero serves it as dessert.

Tomato slices are salted ahead and then set into a garlicky, somewhat spicy olive oil bath with Cotija, a dry-aged Mexican cheese. 

Cheese, butter, wine—name a more iconic trio.

For this dinner-worthy sandwich, you’ll sear the eggplant on the stove, then marinate it in oil and vinegar to make it silky-soft and flavor-packed. 

At a time when anxiety felt inescapable, the cocktails and cheese boards my mom and dad made were my constant.

Top these creamy, beany enfrijoladas with a fried egg, chorizo or roasted vegetables, and queso fresco!

When you find yourself with more garlic than you know what to do with, whip up this extra-garlicky Caesar dressing, slather it on a chicken, and roast it to perfection.

It’s almost silly how easy this dish of impossibly delicious, ooey-gooey cheesy chiles is to execute. 

The one rule here is to use all of the cheese.

Easy, hearty, and it can stand up to hot summer weather—even if you make it ahead. 

This dish of saucy, seared paneer channels the flavors traditionally found in matar paneer—coriander, cumin, chile, and ginger—into a quick-cooking cherry tomato sauce that's packed with bright spring-y sugar snap peas. If you can’t find paneer, give this a try with another sturdy non-melty cheese like Halloumi or queso fresco. Or think of it as a simple sauce you can serve over any protein, like a crispy-skinned salmon fillet, seared shell-on shrimp, sliced feta, or even just a bed of salted yogurt. 

It defies all labels, which is exactly why I love it.

Swapping traditional ingredients like guanciale and pancetta for vegetable-based umami bombs (hello, garlic and smoked paprika) isn’t the only thing to consider when making a vegetarian carbonara. Many hard cheeses (including Parmigiano-Reggiano) use animal rennet, so if you want to seek an alternative, ask your cheesemonger.

If you’ve ever been intimidated by the thought of making fresh pasta at home, look no further. Ricotta gnocchi is simple to make, and it’s faster and more foolproof than its potato counterparts. The only tricky part is adding enough flour so that your dough is easy to work with, but not so much that it becomes stodgy or tough. If you don't want to make the buttery herb and pea sauce, use whatever you'd prefer, be it marinara, pesto, or sage and brown butter. 

The classic reconsidered: less pasta, more crispy-chewy strips of guanciale, and more silky creamy egg to hold it all together.

There’s a huge texture thing going on here with silky, smoky charred peppers and crisp, crunchy cucumbers.

Think of this as carbonara minus the eggs but still with massive amounts of flavor from guanciale, black pepper, and Pecorino.