For the next few weeks, we'll be singing "Summer Nights" as we do a farewell tour with all of the best summer recipes. We were having a blast with heirloom tomatoes, juicy stone fruits, and all the grilled meat, but we'll have to wait a whole year for our Danny and Sandy-esque reunion with grilled pizza (pictured above in all its glory) and rosé cocktails.
Before the season comes to an end—it happened so fast!—we're making these 12 summer recipes. Get yourself to the farmers' market, then follow along.
1. Frosé
It's the time to drink as many glasses of frosé as you can (responsibly) drink without getting brain freeze.
2. Summer Gazpacho
This recipe only works with fresh summer tomatoes. You probably don't want to eat cold soup in the winter, anyway.
3. Tri-Tip with Chimichurri
Tri-tip is a quick-cooking steak that was made for fresh, herbaceous chimichurri—one of our favorite salsa verdes—and it's so easy you could make steak on a weeknight!
4. Grilled Corn and Poblano Chile Salad
It's less messy to take the corn off the cob for a smoky salad filled with grilled corn and charred poblano peppers. You could add cheese if you wanted, too...
5. Charred Bread with Ricotta and Cherry Salsa
When dinner is just grilled bread + cheese + lots of fresh cherries. We love cherry desserts, but sometimes it's nice to go savory.
6. Watermelon-Tequila Punch
Fact: serving punch inside of large, hollowed-out fruit makes it taste better. This watermelon cocktail looks impressive but only has five ingredients.
7. Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches
Use store-bought ice cream to make chocolate ice cream sandwiches or oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwiches. Or both.
8. Summer Squash and Basil Pasta
Think you're sick of zucchini? You won't be after you try this summer squash technique, which reduces the vegetable into a jammy sauce.
9. Tomato and Roasted Garlic Pie
It's worth turning on your oven for this cheesy, garlicky pie with a Wheat Thin crust.
10. Sambal Chicken Skewers
Assistant web editor Alex Delany is so obsessed with these chicken skewers that he calls them his best friend. Fire up the grill and make them ASAP.
11. Radicchio and Plum Salad
You can use almost any type of plum in this salad recipe, even hybrid ones like Pluots and Peacotums. (As fun to say as they are to eat.) Can't find plums? Go for any juicy stone fruit. You can't go wrong here.
12. Rosé Aperol Spritz
Another rosé cocktail worth sipping outside. If you can't find passionfruit juice, mango or pineapple will also work. Cheers!