5 Ingredients or Fewer

Recent Recipes

• 1

  Genovese Pesto by Jacob Siwak

  This is by no means an original recipe, and is in fact one of the most tried and true dishes out there. Where this recipe can be heightened is not in modifying what goes into it, but by using only the best ingredients, and with a slight tweak in technique. This recipe – the way I like to make it – yields more of a pesto sauce than something you might make with a mortar and pestle.
  
  I prefer a Genovese pesto to be served in the traditional Ligurian manner: with trofie, diced potatoes, and green beans. The soft savoriness of the potatoes and the crunch of the green beans really change the entire dish, and while traditional in Italy, not a lot of Americans see pesto cooked like that. It’s a quick dish to make for having friends over, and if you take just a little extra time to heighten the dish, it’s also an easy way to impress them.
  
  If you don’t have the time to learn how to make trofie (a laborious process), I think pesto works best with dried cavatelli, gnocchi, or another short non-tubed shape! —Jacob Swiak

• 2

  Champagne Mustard

  Homemade mustard is easy, actually. Ok, sure, it’s a multi-day process, but it’s almost all inactive time. Making mustard is so straightforward, delicious, and customizable, you’ll be wondering why people don’t do it more often. This version calls for Champagne, perfect for using up any pesky, fast-flattening bottles you may have open, but any sparkling wine or even non-sparkling wine will do. Once the mustard is finished, it can only benefit from sitting and maturing in the fridge for a couple of days before enjoying.

• 3

  Crispy Skillet Potato Kugel

  Potato Kugel is perfect for the Hanukkah season, being that it’s essentially a giant skillet latke. It’s also significantly easier to make than its shallow-fried, mini counterpart. This decidedly savory cousin to noodle kugel is enjoyed warm, at room temperature, or cold the next day from the fridge. While it’s delightful as is, there’s certainly no harm in giving it the applesauce/sour cream or smoked salmon/caviar treatments.

• 4

  Shrimp Cocktail Trio

  I've always had a complicated relationship with shrimp cocktail. While I love perfectly poached shrimp, cocktail sauce itself was never my favorite. I wanted to create a shrimp cocktail experience I could actually enjoy with a trio of globally-inspired dips that are all five ingredients (not including salt and pepper) and perfect for large holiday gatherings. A sweet and spicy Southeast Asian chili-lime sauce with a hint of ginger, a creamy harissa yogurt dip, and a deep, garlicky sun-dried tomato sauce with fresh basil and lemon.