what to bring: summer edition
plus: focaccia with zucchini and potatoes
Monday, July 14, 2025
Good morning!
A world of quesadillas [Instagram]
A very cool benefit coming up in Brooklyn on 7/23 with Padma, Shilpa, and Hailee (yes I call them all by their first names)
How are we going to be a good guest this summer? How are we going to be the people who bring the dishes everyone can’t stop gushing over? Please don’t tell me you don’t think about this stuff, too. I mean, sure, it’s not a competition but there’s truly no worse feeling than bringing something you toiled over at home to a gathering that isn’t empty by the time it’s over, or ideally, shortly after your arrival. We’d never let that happen. First, we’re going to gush for a second time about Casey Elsass’s perfect cookbook out this spring called What Can I Bring: Recipes to Help You Live Your Guest Life. You can read the newsletter interview with him over here. And below, I’ve got a stack of ideas, all relatively unfussy foods that keep well, travel well and don’t require reheating, refrigeration, or (rejoice!) an explanation when you get there. Plus, a brand new focaccia with zucchini and potatoes that did, indeed, disappear in no time on July 4th because who can resist freshly-made bread? And why would we even want to when it’s this easy? I hope you love it too.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and one audiobook and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. My most recent cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, is a collection of new classics specifically written with making them forever in mind, and it has a special audio edition that I hope feels exactly like you’ve pulled up a chair and I’m hanging out in the kitchen with you. My first, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, is my love letter to approachable, uncompromised home cooking. And my second, Smitten Kitchen Every Day, is a celebration of triumphant and unfussy home cooking. Not sure which one to check out first? Take a look at the recipe index and see which collection jumps out at you most.
focaccia with zucchini and potatoes
New! The focaccia everyone hopes you’re bringing with you wherever you go this weekend. Golden with deeply crunchy edges and a hydrated, chewy interior and shingled with zucchini and potatoes, I’m also sharing five things I learned along the way to getting this exactly the way I wanted it.
smoky eggplant dip
Perfectly smoky/charred, deeply flavorful baba ganoush/mouttabal, no open fire pit or outdoor grill required. Blended with tahini, garlic, lemon juice and seasonings, served with pita wedges and a giant tomato-cucumber salad, this is summer dinner bliss.
pickled carrot sticks
Crudité are good; pickled crudité: even better. I recently refreshed this 2008 recipe for pickled carrot sticks and now it's a little less sweet and more flexible than ever. Prepare to want a jar of them in your fridge at all times.
corn chowder salad
Corn chowder, reimagined as a salad, from only six ingredients and using a single pan. Obviously, this is exactly what we have to cook next.
broccoli rubble farro salad
A quite simple but very kicky (garlic! lemon! pepper flakes! pecorino!) approach to a farro salad that's as good cold (potlucks, picnics, and weekday lunches) as it is warm (with an egg on top, crispy crumbs, or even burrata) that I cannot wait to have for dinner tonight.
herbed summer squash and potato torte
There's no such thing as too much zucchini; it's just more excuses to make this crazy delicious crispy-edged easy summer dinner. We have wedges with salad for a light meal; grilled sausages for a heartier one. I have never regretted making two.
burst tomato galette with corn and zucchini
Everything great about summer produce -- burst cherry tomatoes, quick sautéed zucchini, sweet crunchy corn, freshly dug scallions -- folded into one immensely flaky rustic parmesan-flecked crust. This dish is a forever SK favorite. [Video below!]
focaccia sandwiches for a crowd
A ridiculously easy no-knead, no-fuss, quick-rise focaccia you can use to make sheet pans of sandwiches, perfect to easily feed a crowd. Choose a filling of your own or try one of mine -- I've got suggestions and directions for the two vegan ones shown here.Â
strawberry summer sheet cake
One of our favorite summer cakes, ever -- with sunken berries that melt into jammy puddles and edges that brown and become faintly crisp -- one-bowl-ed and ready to feed the crowd that forms whenever you make it.
peach and pecan sandy crumble
Crumble toppings are really just cookies, right? So why not use a great cookie? Here we made a toasted pecan sandy crumble to top baked peaches, a combination so blissful, I've never looked back.
perfect blueberry muffin loaf
Everything we love about my perfect blueberry muffins (one-bowl, hand-whisked, the crunchiest muffin top, and a comically high concentration of blueberries) in one giant, craggy loaf. We’ll never need to rifle through the cabinets looking for paper muffin liners again!
confetti cookies
For some instant joy and celebration right now, may I recommend a really easy sprinkle cookie recipe that tastes even better than it looks? They're plush, complex, fragrant, and also, you know, really cute decked out in rainbow sprinkles. You're going to love them.
picnic pink lemonade
Pink lemonade > regular lemonade. It's basic lemonade math; don't even fight it. Just make sure the blush is real -- in this case, raspberries, strawberries, or blackberries (or shown here, all three).
burst tomato galette with corn and zucchini
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most — yes, including the the Smitten Kitchen x Staub Braiser (which is back in stock!). For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
What’s the Smitten Kitchen x Staub Braiser? It’s an 11-inch, 4-quart braiser — essentially a lower profile enameled cast-iron Dutch oven that works as as well as a deep sauté pan as it does a soup pot, roasting pan, or even casserole dish that perfectly fits a pasta bake. Not a week has gone by in the decade I’ve had mine when I don’t use it at least three times. And we just got in a limited run of a stunning blue color for spring!
Your braiser purchase contains three new recipes (two savory, one sweet) by me that work perfectly in your new pot. If you’re looking for even more ideas, I created a category on the site to highlight some of my favorite dishes I make in mine.
See you next week!
