Simple Cooking

This recipe is a template, open to endless riffs depending on what vegetables you have on hand. No matter what seasonal produce you use, remember to keep an eye out for a mix of colors.

Hollowed-out cherry tomatoes are spiked with horseradish mayo in this summery appetizer.

Truly ripe tomatoes don't need much more than olive oil, salt, and herbs.

It's hard to imagine anything better than freshly picked ears of corn roasting to golden-brown goodness on the grill. One taste of our Honey-Ginger Barbecue Sauce and you'll be wondering why you ever stuck to plain ol' butter. This sweet and tangy sauce transforms the season's staple produce into a standout, flame-kissed favorite. Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for A Fourth of July Cookout. Menu also includes Grilled Shrimp with Honey-Ginger Barbecue Sauce and Red, White, and Blue Ice Cream Cake.

Of all the ways to prepare shrimp, the grill delivers the best flavor. Although unadorned "shrimp on the barbie" are great, an easily assembled gingery barbecue sauce makes them that much better. You can save time by buying already shelled and deveined shrimp, but our recipe developer, Alexis Touchet, who grew up in shrimp country in southwest Louisiana, thinks shell-on shrimp are better quality. Depending on where you live and what's in your market, you may not have much choice. Freshness trumps all, so don't hesitate to use your nose in deciding which shrimp to buy.

This sweet and tangy sauce is perfect for glazing grilled meats, seafood, and veggies. It was designed for our Grilled Shrimp and Grilled Corn recipes, as part of our Gourmet Modern Menu for A Fourth of July Cookout.

When it comes to ice cream cakes, there are no hard-and-fast rules as to what form they can take. Some consist solely of ice cream molded and then decorated to resemble a cake, while others intersperse layers of ice cream with thin layers of cake, crisp meringue, or even crumbled cookies. Our red, white, and blue July 4th extravaganza is a gorgeous amalgam of ice cream, cake, and blueberries and raspberries cooked separately into their own jammy fillings. Frosted simply in sweetened whipped cream and topped with more berries, this cake sparkles as much as the fireworks in the sky! Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for A Fourth of July Cookout. Menu also includes Grilled Corn with Honey-Ginger Barbecue Sauce and Grilled Shrimp with Honey-Ginger Barbecue Sauce.

Chocolate has the incredible ability to stand alone quite nicely while playing along with loads of other prominent ingredients—without being a bully. And that is why a brownie sundae can be so frustrating: How can you settle on one ice cream flavor or a single sauce?
We figured Father's Day is the right time to have a brownie sundae your way. Dads have soft spots for cuteness, so serving up a brownie raft supporting mini-scoops of three different ice creams adrift in three different sauces will tickle him to no end. Feel free to use whatever ice cream flavors are the family favorites. Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for A Father's Day Feast. Menu also includes Pretzel Bites with Quick Cheddar Dip and Grilled Rib Pork Chops with Sweet and Tangy Peach Relish.

When frozen, bananas become so creamy they can almost pass for sorbet or even ice cream. Coat them with chocolate and sprinkle them with homemade peanut brittle—there will be plenty left over for snacking—and you've got a refreshingly cold treat that feels almost as virtuous as a serving of fruit. Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for Summer Fair Favorites. Menu also includes Fried Onion Dippers with Balsamic Ketchup and Turkey Meatball Garlic Bread Heroes.

This is the easiest hot fudge sauce ever. You'll be glad to know that it firms up to that chewy fudge consistency on contact with ice cream, just as you expect hot fudge sauce to do!

Homemade marshmallow sauce is so ridiculously easy to make that you'll chuckle at yourself for ever having assumed it was complicated. Making it also allows you to use pure vanilla extract, which tastes so much better than the fake vanillin flavoring in many commercial versions.

One look at these meatball subs and you might be inclined to bypass an entire summer's worth of burgers and dogs. Heroes, hoagies, subs, grinders—regardless of what you call them, we guarantee this recipe will be an instant crowd favorite thanks to toasted garlic-butter buns piled high with tender meatballs and tangy tomato sauce. Although you may be tempted to head for the grill, opt for your oven broiler instead and avoid the need for skewers or special grill baskets. Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for Summer Fair Favorites. Menu also includes Fried Onion Dippers with Balsamic Ketchup and Frozen Chocolate-Dipped Bananas with Peanut Brittle.

Although Americans chow down on plenty of crisp pretzels, there's something irresistible about the soft variety that makes them just as addictive, if not more so, than the crunchy version. When formed into bite-size nuggets, not only do they pop easily into your mouth, but they are also small enough to eliminate the temptation to double-dip in the Cheddar sauce. You can also offer up a bowl of mustard, or divide your Cheddar dip into three bowls, flavoring one with mustard and the other with caraway seeds.
You may suspect that the large amount of baking soda to cook the pretzels is a typo; it's not. Believe us, it's the secret to the chestnut-brown color they develop during baking. Without it, the pretzels would look anemic. Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for A Father's Day Feast. Menu also includes Grilled Rib Pork Chops with Sweet and Tangy Peach Relish and The Ultimate Brownie Sundae.

Why use frozen berries in the summer, when local fruit is at its peak? Because we love fresh local berries so much when whole or, in the case of strawberries, when sliced as well, puréeing them seems almost a sacrilege. If, however, you've got a surplus of fresh berries, go ahead and purée them.

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This salad of melon, sweet pepper, salty cheese and earthy basil recalls the watermelon salad that we all love so much, but its elegant components make it more refined. Salt is key to marrying the flavors, so be generous, tasting as you go. Be liberal, too, with a very good extra-virgin olive oil—it is very much a part of this salad.

Though inspired by golden cherries from the farmers' market, this pretty salad can be made with any sort of fresh or frozen cherry. Marcona almonds hail from Spain; their toasty, slightly sweet and salty flavor is a great match for the fruit. Toasted whole almonds and a few extra pinches of sea salt can be substituted.

Our dear friends, the Krutchiks, often lavish us with new food discoveries, like Wagyu pastrami—a luxe version of the delicious brined, spiced and smoked deli meat—which they buy at their NYC neighborhood shop, Grace's Marketplace. The richly marbled, melt-in-your-mouth meat inspired this twist on Italy's beloved bread and tomato salad. Use ripe, in-season tomatoes (their sweet juices form part of the dressing), and pick an airy light rye bread over the dark, dense sort; the latter is too chewy for this salad. Wagyu is certainly tasty, but any good pastrami works well here.