Queue Up Summer’s Greatest Hits

Queueing Up Summer’s Greatest Hits

Jessica Rudolph Senior Food Editor

Here’s a confession from someone who cooks for a living: My favorite summer meals are the ones where I barely cook at all. Come July, the farmers’ market does the heavy lifting. I grab whatever’s gorgeous and figure out dinner while standing in my kitchen with the AC working overtime and at least one kid demanding a popsicle.

When the corn is sweet enough to eat raw, I make our Corn Salad with Buttermilk and Herb Dressing on repeat. The trick is to barely cook the corn (drop it into just-boiled water off the heat for 10 minutes) so that it stays snappy. It goes well with everything. On nights I want dinner to feel like an event, I fold that same fresh corn into Crab and Corn Pasta, a buttery, Old Bay–scented tangle that comes together in 45 minutes and makes a Tuesday feel like vacation. On lazier nights, Grilled Shrimp Boil Foil Packs are pure magic: shrimp, corn, potatoes, and andouille sealed in foil, tossed on the grill, with zero pots to wash. The kids love ripping their packets open.

Then there are the tomatoes. I make our BLT Salad nearly weekly alongside grilled chicken, with bacon-fat croutons that are frankly dangerous. When I want something a little different, Tomato Salad with Warm Lemongrass Dressing turns peak tomatoes bright and surprising.

And, of course, peaches. My kids go feral over fresh summer peaches, so we buy as many as we can haul. If any fruit survives the kids’ gluttony (and several requisite batches of Skillet Batter-Style Peach Cobbler), I love to put up a few jars of Preserved Peaches in Syrup. It’s the one “project” I make time for, and come January, cracking one open tastes like sunshine in a jar.

A-Maizing Dishes

Bursting-with-Flavor Tomatoes

Sweet Peach Summer

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