Salami

Crisp up salami slices in a skillet, mix with store-bought potato chips, drizzle everything with spiced honey butter, and build a tower as high as you can go.

As a last-minute party snack or an addition to your dinner party table, these one-biters can’t be beat. 

This highly riffable dinner salad features cubes of leftover polenta, tossed in Parmesan, and crisped in a skillet for croutons that are naturally gluten-free, delightfully crunchy on the outside, and warm and creamy on the inside.

Radishes, contrastingly crunchy and peppery to tender and sweet pears, take rather well to modern pickling, the sort that is less about preserving and more about making something to shake other flavors from their shyness.

Bright citrus and fresh-ground pepper put a festive spin on two party staples: cured meat and Marcona almonds.

This recipe makes deeply flavorful broth out of something that most people throw away: the hard rinds of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Nduja, a spicy salami now produced domestically, blends cured pork fat and chiles in a spreadable, meltable consistency. Combining it with lobster is transformative, taking this basic pasta Pomodoro to the next level.

Toss roasted squash and charred Brussels sprouts through a salad of chickpeas, salami, olives, and cheese; add a lemony oregano vinaigrette and enjoy.

Long sweet peppers show up at farmers’ markets during the peak of the season and may be sold as long sweet yellow, sweet banana, Hungarian Sweet, or Cubanelle. You can substitute two medium red, orange, or yellow bell peppers (don’t use the green ones).

It's a pizza. It's a salad. Here, store-bought pizza dough gets this family-friendly dinner on the table in less than an hour.

This sandwich can be lunch, a snack, or a late-night thing. Eat it with potato chips and lemonade; it's also great with a simple green salad for dinner.

There is no better beach or picnic sandwich: It feeds a crowd, gets better as it sits, and is a hearty meal built inside a loaf of bread. About that bread: Unless you live in New Orleans and can get the real thing, opt for a ciabatta or other loaf with a sturdy but not too crusty exterior.

The secret to making perfect crisp-crusted pies at home is in your charcoal grill.

Meet the most creamy, comforting, flavor-packed baked pasta dinner you can make without any actual pasta.

A make ahead recipe of tomatoes with marinated artichokes, salami and smoked cheese for a flavorful topper on toasted baguette bread

If you'd like, let the croutons sit in the pepper mixture until the bread is fairly soft; it'll soak up the flavorful dressing.

Chef Josh Keeler brings out the best in vegetables with…meat. He drizzles a vinaigrette made with cured soppressata over a rotating cast of seasonal produce, like okra and green beans. "It adds a bit of acidity, fat, and richness without overpowering the dish," he says. And it makes a strong case for using meat in a supporting role to veggies, not the other way around.

This recipe is so easy, I'm almost embarrassed to include it in a cookbook. But it just goes to prove how much transformation can come from the simple act of crisping something in the oven for a bit. Try to find a salami that's 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter, for easy snacking size. If it's not presliced and there's a deli slicer in the store, ask to have it thinly sliced for you. Otherwise do your best to cut it very thin, even slices with your sharpest knife. I like the combination of traditional Dijon mustard and grainy mustard for the dip, but if you prefer you can use just one type or the other. The flavor of the dip will be best if it's made at least 2 hours ahead, allowing the flavors to meld nicely before serving.

When it comes to building a prime muffaletta, the bread may be more important than the olives, meats, and cheeses it’s married to. In New Orleans, this hefty must-have “sando” is constructed on a round, soft Sicilian loaf. In this version, Epicurious member Mike19711 uses focaccia. When serving large parties, use a soft Italian bread, a 9-inch round, or a long 14-inch loaf. Try and hold out until the olive salad has marinated for at least 24 hours; trust us, it will make the meal that much more authentic.

When we’re hosting game night and have lots of my husband’s friends coming over, I make this salad. It’s hearty and colorful, and because it holds very well at room temperature, I can make it ahead of time so I can take part in game night, too!