Italian Grinder Salad and More Recipes We Made This Week

It’s no secret that Bon Appétit editors cook a lot for work. So it should come as no surprise that we cook a lot during our off hours too. Here are the recipes we’re whipping up this month to get dinner on the table, entertain our friends, satisfy a sweet tooth, use up leftovers, and everything in between. For even more staff favorites, click here.

Recipes September 5

Coffee-enhanced cheesecake

Shilpa Uskokovic’s Basque-style tiramisu cheesecake looks like the most complex dessert. In reality, it’s a simple batter that’s split in two. One half is adulterated with instant espresso and cocoa, and then the halves are layered in a single pan so they swirl together, baking into a marbled mélange of cream and coffee. A splash of Marsala wine drives home the tiramisu theme (I swapped in sweet vermouth, which I usually use for tiramisu too since I always have it for Manhattans). Don’t skip the mascarpone topping. It might seem excessive, but the contrast between dense, custardy cheesecake and ethereal mousse-like topping is kind of the whole point. —Joe Sevier, senior editor, cooking and SEO

A simple bean and tomato salad

It might be September, but I’m still swimming in tomatoes and corn. I came across this recipe from Max Baroni for a simple butter bean and tomato salad that was super easy to make. I liked everything together, but the star of the show was the vinegar-marinated roasted tomatoes. The sherry vinegar brought out the tomatoes’ natural sweetness, and I found myself grabbing my leftovers to put on toast with the yogurt sauce. I’m making the salad again before the season is over for a savory-sweet breakfast that instantly sparks joy. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media

Salty-sweet tomato martini

There’s nothing like a summer tomato (we know them, we love them), but I raise you a summer tomato martini. In the past I’ve tossed together a version of my own with juices left over from tomatoes I’ve salted and left to sit for use in another dish, but when Jesse Szewczyk’s recipe went live, I almost immediately headed to the farmers market. His recipe calls for muddling sweet Sun Gold tomatoes and fresh basil, plus a smidge of salt and sugar until juicy; then stirring in gin, vermouth, and ice until well-chilled. I strained the drink into a glass with a large ice cube—I like martinis on the rocks, don’t sue!—and was delighted. Unlike the extra-dirty martini trend we can’t seem to escape, a tomato martini hits an ideal balance of salty-sweet and savory without overpowering the gin or tasting like an olive jar. I know the “perfect” martini already exists as a concept, but this is a pretty flawless way to toast to the end of summer. —Rebecca Firkser, contributing editor

Meaty grilled swordfish steaks

Now that it’s officially September, I intend to grill as many nights as possible while the sun is still high in the sky at dinnertime and the weather is, at least this week, perfect. And when it comes to grilling fish, swordfish is one of my absolute favorites. It’s meatier and less delicate than other fish, so it takes well to the grill without having to worry about the skin sticking or the fillet falling apart. I love this recipe for Grilled Marinated Swordfish Steaks, which requires only 10 to 15 minutes of marinating in soy sauce, red wine vinegar, spices, and aromatics before throwing the fish on the grill (for just a few minutes per side). The recipe calls for serving with a string bean salad, but I paired it with a medley of grilled vegetables (peppers! eggplant! zucchini! onion!) and it was the perfect Labor Day dinner. —Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager

Grinder salad

The dog days of summer are (hopefully, blissfully) behind us, so I may find myself cooking at the stove again soon. But for a while there it was so hot I could barely read a recipe, let alone make a thing to shovel into my face. I was a walking zombie, especially in the kitchen. Enter this salad. It’s basically an Italian hoagie that went on vacation for a week and came back changed. It carries itself with a certain je ne sais quoi: looser shoulders, slower steps, is that an accent? At the end of the day, it’s an iceberg-lettuce-based salad with a glow-up, stuffed with tangy, bright good things. On those nights when I want to sink to the very bottom of my couch because I forgot to eat lunch again, it’s been soul-sustaining. This recipe is so good and so easy to riff on, you’ll wonder why you ever bothered with a sandwich in the first place—it’s a slop bowl, but, like, a cool slop bowl. Okay? —Joseph Hernandez, associate director of drinks & lifestyle