Table of contents for April 2025 in Bon Appetit

Prateek Sadhu is hunched over an arbi stem freshly ripped from the earth, shaking off a thick garland of dirt that clings to the root. I’m joining him for his morning commute through a five-acre farm to his restaurant, Naar. “The creative juices start flowing when you see an ingredient,” he says as he inspects the broad leaf. “With nature, you just have to be present. You can do so much.” As a silvery mist slinks through the pine-clad peaks, and clouds of butterflies flit around us, he continues to stroll through farm terraces, pointing out nasturtium, cauliflower, radish (“We ferment the leaves and make a kind of kimchi”), garlic, chiles (“These are good for stuffing”), pumpkin, turmeric (“You can use the leaves to wrap fish”), and hemp sloping along…

My first introduction to the singular beauty of England’s West Country was in Somerset 15 years ago and began with an alarmingly sharp right turn off a country highway onto a “lane”—a steep descent between fields of indifferent sheep along what most Americans might call a hiking path. Towering hedgerows of beech trees sprouting through ancient stones periodically engulfed our car, threatening the paint job and protruding elbows. So when my wife, a Somerset native, brought our family of four to Cornwall for a seaside escape last summer, I thought I knew what to expect. Turns out the rugged far-southwestern tip of England is like no place I’ve ever been, with a rural charm reminiscent of neighboring Somerset, Devon, and Dorset, but with a unique scenery and vibe all its…

Every morning taquerias throughout San Antonio fill with construction workers, nurses in scrubs, college students, and hurried families, all finding salvation in an iconic staple: the breakfast taco. No dish cuts across income, class, and geography quite like this combination of Mexican and American culture. The dish represents the best of the city, nestled in a warm tortilla. People have been combining breakfast ingredients and fresh tortillas in Northern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley since at least the early 1900s. Today, breakfast tacos are enmeshed in the fabric of Texas. As anybody who has spent time in San Antonio can attest, the city is home to some of the best in the state, with a style all our own. Much like a proper Neapolitan pizza lives or dies by…

WHY WE LOVE IT When I was visiting my parents recently, my mom requested that I cook a dinner using up some scallions and cilantro on the precipice of wilting. How serendipitous that a recipe beloved by readers and staff alike—Kendra Vaculin’s Gorgeous Green Shrimp—exists. With a quick whirl in the blender, the tender herbs, plus jalapeño, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic, produce a verdant, mildly spicy sauce that blankets a pile of seared shrimp. A drizzle of yogurt, equal parts striking, tangy, and cooling, tempers the sharper flavors. The meal got two thumbs-up from my mom, and I got points for clearing out the fridge. A win all around. —Li Goldstein 4 SERVINGS 1 baguette, sliced on a diagonal 1" thick5 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more…

Here at the Bon Appétit test kitchen, birthdays are serious business. On a shared drive is a spreadsheet where each colleague lists their preferred treats the rest of us try to recreate. We’ve made gochujang and corn pizza, shrimp cocktail, three kinds of lasagna, and of course, lots of cake, including one shaped like a malfunctioning car clutch (don’t ask). For my colleague Jesse Szewczyk’s big day, he wrote, “no baked goods…anything super savory.” And we knew just the thing. A few weeks earlier, in one of our brainstorm meetings, Jesse had raised the idea of chicken breasts breaded with crushed pork rinds, inspired by his perpetual quest for high-protein foods. So on his birthday I made him the chicharron-crusted chicken tenders of his dreams, piling them on a cake…

Glance around your local spirits shop and you’ll see that today’s gins exceed the expectations of their category. Sure, classic London Dry and spirit-forward Navy Strength gins will always have a place on bar shelves, but the category’s growth over the past decade rewards curious drinkers. In the early aughts, craft distillers appeared on the scene, rethinking traditional styles and propelling the creations of new expressions. Juniper, gin’s primary flavor component, was toned down, creating an opportunity to explore a swath of flavorful botanicals and ushering in a new era of experimentation. Today these softer profiles make gin a favorite for modern cocktailing, as they play better with other ingredients and taking on a less abrasive role in drinks. These new varieties are made around the globe, from Kenya to…

ONE-POT FRENCH ONION PASTA All the savory-sweet flavor of the iconic soup is captured in this baked pasta. Loaded with a wealth of caramelized onions, white wine, and fresh thyme, this recipe even allows for cooking the pasta right into the soupy base before topping with plenty of Gruyère and broiling. RECIPE BY JESSE SZEWCZYK 4–6 SERVINGS 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil4 large onions, thinly sliced2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or1¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt, plus more1 tsp. freshly ground pepper, plus more6 garlic cloves, finely chopped4 tsp. chopped thyme¾ cup dry white wine1 lb. lumache (snail shells) or other medium shell pasta1 oz. Parmesan, finely grated (about ½ cup)5 Tbsp. unsalted butter1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard2 tsp. sugar2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce8 oz. Gruyère, coarsely grated (about 2 cups)Thinly sliced chives (for…

MAR I MUNTANYA 6–8 SERVINGS The original surf and turf, this dish gets its name (“sea and mountain”) from Catalonia’s location between the Balearic Sea and the Pyrenees. Many homestyle versions feature shrimp and bone-in chicken, but ours is inspired by the dish at Ca L’Estevet, a 130-year-old family-run restaurant in Barcelona, where beef meatballs are showcased alongside shellfish in a tomato-based sauce with a bit of dark chocolate adding a rich, bittersweet note. ½ cup raw almonds5 garlic cloves, 4 coarsely chopped, 1 finely grated1¼ cups panko, divided5 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided1 large egg1 lb. ground beef2 tsp. dried oregano3 tsp. Diamond Crystal or1½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, divided, plus moreFreshly ground pepper1 medium onion, finely chopped1 bay leaf1 Tbsp. thyme leaves1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes3 cups low-sodium…

Twenty years ago this month, Gourmet magazine devoted an entire issue to what was then a rather audacious claim: that London was, as the all-caps cover line declared, “The Best Place to Eat in the World Right Now.” Over the 180 pages that followed, the case was vigorously made. An A-to-Z celebration of everything from the city’s breakfast culture to its open-air markets. Nigel Slater’s paean to the likes of St. John and the River Café, places that still hold sway today. A scene report from the red-hot East End. This must be the place! But looming over all this was one word: “actually.” The implied specter of real or imagined Bad Old Days. The editors were well aware that this anointment would come as a surprise, something of a…

An eager crowd gathered to celebrate Hapa Pizza’s opening in 2023. While great pizza abounds in the Pacific Northwest, the Beaverton, Oregon, restaurant took a novel approach. Its light, char-spotted crust resembled a classic Neapolitan but was adorned with toppings like tender brisket and pho broth cooked into a heady reduction. Thanks to a constellation of creative chefs combining cuisines and regional influences, pizza culture across the US is evolving. You’ll find warmly spiced Bengali beef pizza in Plano, Texas, and pies served with al pastor and a sidecar of pineapple in Cleveland, Mississippi. Our cultural obsession with dough reached a fever pitch during the pandemic and “brought new pizza makers from non-Italian or non-white backgrounds into the game,” according to Adam Kuban, a writer who has been making pizza…