Elizabeth Passarella

Elizabeth Passarella is the author of the essay collection Good Apple and a contributing editor at Southern Living. A former editor at Real Simple and Vogue, she has spent more than 20 years writing about food, travel, home design, and parenting in outlets including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Parents, Martha Stewart Weddings, Coastal Living, Airbnb, and The Kitchn. Elizabeth grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and now lives with her husband and three children in New York City.
This Is the Best Way to Peel an Apple
Use the vegetable peeler to keep as much flesh on your apple as possible when removing the skin.
Elizabeth Passarella
Nov 11, 2022
What Are Pie Weights? And When Should I Use Them?
Tips from The Kitchn
You probably have a suitable alternative in your pantry already!
Elizabeth Passarella
Oct 28, 2020
25 of Our Favorite Foods to Pack for the Beach
Don't forget the treats.
Elizabeth Passarella
Jul 10, 2020
5 Uses for Half-and-Half (Other than in Your Coffee)
Try one of these five ways to use up a little or a lot of half-and-half.
Elizabeth Passarella
Jun 26, 2020
What to Do with Overripe Fruit Like Peaches, Cherries & More
And possibly make them even tastier!
Elizabeth Passarella
Jun 15, 2020
Everything You Need to Know to Get Rid of (and Prevent!) Pantry Bugs
Cleaning Tips from The Kitchn
Some grain beetles can crawl AND fly! Here's how to prevent them and get rid of them (in case you have them).
Elizabeth Passarella
Jun 15, 2020
The Best Place to Buy Cedar Planks for Grilling
Shopping
Our answer might surprise you!
Elizabeth Passarella
Jun 8, 2020
Recipe: Chocolate Chip and Toffee Shortbread Cookies
I got this recipe from a friend of the family. Apparently, these little shortbread cookies were a huge hit in the teachers’ workroom at my friend’s elementary school. I figured that any humble cookie that can wow a bunch of teachers — who’ve likely eaten more cookies in their day than they can count — was worth trying. And you know what? Yup, totally worth it. These are great cookies for people who don’t like too-sweet cookies.
Elizabeth Passarella
Dec 18, 2018
Recipe: Farfalle with Cauliflower and Toasted Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs usually lie like a lazy blanket on top of pasta or casseroles. For this quick dish, I toasted them up in flavored olive oil, tossed them with roasted cauliflower, and let them shine as a main ingredient. Cauliflower and breadcrumbs alone can be bland, so I added flavor by first roasting the cauliflower in the oven. Do be sure to take the time to cut the cauliflower into tiny, bite-sized florets.
Elizabeth Passarella
Dec 9, 2015
Recipe: Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Grapes, Hazelnuts, and Parmesan
I love stuffing chicken breasts. I’ve given you my recipe for roasted chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and fresh garlic, one of my favorites, and I consider this one a fall-inspired version. The technique is easy, with a big wow payoff, and I love the combination of a simple, buttery skin with a complex filling. The sweet, salty, nutty mess that spreads out over your plate as you eat is pure perfection.
Elizabeth Passarella
Sep 30, 2015
Recipe: Light & Easy Broccoli Salad
The result is easy, lightened-up, and still oh-so-crunchy.
Elizabeth Passarella
Sep 10, 2015
Recipe: Penne with Acorn Squash and Pancetta
This started out as a way to use up some squash that had been sitting around for a while, and it turned into one of the best dishes I’ve made in a long time — easy, full of flavor, and great warmed up the next day. When I thought of making this a hearty main dish, pancetta seemed like a natural partner for roasted squash. There’s a salty-sweet thing going on, and the textures (chewy pancetta; soft, tender squash; perfectly al dente pasta) were well-balanced.
Elizabeth Passarella
Sep 2, 2015
Recipe: Cold Peanut Sesame Noodles with Chicken
We don’t need any reminders that there’s a serious heat wave washing over much of the country right now. How about I just give you something cool to serve for supper? Cold may be a strong word to use for this dish — it’s really more room temperature if you serve it right away, but it tastes great leftover, straight out of the fridge, so change the name as you wish. Chilly Peanut Sesame Noodles just didn’t sound quite right to me.
Elizabeth Passarella
Aug 20, 2015
Recipe: Fresh Peach Frozen Yogurt
Frozen yogurt is not ice cream. (It’s not even a substitute, no matter what TCBY says.) It’s another dessert entirely, and when we stop comparing it to its richer cousin, we enjoy it way more. This one is just about the best I’ve ever made, and it’s so, so easy. The extremely sweet, extremely juicy peaches that had been ripening on my countertop may have helped out quite a bit with that “best I’ve ever made” announcement.
Elizabeth Passarella
Aug 19, 2015
Breakfast Recipe: Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Corn, Goat Cheese & Tomatoes
We’re in the wonderful stage of summer when sweet corn and perfectly ripe tomatoes are taking over the markets. There are so many ways to take advantage of this, but my favorite is breakfast. If you haven’t tried corn and eggs together yet, maybe this will entice you. This meal could be breakfast or dinner. In fact, I ate it for lunch, and it really does take just 10 minutes to make — could be less, depending on how thick your tomato slices are.
Elizabeth Passarella
Aug 6, 2015
5 Tips to Make Your Chopped Salad Even Better
What is it about a chopped salad that’s irresistible? If there’s one on a restaurant menu, I’ll almost always order it — either for the fact that I can scoop up perfectly proportioned bites with every ingredient represented or that they’re so pleasingly organized. As for what makes a good one, I have a few ideas. This isn’t one of those salads you can just pile some greens, veggies, and your favorite toppings on a plate and dive in.
Elizabeth Passarella
Jul 30, 2015
Recipe: Italian Chicken Salad Sandwiches
This is chicken salad for the mayonnaise-hating crowd — although even if you happen to think mayonnaise is perfectly delightful, this is a nice alternative. It’s got crunch, color, and a tangy Dijon vinaigrette. Plus, it goes really well with some slices of bacon. Just sayin’. I like to roast bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, and then shred the meat. It’s easy, and the skin keeps the meat moist and flavorful.
Elizabeth Passarella
Jul 28, 2015
Recipe: Sausage Pizza with Crispy Kale Chips
I love making pizza dough, and it’s not nearly as hard as you think. But lately I’ve been using store-bought dough, and to be honest, it’s pretty hard to beat. In fact, this pizza is so good (and green! Look at all that kale!) that I haven’t ordered a pie in two months. And I live in New York, people. Store-bought dough qualifies this pizza as a six-ingredient recipe, although you’d only need eight to make your own dough from scratch.
Elizabeth Passarella
Jul 6, 2015
Recipe: Sour Cherry-Almond Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks
I think we can all agree there’s no way we could get through summer without ice cream. Or in my case, I couldn’t get through one week, let alone the three hottest months of the year. So, here’s a sweet treat to cool you down: a chocolate-cherry ice cream that’s tinted just the tiniest hint of pink. I’ve mentioned my love of chocolate and cherries together before, so it didn’t take a lot of imagination to come up with this recipe.
Elizabeth Passarella
Jun 25, 2015
Recipe: Squash and Onions with Brown Sugar
This is, hands down, my favorite way to eat yellow summer squash. And I realize this might be due to a nostalgic predilection for Southern-style vegetables (i.e., cooked until they “surrender”), but trust me: As far as savory-sweet combinations go, this is one of the best. Sautéeing squash and onions in some butter and brown sugar brings out the natural sweetness of both vegetables. There are times for keeping squash bright and slightly crisp, but this is not one of them.
Elizabeth Passarella
Jun 24, 2015
Recipe: Wild Rice and Mixed Greens Salad
It’s nice to have a few salad recipes that can serve as main dishes, and the rice in this one makes it especially filling. A big forkful of tender leaves with little piles of rice, sweet dates, and crunchy nuts made the perfect combination of flavors and textures. This was a tough recipe to name. I thought about calling it my “wild rice, chickpea, date, cashew, celery, and mixed green salad,” but decided that something simpler might be best!
Elizabeth Passarella
Jun 9, 2015
Recipe: Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Banana Chunks
There is approximately one serving of this left in my freezer. I almost ate it for lunch. But if my husband came home and found out I finished it without saving him one last bite, there’d be issues. Ice cream capable of causing marital discord: worth checking out, no? Many of you who have taken a spin with the famous One-Ingredient Ice Cream have mentioned how good it is with peanut butter mixed in. Peanut butter and bananas are just a classic combination.
Elizabeth Passarella
Jun 5, 2015
Recipe: Greek Chicken Pasta with Olives and Feta
There’s more to this pasta dish than just chicken, olives, and feta. There are some artichoke hearts, fresh oregano, and a lemon vinaigrette — a whole mess of salty, tangy flavors. The idea for this recipe started with a leftover container of olives. I was imagining a pasta that mimicked a Greek salad, so we shopped for some feta cheese and a few fresh (pitted) olives to supplement the ones we had (which we had to pit — whew).
Elizabeth Passarella
Apr 21, 2015
This Make-Ahead Pancetta and Gruyère Breakfast Casserole Is a Fancy Take on Classic Ham and Cheese
It's got pancetta, cheese, eggs, and unending delight for everyone.
Elizabeth Passarella
Apr 11, 2015
Recipe: Fried Eggs & Collard Greens over Polenta
Breakfast doesn’t get much better than this. I’m talking about tangles of tender collards cooked with bacon (and yes, oh yes, bacon fat), sharing a plate with soft polenta and a perfectly fried egg. If you can wait a whole 10 seconds before breaking that yolk and making a total mess of the plate, you have far more willpower than me.
Elizabeth Passarella
Apr 9, 2015
Recipe: Pork Tenderloin and Onion Jam Sandwiches
The weather in New York City isn’t very spring-like just yet. But here and there we’ve had one or two warm, sunny days that have been getting me excited for picnic season in Central Park. If you’ve got good weather and are planning a meal outside, may I recommend my favorite sandwich? We love any pork sandwich, whether it’s slow-cooked pork shoulder or a roasted pork tenderloin.
Elizabeth Passarella
Apr 8, 2015
Spring Cocktail Recipe: Rhubarb Basil Cocktail
With warmer weather inching its way into New York, I felt inspired to make a fresh spring cocktail. Well, I did some experimenting, and while my first inclination was to use strawberries, I found piles of rhubarb at the farmers market — and came up instead with this lovely pink concoction. Rhubarb definitely needs to be sweetened up from its natural state, especially for a warm-weather cocktail, so I cooked it down with some sugar and made a purée.
Elizabeth Passarella
Apr 7, 2015
Recipe: Quick Strawberry Trifles
Remember these Easter egg cakes I made last week? Well, I had a container full of pound cake scraps sitting in the freezer that I didn’t want to waste, and cake pops were too laborious for a weeknight. Enter a few frozen strawberries that had been sitting around for a while, and my new favorite weeknight dessert was born. Trifles are like the garbage disposal of desserts (tasty analogy, huh?) — you can throw just about anything in them.
Elizabeth Passarella
Mar 31, 2015
Recipe: Wheat Berry Salad with Blood Oranges, Feta & Red Onion Vinaigrette
In my recent pantry reorganization, I found a bag of wheat berries I’d been meaning to use. A simple salad with some winter citrus and salty feta seemed like a good idea, and it all turned out very tasty. Light yet satisfying, this makes a perfect lunch or dinner side salad this time of year. The textures of this salad are good. There’s the juiciness of the blood oranges, a crumbly creaminess from the cheese, and the chewiness from the wheat berries.
Elizabeth Passarella
Mar 25, 2015
How To Make Easter Egg Cakes
When we were growing up, my sister and I always got Easter egg cakes on Easter. They came from a bakery and had our names across the tops in delicate icing script. I insisted on chocolate frosting, which meant mine was always a very un-Easter-like dark brown, while hers was pink or yellow. But that egg cake was The Thing in our house. Now, I see them at New York City bakeries for an unforgivable amount of money.
Elizabeth Passarella
Mar 24, 2015
Recipe: Acorn Squash Stuffed with Bread, Cheese, and Bacon
I have Dorie Greenspan to thank for this recipe. Last year, I wrote about her Pumpkin Filled with Bread and Cheese, a recipe I’ve since seen updated in Fine Cooking. Thing is, I’d rather eat squash than pumpkin — and I only needed to feed two people. So I swapped out the pumpkin for a more modestly sized acorn squash, along with a few other tweaks, to make this into a weeknight meal — including an all-important step for getting that delicious, caramelized crust on top!
Elizabeth Passarella
Mar 2, 2015
Recipe: Two-Minute Creamy Salad Dressing
Sometimes a basic vinaigrette just won’t do. Sometimes we need a velvety, creamy dressing drizzled on our greens. And yet ranch dressing can sometimes feel a little … salad-bar-at-the-steakhouse? Occasionally, yes, I love it. But this dressing, well, this has a little more ooh-la-la in its favor. And it’s so, so easy. The key to this dressing is a generous dollop of mayonnaise, which gives it body and creaminess.
Elizabeth Passarella
Feb 19, 2015
Recipe: Spinach, White Bean, and Taleggio Pizza
Not so long ago I ate dinner at Co., the New York pizza place owned by Jim Lahey (he of the Sullivan Street Bakery and No-Knead Bread). There’s a pie on the menu called The Popeye that comes with a mountain of crispy, leafy spinach on top. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it in the weeks since that dinner, so what’s a pie-loving gal to do but make her own version at home?
Elizabeth Passarella
Feb 17, 2015
Recipe: Roasted Potatoes with Bacon & Brussels Sprouts
Perfect for a cold evening.
Elizabeth Passarella
Dec 10, 2014
Recipe: Cream Cheese Danish Bread
Nothing, and I mean nothing, makes the house smell better than sweet holiday loaves just out of the oven. It’s a siren call to the kitchen, even for those of us most devoted to sleeping in on a chilly morning. These lovely loaves are made from a simple overnight dough that gets folded around a sweet cream cheese filling — essentially, cheese danishes in the form of a sliceable, shareable breakfast bread.
Elizabeth Passarella
Dec 2, 2014
Dinner Party Reminder: Put a Pitcher of Water on the Table
Whether you’re throwing Thanksgiving dinner this week, or just looking forward to cozy parties this winter, take a tip from us: Don’t forget the water! So simple, and yet we rarely take the time to do it. We make sure the wine bottle is on the table, for goodness sake, but a pretty carafe of ice water? Hardly ever. We love restaurants that leave a bottle of cold water on the table after the waiter fills our glasses.
Elizabeth Passarella
Nov 24, 2014