30 Recipes to Make in September

The key to these simple baked apples from Spanish winemaker Álvaro Palacios is using a delicious drinking wine, like white Rioja.

In 2018, Food & Wine named this recipe, from cookbook author Marcella Hazan, one of our 40 best recipes ever. The simplicity of the preparation is masked by the volume of the flavors, which come to life with the aid of oregano, lemon juice, and olive oil.

"It's a tradition for winemakers to bake bread with grapes to celebrate the harvest," says David Page. Each fall, he uses his wood-burning oven to make this crusty flatbread studded with creamy crumbled blue cheese and sweet table grapes.

Chef Matthew Accarrino uses fig slices to top this skillet-baked clafoutis. Topped with port-infused whipped cream, this modern take on a classic French dessert works just as well for an after-dinner treat as it does a Sunday brunch substitute for pancakes.

Take advantage of the last summer tomatoes by making chef Dan Kluger’s simple but deeply satisfying salad. He uses the oil from the toasted nuts to mix a vinaigrette you’ll want to hang onto all season.

When the weather starts cooling down, crostata is a great way to get your pie feet wet. Food & Wine Culinary Director-at-Large Justin Chapple uses store-bought puff pastry as the base for this beautiful apple-ginger version.

Pre-salting the chicken makes for savory flavor throughout and helps crisp up the skin. Browning the butter adds nutty depth to the sauce; a flourish of sumac and Aleppo—though not fresh ingredients—adds a fresh, bright flavor to the finished dish.

For his zippy version of coleslaw, F&W’s Justin Chapple swaps the cabbage for a mix of sweet and tart apples—Gala, Honeycrisp, and Granny Smith—and then tosses them with a creamy, Tabasco-laced dressing.

Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida-Nakayama give tender, marbled grilled Wagyu a hit of savory, lightly sweet flavor from the roasted fig miso sauce. Use leftover sauce to slather on ribs before grilling. If fresh figs are not available, use frozen figs rather than dried. Just make sure to thaw them beforehand for the best texture.

Thin apple and ham slices are rolled together and set in a tender, herby custard sprinkled with sharp white cheddar. For a quicker weeknight dinner, use a frozen 9-inch deep-dish pie shell, blind baked according to package instructions.

This rustic chicken stew is seasoned with a carefully toasted mix of seeds and spices, which are ground into a coarse paste with roasted tomatoes and tomatillos. Stirred into the stew toward the end of the cooking process, the paste both thickens and seasons this warming fall dish.

The barely-there binder in the batter makes for incredibly lacy, crispy fritters. Be sure to cook them gently over medium heat so they cook through and crisp up without burning.

This soup uses no broth or water; tomatoes form the entire base. Crispy ham and fresh mint offset the acidic sweetness of those tomatoes. If you cannot find rosa de Barbastro tomatoes, use the juiciest, ripest tomatoes at the market.

At La Granja resort in Ibiza, Spain, the cooking is all about the gorgeous vegetables overflowing from the property’s garden. In September, when produce is at its peak, the resort’s chef, José Catrimán, says to treat it simply. Here he gives fennel and plump tomatoes a quick char and a drizzle of vinaigrette for a no-fuss side dish that’s ready in 30 minutes.

Carla Hall’s take on Bahamian cracked conch yields tender, extra-crispy shrimp with the help of a rolling pin to flatten and tenderize the flesh. Hold the shrimp by the tail when “cracking” them to make sure the tail doesn’t separate from the rest of the meat.

Be sure to heat the tortillas in a hot skillet before stuffing them with the ricotta-kale mixture. Warming them up first makes them more pliable and less likely to break during the stuffing and cooking process. Opt for high-quality organic yellow corn tortillas; they tend to be chewier and more satisfying when fried.

Use a less expensive clover honey for the rosemary-infused honey here. Heating the honey will release much of its fragrance as it takes on the floral, piney taste of rosemary. Use leftovers in cocktails or with a cheese plate.

For this sheet pan dinner, use Honeycrisp or Pink Lady apples, which hold their shape better during roasting that other varieties. Plus, their pleasant sweetness balances the intensely spiced merguez sausage.

This simple grilled dinner is all about fresh summer produce. Herbs and smashed garlic quickly infuse charred sweet peppers, capturing their heat straight from the grill.

With so many enticing options on the menu at Flood’s in Portland, Maine, it’s easy to make a colossal mistake: overlooking the griddled chicken. Served on a sea of buttery polenta with swirls of umami-charged sauce made with chicken stock fortified with wings, herbs, and white wine, this is the dish worth recreating at home.

Baking pumpkins whole traps steam inside the vegetable, resulting in a lush, velvety pumpkin purée and making the skins easy to remove. A simple reduction of dry white wine mingles with butter to balance the sweetness of the pumpkin. The recipe was one prepared by Copenhagen chef Christian F. Puglisi at a week-long culinary retreat at Rocca delle Tre Contrade in Sicily.

At his Philadelphia restaurant, chef Greg Vernick treats broccoli like a steak, roasting it at a high temperature on a preheated pan to achieve a lightly charred crust. Cooked on the same pan, umami-packed tomatoes blend up into a super-quick sauce enriched with just the right amount of butter.

Added just minutes before serving, thinly sliced squash melts into the pasta without losing its shape and texture. Use a mandoline to achieve wafer-thin slices.

With filling options more numerous than their flaky layers, Danish have legions of fans across the globe. This upgrade on the classic cream cheese filling stars a sweet and savory tango of buttery miso-enriched caramel brushed over wafer-thin slices of apple.

Tempering the toppings in hot oil, a technique known as making a tadka, brings out their flavors and is the perfect counterpoint to the cooling yogurt in this simple, comforting dish. Be sure to use plain whole-milk yogurt, not a strained, Greek-style yogurt, for the creamiest porridge-like texture. Food & Wine restaurant editor Khushbu Shah makes this comforting yogurt rice whenever she needs some self-care after a long trip.

This riff on the classic gin and Campari cocktail has an earthy richness courtesy of smoky mezcal. Carpano Antica Formula vermouth is full-bodied and flavored with herbs and spices, lending dry, barely sweet flavor to this Negroni. Cocchi Americano and a generous citrus garnish bring a light, citrusy bite.

Classic versions of the patty melt often include caramelized onions, but those take time, so here cookbook author Molly Stevens leans on quick-charred scallions instead. Chipotle-spiked mayonnaise adds an extra dose of lushness and a punch of smoky heat. For the cheese, semisoft cheeses like Oaxaca or Monterey Jack add a satisfying tang, but any good melting cheese works—cheddar or Swiss are perfectly delicious stand-ins.

Inspired by his travels in Jamaica, 2019 F&W Best New Chef Kwame Onwuachi shared this recipe for escovitch snapper. In Jamaica, escovitch fish—fish that’s fried and then topped with pickled, thinly sliced vegetables—is everywhere. In chef Onwuachi’s version, a garlicky marinade forms a crust as the fish cooks, adding flavor and keeping the snapper moist and tender. The pickled tangle of thinly sliced chiles, carrot, and onion­ make a punchy, crunchy topping for crispy fried whole snapper.

The farmer who raised the pigs used by Copenhagen chef Christian F. Puglisi at a week-long culinary retreat at Rocca delle Tre Contrade in Sicily broke down the racks for this roast; ask your local butcher to tackle the task for you. After an initial sear to speed up the rendering process, the well-trimmed and scored pork fat guarantees tender, juicy meat and roasts into a crisp, golden brown crust.

With its earthy sweetness and dense texture, butternut squash makes a hearty vegetable steak. At Chaval in Portland, chef Damian Sansonetti highlights its complexity with his chorizo spice mix. He blooms the blend of cumin, Pimentón, and coriander in oil to release their aromas, which provide a smoky foundation for this shoulder-season dish.