The Best Dishes Bon Appétit Staffers Cooked This Week

November is all about the ramp-up to holiday season, and we’re excited for plenty of cozy, comforting autumnal favorites like cranberries, root veggies, and pumpkin. In this weekly digest we’re sharing the recipes we cook for fun—outside of BA HQ—as we embrace the joys of fall cooking. Check back every Friday for more November favorites.

November 4

Festive, No-Bake Mithai

I am not a baker but I do love sweets. When it comes to mithai, I’ve been making Kaju Katli and these Salted-Coconut Ladoos on repeat. The latter can be decorated with festive sprinkles. They’re super cute and a great alternative to holiday cookies, as a dessert that doesn’t need the oven.  —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media

Spicy, Tangy Honey Dressing

Come fall and winter, radicchio is always in my fridge. I find its unapologetic attitude admirable, like someone who knows what they want, and gets it. But admittedly, you need something to tame the bitterness. Like this spicy honey dressing from Chris Morocco. Throw in some toasted hazelnuts, fluffy quinoa, and crumbled cotija, and you have a side dish to outshine the main. —Emma Laperruque, senior cooking editor

Reliably Delicious Guacamole

Everyone needs a guacamole recipe they can count on—like, for me, this one from Rick Martinez. It is limey, spicy, oniony, perfect. The toasted pepitas are marked as optional, but I say mandatory. So nutty, so crunchy, so good. Plus, who doesn’t want extra toasted pepitas around for 2:57 p.m. the next day when you are suddenly ravenous and have a meeting in three minutes? —EL

This easy guacamole recipe is best made in a Mexican mortar and pestle called a molcajete, but a bowl and a fork works fine. Just don’t rush to get it on the table. It takes a while for the avocado to absorb all the flavors you add to it. 

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Fish Pie With a Sourdough Crust

The requirements: Feed a crowd, use up an extra loaf of bread, don’t scare an 80-year-old British man with something too spicy or, worse, vegetarian. Ottolenghi’s fish pie checked all the boxes. Instead of the traditional mashed potato topping, the recipe calls for chunks of sourdough—an improvement on the original, I think, thanks to the textural contrast of the crispy-crusty bits. —MacKenzie Chung Fegan, senior commerce editor

Showstopping Lemon Meringue

Inspired and outraged by a GBBO technical challenge (the proper ratio of curd to meringue in a lemon meringue pie should be about 1:1, in my opinion), I turned to Chris Morocco’s recipe. I favor a crumbly, shortbread-like pâte sucrée instead of flaky pie crust on citrus pies, and I pressed the dough into an 11″ tart pan instead of a 9″ pie plate. The recipe made the exact right amount of lemony filling and pillowy meringue. It took mere seconds for the topping to toast (and almost burn) under the broiler, so I’m thinking of investing in a kitchen torch for future meringue shenanigans. —MF

A sky-high pie with sharp lemon filling, sweet-and-salty meringue, and shatteringly crisp crust.

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Comforting Cumin-Lamb Noodles

There are few combinations I love more than lamb and cumin. Whether it’s coating the chewy noodles at NYC chain Xi’an Famous Foods or packed into the delightful dumplings at Sally’s in Brooklyn, it’s what I eat whenever I need some flavorful comfort. This week, I’ve been satisfying my cravings at home with associate food editor Zaynab Issa’s recipe for spicy lamb noodles, which gives a massive boost to store-bought pappardelle in a dish that’s weeknight-friendly, easy to scale, and will be keeping me cozy all winter long. —Nico Avalle, digital operations associate