A perfect ranch dressing for all your summer eating

Ready your chicken wings, sliced tomatoes, potato salads and pizza crusts.

View in browser|nytimes.com May 24, 2024 Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Grilled chicken wings, hot slaw, hot dogs and plenty of ranch By Sam Sifton Good morning. There's always something celebratory about Memorial Day weekend, even though it's meant to be a somber affair, honoring those who have given their lives in service to the nation. We raise our flags high, but also our grilling tools, our string lights over the yard (or around the railings of the fire escape), our hopes for a long, pleasant summer. To eat: grilled chicken wings with ranch dressing (above) and cold sticks of celery, carrot batons, halved cherry tomatoes. Make plenty of ranch: as a dip for chips and pizza crusts, a dressing for wedges of iceberg lettuce, as a base for potato salad. Also: burgers smashed flat on a cast-iron pan set over the grill, hot dogs with pico de gallo, grilled asparagus, brats, hot slaw and strawberry spoon cake for dessert. Featured Recipe Classic Ranch Dressing View Recipe → You could freestyle, too, and cook without recipes, as we all ought to do more often as the lessons of recipes reward our attention with confidence. Say, a kale salad dressed in egg yolks whipped with olive oil and a little mustard, lots of lemon juice for sunniness, salt and pepper, with clumps of soft cheese, croutons, dried cherries, roasted cashews and chunks of apricot. You want the dressing emulsified, on the thicker end of runny, and all of the other ingredients in balance. You'll figure it out. It's great with steak, fried chicken cutlets or all on its own. Maybe some shrimp tacos as well? (With guacamole? Sure!) Jerk chicken with pickled bananas? Grilled tofu salad? Definitely some buttermilk pancakes for breakfast on one of the days, and a mortadella sandwich with ricotta and pistachio pesto to follow a few hours later. The point, on a long weekend that heralds the start of a new season, is to cook with the intention of delivering pleasure as much as sustenance, to celebrate the delicious even as we honor those who have made delicious possible. There are many thousands more recipes suited to a national holiday waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. You need a subscription to access them, it's true. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. If you haven't done so already, would you please consider subscribing today? Thanks extremely. Should you find yourself flummoxed by our technology, do reach out for help. We're at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you, I promise. If you'd like to pay a compliment to my colleagues, feel free to write to me directly. I'm at foodeditor@nytimes.com. I cannot respond to every letter. But I read every one I receive. Now, it's nothing to do with fresh peas or a crown roast of pork, but I fell upon the Australian novelist Peter Temple's 1996 novel "Bad Debts," the first in his four-part mystery series about a lawyer named Jack Irish, and I'm glad I did. It begins: "I found Edward Dollery, age 47, defrocked accountant, big spender and dishonest person, living in a house rented in the name of Carol Pick. It was in a new brick-veneer suburb built on cow pasture east of the city, one of those strangely silent developments where the average age is 12 and you can feel the pressure of the mortgages on your skin." Onward! A must-read: Dan Barry, in The Times, on the misery and disappearance of a mentally ill young man named Thomas Rath, in Ithaca, N.Y. Also: Hanif Abdurraqib in conversation with André 3000, in The Bitter Southerner. Finally, it's the birthday of the king of ska, Prince Buster, who died in 2016 at 78. Here's his "Al Capone," music for grilling. Listen to that and I'll see you on Sunday. ADVERTISEMENT IN THIS NEWSLETTER Jim Wilson/The New York Times Buffalo Chicken Wings By Mark Bittman 45 minutes Makes 4 to 6 servings Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. Hot Dogs With Pico de Gallo Recipe from Tanya Sichynsky Adapted by Genevieve Ko 30 minutes Makes 4 servings Ryan Liebe for The New York Times Hot Slaw Recipe from Star Vue Drive-In Theater Adapted by Emily Cochrane and Cathy Lo 25 minutes Makes About 8 cups slaw  Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Colin King. Jerk Chicken With Pickled Bananas Recipe from Shaun Lewis Adapted by Gabrielle Hamilton 1 hour, plus marinating Makes 6 servings Kelly Marshall for The New York Times Shrimp Tacos By Yewande Komolafe 35 minutes Makes 4 Servings David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Grilled Tofu Salad By Kay Chun 40 minutes Makes 4 servings Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Carrie Purcell. Strawberry Spoon Cake By Jerrelle Guy 30 minutes, plus cooling Makes 4 servings Sign up for the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter Fresh dinner ideas for busy people who want something great to eat, with NYT Cooking recipes sent to you weekly. Get it in your inbox Sign up for The Veggie newsletter Tanya Sichynsky shares the most delicious vegetarian recipes for weeknight cooking, packed lunches and dinner parties. Get it in your inbox ADVERTISEMENT Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Cooking from The New York Times. To stop receiving Cooking, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. 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