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<\/p>\nBasque cheesecake is better with a deeply burnished exterior \u2014 the better to contrast with its creamy interior.<\/p>\n
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By <\/span>Sam Sifton<\/span><\/p>\n Good morning. It was one of those meals that sticks in your mind for days afterward: steamed lobsters with drawn butter and a plate of baby potatoes. I won\u2019t wax on about the lobsters. They were perfect and should have been. That\u2019s what you\u2019re paying for, when you buy lobster.<\/p>\n But, man, those potatoes. Wrinkled little golf balls of flavor, tossed in butter and fragrant with dill, with just a sprinkle of sea salt over the top for texture and a snap of minerality. You don\u2019t even need a recipe: Get the tots into boiling water and cook them into submission, just past al dente, then drain and return them to the pot over medium heat for a minute or so to dry. Hit them with butter, toss everything around until glistening, then add a handful of chopped dill and a healthy pinch of salt. Luxury!<\/p>\n We had a lovely apple pie for dessert, but if I were doing it again \u2014 and I will be doing it again \u2014 I\u2019d prefer this amazing Basque cheesecake (above) to finish, from a recipe that my colleague and bud Tanya Sichynsky adapted from Marti Buckley\u2019s 2018 cookbook, \u201cBasque Country: A Culinary Journey Through a Food Lover\u2019s Paradise.\u201d It\u2019s a really simple cake, and less stressful to put together than a New York-style one where you\u2019re worried about beating too much air into the batter, or water leaking into the pan from the water bath, or the top of the cake cracking so you have to come up with some kind of berry glaze to hide the imperfections.<\/p>\n Featured Recipe<\/p>\n View Recipe \u2192<\/p>\n I hope you\u2019ll give that a try this weekend to follow whatever you\u2019re making for dinner. If not lobster or crab, how about slab bacon tacos? I serve those with a crema that I make with scorched scallions, and sometimes pineapple salsa, but I think they\u2019d be amazing with pickled red onions. I make mine with white vinegar and, sometimes, following the lead of the Houston chef, Chris Shepherd, a splash of Mexican Coke in place of the sugar.<\/p>\n Or maybe you could make this vegetarian kofta curry from Tejal Rao? Or this creamy pasta with mushrooms and leeks from Hetty Lui McKinnon? I love these chilled soba noodles in dashi with tomatoes and corn from Yotam Ottolenghi.<\/p>\n Then, for Sunday, Yossey Arefi\u2019s brown butter maple muffins, toasty and rich, a tender taste of the coming fall season, perfect with a mug of milky tea and the promise of a lazy day\u2019s reading on the couch. (Currently, Emily Wilson\u2019s new translation of \u201cThe Iliad\u201d.) And maybe some toor dal for dinner.<\/p>\n There are thousands and thousands of recipes waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. We hope they\u2019re easy to find and easy to make, but yes, you do need a subscription to read them. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. If you haven\u2019t already, I hope you will consider subscribing today. Thanks.<\/p>\n Write if you run into trouble with our technology: cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. You can write to me, too, if you like: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I can\u2019t respond to every letter. But I read each one I get.<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s nothing to do with butter beans or long-grained rice (and I\u2019m late to it to boot), but C.J. Hauser\u2019s novel \u201cFamily of Origin\u201d is a book worth reading.<\/p>\n So is Bernard Moitessier\u2019s memoir, \u201cThe Long Way,\u201d about the first Golden Globe sailing race, a solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the world, in 1968.<\/p>\n More tardiness: I\u2019ve been riveted by the darkness that is \u201cChernobyl,\u201d on Max.<\/p>\n Finally, something new: Zach Bryan in collaboration with Bon Iver, \u201cBoys of Faith.\u201d Listen to that nice and loud, and I\u2019ll see you on Sunday.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/09\/27\/multimedia\/TS-basque-cheesecake-jcqm-copy\/TS-basque-cheesecake-jcqm-articleLarge.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBasque Cheesecake<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n