Pat Francis, Recipe Tester

A list of all the recipes Pat Francis has tested.

Two white plates of Italian salad made with iceberg, tomatoes, red onion, and Parmesan.

Italian Salad

The perfect excuse to justify the return of iceberg lettuce to your life.

Sticky pecan bits piled on a white platter.

Sticky Pecan Bites

These one-bite indulgences, mini-sticky rolls of sorts, are the fastest way we can think to get a caramel-y, buttery, nutty sticky bun fix. Are you in?

A cast-iron skillet with four cooked chicken apple sausages inside.

Chicken Apple Sausage

Seriously, it’s so easy to make your own sausage. Insanely easy. And holy heck, does it taste phenomenal. No meat grinder required.

A red bowl with Christmas Eve calamari--calamari, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes in a tomato sauce.

Christmas Eve Calamari

The much-ballyhooed Italian Christmas classic, Feast of the Seven Fishes, stars one fish in Domenica Marchetti’s home. Calamari. And it’s the centerpiece of her Christmas Eve dinner.

A pork loin roast, tied and seasoned with salt and pepper, on a foil-lined sheet pan with a wire rack.

Pork Loin Roast

Just like what your grandma would put on the table for Sunday night dinner. (Don’t you love how food instantly transports you through time?!)

Spicy Honey Lime Chicken

This easy-peasy marinated grilled chicken with sweet and spicy honey lime sauce is going to be on regular rotation at our dinner tables. We’re betting it will be at yours, too.

A red bowl filled with creamy sun-dried tomato and spinach pasta with a red cloth napkin on the side.

Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

This creamy vegetarian pasta dish, made with rigatoni, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and lemony ricotta, is on the table in just 30 minutes. Sounds like a weeknight winner to us.

Two highball glasses filled with watermelon Moscow mule and topped with a mint sprig. A bowl of ice, watermelon and lime wedges on the side.

Watermelon Moscow Mule

If you’re a fan of the classic mule, made with vodka, ginger beer, and lime, then you’re gonna love the addition of fresh watermelon and mint to it.

A patterned bowl filled with lemony fettuccine alfredo on a white and gold plate with a glass of water and dish of Parmesan on the side.

Lemony Fettuccine Alfredo

This is as indulgent as a quick weeknight pasta dish can get with its creamy and rich (though not too rich) sauce punctuated with the lilt of lemon.

A cast-iron skillet filled with stir-fried beef with garlic sauce and a blue and white oven mitt on the side.

Stir-Fried Beef with Garlic Sauce

If you love chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, then give this beef variation a try. Gently seared top sirloin steak is tossed in a creamy garlic sauce for an easy comfort meal.

A large chocolate chip skillet cookie topped with ice cream with four spoons resting inside.

Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

A ginormous, warm, gooey, chocolatey cookie baked in a single skillet so there’s no waiting for batch after batch to come out of the oven.

Two ground chicken meatballs on slider buns with a toothpick skewered through them.

Ground Chicken Meatballs

These subtly flavored, relatively healthful (shhhh!) sliders are the sleeper hit at The Meatball Shop. Not hard to understand why.

A muffin tin filled with 12 baked egg and toast cups

Baked Egg and Toast Cups

There’s no excuse for skipping breakfast with these convenient egg and toast cups that combine eggs, cheese, and toast into a handheld bite.