1,078 ahead recipes

Pasta shells Florentine stuffed with a spinach, mozzarella, cottage cheese, and Parmesan filling seasoned with nutmeg, baked under spaghetti sauce. A vegetarian stuffed shell dinner that's easy to assemble ahead of time.

Handy pastry dough: make-ahead pie crust with egg and vinegar that keeps two weeks in the fridge. Makes five balls ready to roll for pies, quiches, or turnovers on short notice.

Fish and crawfish mold: a creamy Louisiana-style cold seafood spread blending cooked fish, crawfish tails, cream cheese, wine, and hot sauce. Make ahead, serve on crackers at your next cocktail party.

Boozy chocolate Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake with a chiffon-light filling set with gelatin and folded with meringue and whipped cream. A make-ahead, no-bake dessert that slices like a dream.

French onion soup with onions caramelized for 90 minutes, simmered in beef stock and white wine, then topped with crusty bread and bubbling Gruyère. Made a day ahead for the deepest flavor.

New Orleans-style French Market beignets cut into squares, deep-fried golden, and buried in powdered sugar. Make-ahead yeast dough that chills overnight and improves over a week in the fridge.

Oyster-artichoke soup is a New Orleans classic with briny oysters, tender artichoke hearts, and a butter-flour roux base. Make it a day ahead so the flavors deepen overnight before reheating.

Blue and cheddar cheese ball blends sharp port wine cheddar, pungent blue cheese, cream cheese, and Worcestershire into a make-ahead party appetizer rolled in toasted walnuts. The classic holiday cheese ball.

Christmas cookie slices are old-fashioned icebox cookies: vanilla shortbread dough rolled into logs, chilled, sliced thin, and baked into crisp golden rounds. Make ahead and ready to slice for holiday baking.

Smoked salmon mousse layered with a green spinach stripe, set in a ring mold with cream cheese, sour cream, whipped cream, dill, and a hit of lemon. Elegant make-ahead party appetizer.

Toffee ice cream pie with a cinnamon chocolate-cookie crust, layers of coffee-toffee-crunch ice cream, and a rich espresso ganache sauce. Make-ahead frozen dessert that holds for two weeks.

Cilantro black bean and rice salad with garlic-lime dressing. A vegan, high-fiber make-ahead bowl that turns leftover rice into a punchy lunch. Five minutes once your rice is cooked.

Bread Provencale is a Provençal stuffed baguette filled with sausage, tomatoes, olives, capers, and basil, then chilled overnight and sliced into rounds. A make-ahead picnic classic from the South of France.

Layered black bean salad built on slow-cooked dried beans and tri-color peppers, marinated in a cooked garlic vinaigrette, then layered with sour cream and salsa. A make-ahead potluck winner.

Roman pie is a chilled, layered pasta terrine: cheesy macaroni, turkey, mushrooms, ham, and anchovy set in jellied consomme. A make-ahead Italian-style centerpiece served cool and sliced like a cake.

Classic apricot sweet simmers dried apricots with cardamom, ginger, and almonds into a fragrant, spiced compote, much like Hyderabad's qubani ka meetha. Naturally fruit-sweet, served chilled. A make-ahead Indian dessert.