22 secret recipes

Homemade marinara sauce with crushed plum tomatoes, mushrooms, and a secret trio of steak sauce, barbecue sauce, and ketchup for unexpected depth. Vegetarian and ready in 45 minutes.

French hazelnut meringue biscuit with finely ground filberts folded into whipped egg whites. Baked hot and fast for a light, nutty base layer that's a pastry chef's secret weapon.

Fudgy brownie flavor meets chewy cookie texture in these chocolate-studded treats loaded with toasted pecans. The secret? Cocoa powder and chocolate chips team up for double-chocolate intensity.

Potato fudge uses mashed potatoes as the secret binder in a chocolate candy rolled in coconut or walnuts. A Depression-era confection that works better than it has any right to.

This old-fashioned yellow squash pie sneaks garden-fresh squash into a sweet custard filling with coconut and lemon. A Southern secret that turns summer squash into the most unexpected dessert your family will ever fight over.

DASHI STOCK is Japanese clear soup stock. There are four types made from kelp, dried bonito, shitake mushroom, or dried fish. Dashi stock is the secret of Japanese cooking. To keep this strictly vegetarian, I omit the dried bonito flakes and substitute with soy bean sprouts and or mushrooms.