When less is more

It can be exhilarating to conquer a complex dish that takes a lot of time and features several ingredients. But some recipes can be sensational even though they use only a few ingredients. These dishes are among the most satisfying, and indexed blog Food52 recently compiled a list of their favorite recipes that have 3 ingredients or less. 

Plenty of people have raved over Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce with onion and butter, featured in Genius Recipes and pictured above. Another highly rated recipe that is at once simple and ethereal is Hervé This’ chocolate mousse. It contains only chocolate and water, yet metamorphosizes through heat and whipping into a light and airy concoction. 

When you have luxurious, ripe tomatoes you don’t really need anything else, but if you add brown butter, ala Amanda Hesser’s Brown butter tomatoes, you won’t regret it. And let’s not forget that bread, at its most basic yet arguably most delicious, requires nothing more than flour, water, and yeast to form a magical loaf (although a touch of salt doesn’t hurt). 

What many of these recipes have in common, besides quality ingredients treated with respect, is time. In fact, you can consider time to be an ingredient, as it allows complex reactions to occur that allow foods to transcend their often humble beginnings. What are your favorite recipes that really sing despite a short ingredient list?