Weeknight
Recipes
Crisp rice cakes and sausage in a ketchup glaze
Rice cakes fried until they crackle, then lacquered in ketchup and miso with the sausage.
A full course of Italian penicillin
Chicken soup's glamorous Italian cousin, with a spicy crumb and a cold lemon dollop.
Harissa shrimp broiled over a tray of greens
The greens go in first with half a cup of water, and the shrimp only arrive once the broiler takes over.
Salt and pepper dumplings straight from the freezer
Frozen potstickers and green beans, tossed at the last second in salt, sugar and more black pepper than seems wise.
Garlic noodles the way San Francisco does them
Two heads of garlic, plenty of butter and three bottles from the cupboard, done in the time it takes to boil the pasta.
Shrimp over creamed corn, and rather a lot of feta
Corn simmered soft in cream and butter, then blitzed until chunky and used the way you would use grits.
Creamy lemon spaghetti with a Sichuan pepper buzz
Crème fraîche, miso and lemon make the sauce, and toasted Sichuan peppercorns go in twice so your lips hum.
Chicken and zucchini meatballs under a feta sauce
Half the meatball is grated zucchini, which is the only reason a chicken meatball has any business being this juicy.
Dan dan noodles, served cold on purpose
The sesame and chile sauce is bossy enough to work as a dressing, so the noodles never need to be hot.
Shrimp boil with the potatoes already stuffed
One pot, no colander manners and a pierogi doing the job of every boiled potato you have ever fished out of the bottom.
Pierogi lasagna in a single skillet
Pierogies do the noodles' job and the broiler does the oven's, in forty minutes flat.
Hot cauliflower, cold salad, whipped tofu underneath
Beige upon beige upon beige, and then a cold green salad turns up and the whole thing is forgiven.
Al pastor enchiladas, no spit required
Al pastor is pork marinated in pineapple and turned on a vertical spit. This is ground pork, a can of pineapple, and a Wednesday.
Flautas with sweet potato grated into the beef
Not deep fried. Sprayed with oil and baked until the shell goes properly to pieces when you bite it.
Green pasta with a whole bunch of kale in the sauce
Twelve ounces of kale boiled soft, blended with lemon and Parmesan, and poured over pasta. It tastes nothing like a health measure.
One-pot squash and fennel pasta
The pasta cooks in the stock rather than in water, so the starch stays in the pot and turns into the sauce.
Cacio e pepe with a head of cabbage in it
Cabbage browned until it is sweet and nearly jammy, folded into the most austere pasta there is.
Chicken meatballs in red curry and coconut
Red curry paste, not curry powder. It is made from chiles, lemongrass, garlic and shrimp paste, and it is why this tastes like something.
Garlicky grains with asparagus and sausage
Whatever cooked grain is in the fridge, warmed through a skillet of browned sausage and asparagus with far too much garlic.
Peanut pork with shredded Brussels
A formula rather than a recipe. Ground meat, a vegetable shredded fine, a peanut sauce built in the empty half of the pan.
Smashburgers pressed into rye
Half smashburger, half grilled cheese and better than either for refusing to pick one.
Tater tot egg bake, cut in wedges
Part Spanish tortilla, part hash brown. Goes to the table whole and gets cut like a cake.
Cod that poaches in its own side dish
The fish never meets the pan. It settles into the chickpeas, the lid goes on, and eight minutes later it is done.
Harissa lamb on a whole tub of hummus
Hummus is not the dip here. It is the plate, swooped out wide, and everything hot lands in the middle of it.
Risotto you do not stand over
All the water at once, an occasional stir and the mascarpone at the end covering the difference. The ladle ritual is optional and always was.
Tostadas waterproofed with cheese
Melt the cheese onto the tortilla before anything wet touches it. That layer is a gasket, and it is why these are still crisp at the last bite.
Butter paneer with pierogies instead
The dumpling does exactly what paneer does in this sauce, which is hold its shape and drink.
Pierogies in a green chile moat
The chile goes around them and never over them. That is the whole rule, and it is the difference between dinner and soup with dumplings in it.
Pierogies in ancho butter
Ancho is not chipotle. No smoke at all, just dried fruit and a slow warmth, and it stains butter red.
Pierogies where the hoagie roll should be
Sausage and peppers want something crisp underneath. A roll goes soft under them and these do not.
A burger with fig in the onions
The buns finish face down in the pan the beef just left. That is where the whole argument is settled.
Hot honey chicken and a proper mash
The honey goes in with the heat off. On a hot pan it turns bitter in about the time it takes to notice.
Pizza dough, baked empty and filled after
The pockets go into the oven with nothing in them. Prosciutto has no business near that kind of heat.
Pork chops and the sauce the pan owes you
Do not wash that pan. Everything stuck to it is the sauce, and the tomatoes will fetch it out for you.
Enchiladas you never roll
The tortillas go in as ribbons, not parcels. Rolling was always the only difficult part.
Udon baked, never boiled
The noodles go into the dish raw with the sauce and drink it. Boiling them first only teaches them to drink water.
Birria without the eight-hour braise
The dip is the point, so it gets built in the pan the beef browned in. Nothing is stirred into warm water.
Gochujang chicken with a crust that shatters
Cornstarch, not flour, and a pan rather than a pot of oil. The sauce goes on after, never before.
Pork meatballs braised in chipotle and peanut
Peanut butter and chipotle in the same pan, which sounds wrong until the sauce thickens.
Roast the squash, crisp the chickpeas
Two things get browned properly and the dressing is mostly jam. It eats like dinner, not like a side.
Roasted paneer and chickpeas under three sauces
Paneer goes in the oven, not the fryer, and comes out squeaky at the middle and brown at the corners.
Falafel pressed flat under a pita
The mix goes onto the bread, then the whole thing goes face down in the pan. All crust, no fryer.
Poached chicken that won't go stringy
Ten minutes, and the water never once boils. That is the entire trick.
Five ears of corn and very little else
The onions go pink in lemon, the tomatoes stay raw, and a small pan of garlic oil is poured over the lot.
Everyday cilantro sauce
The gentle green one. Everything on the plate gets brighter and nobody loses an eyebrow.
Shawarma seasoning, seven jars into one
Earthy, red and pepper-forward. The one you already make every time you make the oven shawarma, finally written down.
Tzatziki that won't go watery
Thick, cold and loudly garlicky. The salt does the work, not your fists.
Chicken and gnocchi with a pecan gremolata
The gnocchi cook in the broth, and the pesto turns what is left into a sauce.
Chipotle-glazed chicken bites over poblano rice
Cornstarch, not flour, which is the only reason the crust survives the glaze.
Pork bánh mì rice bowls
All the bánh mì furniture, none of the bread, and a pickle that takes ten minutes.
Balsamic chicken and roast roots in spicy honey butter
The butter goes on after roasting, never before, and it matters more than it sounds.
Falafel and chicken in one pita
Feta goes into the falafel mix, not on top, and it changes the whole thing.
Gochujang-glazed meatloaf with delicata squash
Fifteen minutes of prep, and the squash needs no peeling whatsoever.
One-pot shrimp udon with lime
Nothing gets drained, so the starch off the noodles thickens the sauce for you.
Shawarma turkey meatballs over couscous
Foil over the pan for the first six minutes, which is the whole trick.
Shrimp and orange-chili noodles
Fifteen minutes. The noodles are heated in the bowl they get dressed in.
Chicken and chickpea pitas
Fifteen minutes, one pan and a tahini sauce loosened with honey.
Chickpea and yellow curry shakshuka
One pan, one jar of curry paste, and eggs dropped in at the end.
Crispy chicken cutlets in a tomato cream
The sauce is made in the frying pan after the oil comes out, not before.
Falafel and farro, everything marinated
The falafel mix needs ten minutes alone before you touch it. Rush that and it crumbles.
Harissa-honey chicken and pearl couscous
The dates go into warm water first, which is the difference between chewy and molten.
Kimchi butter shrimp
Butter and kimchi make a pan sauce in about ninety seconds. Have the rice ready.
Lemon-tahini kale, chicken and apple
A dressing with parmesan, tahini and Worcestershire in it, which is more than it sounds.
Oregano chicken with orzo and a quick tapenade
The tapenade takes two minutes and does the work of a much longer sauce.
Pomegranate beef pitas
Ten minutes of assembly, then the oven. The syrup at the end is what makes it.
Sour cherry and chipotle meatloaf
Jam in the glaze, and a warm potato salad made in the same twenty minutes.
Za'atar chickpeas on everything green
Twenty minutes, and the only heat is a pan of chickpeas going brown.
Pesto gnocchi, foil on then off
The gnocchi never see a pot of water. They steam under foil in the pesto instead.
Calabrian shrimp and orzo
The shrimp sit in garlic, capers and chile while the pasta boils. That is the whole method.
Chipotle chicken rice bake
Built on cooked rice and a rotisserie bird, which is not cheating if nobody sees.
Fried feta, kale and roast sweet potato
A salad with a fried cheese course sitting on top of it, so nobody complains.
Shrimp bowls in a green goddess mood
Fifteen minutes, one pan and a dressing with enough body to stay put.
Harissa beef pitas, tray to table
Raw beef goes into the sauce and the oven does the rest. No browning, no pan.
Lemon-caper chicken, zucchini orzo underneath
The topping is built in the chicken's own pan, which is where the flavor was.
Pork yaki udon
Thick noodles, ground pork and a sauce built from four things already open.
Shawarma chicken panzanella
Everything browns on one pan, including the bread, which is the whole trick.
Sheet-pan meatloaf and roast vegetables
Shaped free-form on a tray, not packed into a tin, and better for it.
Smoked gouda mac and cheese
Grate your own cheese for this one. The bagged stuff will let you down.
Achaar beef with curry-spiced rice
Sweet raisins in the rice, sour pickle in the beef, and a cool green sauce to referee.
Gnocchi baked with corn and a goat cheese heart
A whole round of goat cheese goes in last and collapses into the sauce.
Baked gnocchi under a monterey jack lid
The gnocchi never touch a pan. They go in raw and come out plumped.
Sausage and gnocchi baked under mozzarella
Calabrian chile and capers doing the heavy lifting while the oven does the work.
Curry peanut noodles with whatever protein you have
Four things whisked in a bowl, done before the noodles are.
Greek chickpea and couscous bowls
Chickpeas fried hard until they pop, which is the point and also the hazard.
Korean pork and rice cakes
Chewy, glossy and faster than deciding where to order from.
Lime-glazed chicken with dates and labneh
The dates go in with their soaking water and turn the pan sauce sticky.
Pierogies baked under smoky sausage
Everything goes in cold and comes out molten. No stirring, no supervision.
Hot sausage and sweet corn pasta
Corn cut straight from the cob, and hot sauce stirred in at the very end.
Half-hour pork ragù with currants and clove
A ragù in thirty-five minutes, sweetened with fruit and spiced like a Christmas ham.
Fifteen-minute tortellini in a creamy romesco
The tortellini cook in the sauce they are served in, so there is one pan.
Sausage meatballs over garlic-herb orzo
Two ingredients make the meatballs. The fennel does everything else.
Shrimp and basil fettuccine in a yellow tomato sauce
Yellow tomatoes make a sauce that tastes of tomato without the red bark.
Shrimp and charred vegetable couscous
Leave the vegetables alone in the pan and they brown. Stir them and they steam.
Beef noodles, sweet then immediately not
The sauce is three jars you already own, whisked in the time the water boils.
Turkey meatballs with sweet chili and a pickle pile
Baked, not fried, and buried under quick-pickled carrot and cucumber.
Mark's hummus
Sharper than the hummus you know, and built to hold up under everything you pile on it.
The tomato pasta worth the airfare
Three kinds of tomato, a whisper of anchovy and enough lemon to keep it honest.
Chunky chimichurri for steak night
Parsley, oregano, garlic and vinegar, chopped not blended. The steak's best friend.
Five-minute harissa yogurt
Smoky, cooling and quick. The yogurt does the calming, the harissa does the talking.
One-pot Pugliese sausage and potatoes
Peasant food that minds itself in the oven, as happy on a Tuesday as it is at a three-hour lunch.
Salsa cruda for peak tomatoes
Grated ripe tomato, garlic and basil. The less you do to it, the better it is.
Salsa verde, anchovy and all
Sharp, briny and green. The Italian one, not the tomatillo one.
Grated tomato and Calabrian chili
Grated tomato with a Calabrian kick and a lemon lift. Sauce or dip, your call.
Za'atar yogurt with sumac
Herby, tangy and green-flecked. The cooling spoon for anything off the grill.
Zhoug with a proper temper
The Yemeni green sauce that bites back. The cardamom is the tell.
Lemon pesto spaghetti, all zest and no juice
The Amalfi trick: zest steeped into the pasta water and pounded into the pesto, toasted almonds underneath, not a drop of juice anywhere.
Shrimp in a fish sauce caramel
Sugar taken to the edge of burnt, then doused with fish sauce: Vietnam's sweet-and-savory backbone, wrapped around shrimp over jasmine rice.
Al pastor gnocchi
The crisp spit-roasted edges of al pastor, faked in a skillet. Pork, charred pineapple, a green pool of salsa verde.
Crispy gnocchi and beef on whipped miso ricotta
Beef browned to rubble, gnocchi gone golden, sprouts charred nearly black, all of it dragged through a cool miso ricotta.
Brown-butter and miso gnocchi with a jammy egg
Nutty brown butter whisked with miso, crisp gnocchi, fried sage and a soft egg broken over the top.
Caesar gnocchi, the crouton situation
The crisp gnocchi is the crouton. Massaged romaine, a proper yolk-and-anchovy dressing, a blizzard of pecorino.
'Nduja gnocchi with whipped ricotta and hot honey
Spreadable Calabrian chili sausage melts into its own sauce, over cool ricotta, hot honey on top.
Poblano and sausage gnocchi with melting goat cheese
Roasted poblano, browned sausage and goat cheese gone saucy, crisp gnocchi through the middle.
Larb, but make it gnocchi
The gnocchi go back in the pan and drink a coconut glaze. Fish sauce, lime, a jungle of herbs.
Crispy spanakopita gnocchi
Spanakopita flavors massaged raw, over a cool swipe of chili-flecked yogurt.
Late-night chicken congee
Rice, stock and two idle hours. The pot does all the work.
Chicken and creamed corn, cobs and all
The cobs go in the pot. That is the whole secret.
Chicken and rice with a ginger problem
Rice cooked in ginger oil, with the bottom layer left long enough to scorch and crisp.
Slow-burn chicken with burst tomatoes
Five minutes of effort, six hours of alibi.
Red-lacquered chicken and winter vegetables
Gochujang does the glazing and a quick pickle talks back.
Fiery shrimp and blistered green beans
Green beans blistered black at the edges, shrimp barely cooked through, gochujang over both.
Roast chicken over hot-headed chickpeas
Harissa gets two minutes in a pan and a whole new attitude.
Lemon chicken in a hurry
A 1992 newspaper dish that still outruns your delivery app.
Gnocchi and asparagus with a devious butter
Crisp gnocchi in a skillet, miso butter melting into an instant sauce.
Burnished miso chicken
Miso butter under high heat. The skin turns to amber glass.
Miso mascarpone shells
Six ingredients and one pot. The audacity of it.
Preserved lemon spaghetti in a fur coat
Tomato and cream with a Moroccan secret in the pocket.
Twice-sauced chicken and carrots
The marinade is the workhorse. You are merely decorative.
Chicken and potatoes, salad included
Harissa-slicked, leek-strewn and fully dressed on one pan.
Yuzu chicken piccata
A teaspoon of yuzu kosho carries the entire pan sauce. Sake and butter do the rest.
Spaghetti squash under a Parmesan lid
The vegetable that does a passable impression of pasta, finally dressed for company.
Butternut congee with a chile-oil slick
The bowl you want when you are a little bit sorry for yourself.
Oven shawarma, no rotisserie in sight
All the spice and crisp of the street cart, none of the six-foot spit.
New Mexican hot dish, stacked not rolled
Enchiladas that gave up on rolling and lay down in layers instead.
Midnight peanut butter noodles
The one-pot bowl you make standing up, for an audience of yourself.
A ricotta pasta that begs to be messed with
Stir it in a bowl while the water boils, then fiddle until it tastes like yours.
Sheet-pan pierogies with kimchi and Brussels
Pierogies and kimchi roasted hard on one tray until both go dark and sticky.
Sheet-pan quesadillas, six at once
The whole batch crisped in the oven while you stand around doing nothing.
House dressing you'll eat by the spoon
The one you make once and then put on absolutely everything, darling. Do keep up.
The lemon-caper dressing that thinks it's a Caesar
Bright, briny and thin enough that every leaf gets some.
Tomato sauce so simple you'll die
Marcella's three ingredients, one of which you bin, and a fourth she never sanctioned.
Smothered green beans that skipped the can
Everything the beige holiday casserole wanted to be, finally.
Miso-sesame vinaigrette, good on almost anything
The jar in the fridge door you reach for without thinking.
Feta under the broiler with corn and shishitos
Feta blistered molten under the broiler, corn underneath, pickled onion cutting through.
Smashed cucumbers and chicken, no stove required
Take your aggression out on a cucumber. It is good for you both.
Bulgogi bolognese
The bulgogi marinade was a ragù all along. Soy, sugar and garlic, simmered down slow.
Roasted cauliflower under a tahini-parsley flood
The cauliflower is fine. The sauce is the reason you came.
Fire chicken under a mozzarella duvet
Buldak means fire chicken. The cheese is there to talk it down.
Crispy gnocchi with burst tomatoes
Skip the pot. Fry the gnocchi like they owe you money.
Mákos tészta, sweet poppy seed noodles
Sweet, nutty buttered noodles that Budapest sits down to for supper.
Smashed beef kebab over cucumber yogurt
Sear the beef like a scallop. Let the yogurt catch it.
Kimchi carbonara
Egg yolks, Parmesan and a fat spoon of kimchi. Carbonara with a Seoul streak.
Blistered gochujang cabbage
A whole cabbage, roasted hard until it chars and converts the skeptics.
Tahini ranch, hold the Hidden Valley
Ranch, reimagined in tahini and soft herbs. Not a bottle in sight.
Buttered noodles that bite back
Butter, garlic and gochujang reduced to a brick-red gloss. Dinner from the shelf in 25 minutes.
Grape tomatoes in kimchi drag
Snappy tomatoes in a fire-bright gochugaru dressing. Kimchi flavor without the wait.
Garlic tahini, properly loosened
Nutty, garlicky and pourable. The sauce that makes vegetables interesting.
One-pot chicken and rice with scallion-ginger sauce
Dinner steams itself under one lid while you make the only sauce that matters.
Smashed cucumbers, bruised on purpose
The salad you'll make unprompted. Bring a heavy knife.
Cheesy cabbage tteokbokki
Chewy rice cakes in a hot pink bath, under a duvet of melted cheese.
Fiery gnocchi with creamy gochujang
A vodka sauce where the vodka finally tastes of something.
Sloppy joes back from Seoul
The same sweet, sloppy sandwich, with fermented chile where the ketchup was.
Leo Maya's green chicken tacos
A borrowed green sauce, put where it always wanted to be, in a tortilla.
Gochujang chicken arrabbiata
Rome would be appalled. We are not.
Featured
Tomato sauce so simple you'll die
Marcella's three ingredients, one of which you bin, and a fourth she never sanctioned.
A ricotta pasta that begs to be messed with
Stir it in a bowl while the water boils, then fiddle until it tastes like yours.
Gnocchi baked with corn and a goat cheese heart
A whole round of goat cheese goes in last and collapses into the sauce.