Recipes By Carolina Gelen
35 recipes found
Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta
With a focus on fast flavor, this pantry pasta recipe transforms a whole jar of sun-dried tomatoes into the perfect easy pasta sauce. To make the most of the sun-dried tomatoes, the majority of the tomato oil from the jar is used to sizzle the shallots until sweet and translucent. The lively sun-dried tomato tartness is balanced by the addition of heavy cream, savory Parmesan and perfectly mild spice. Al dente cooked linguine is tossed in the vibrant orange sauce, which is strongly reminiscent of a brighter, more complex vodka sauce. A big splash of starchy pasta water ties everything together for a glossy weeknight pasta.
Braised Chicken With Cabbage and Lemon
Cabbage is the vegetable that keeps on giving: Cheap, accessible and available year-round, it can be roasted, fermented, stuffed, turned into salads, soups and more. This one-pot recipe is all about keeping things simple and letting the schmaltzy cabbage shine as it gets tender and sweet in this bright lemon and white wine sauce. First, you’ll sear chicken thighs, then add a tumble of cabbage, white wine and sliced lemon to the pot and gently simmer the mixture. To complement those tangy notes, the dish is drizzled with honey and broiled until the chicken browns, crisps and caramelizes. To soak up all those flavorful juices, pair the dish with crusty bread or egg noodles.
Caramelized Fennel Pasta
When thinly sliced fennel is thoroughly caramelized, it goes from a crisp, peppery, raw salad element to a delightfully decadent pasta sauce base. Those anise-y, licorice notes mellow as the natural sugars in the fennel caramelize. This recipe calls for pasta to be boiled until al dente (slightly undercooked) in salted water, then cooked a few minutes more with the caramelized fennel for perfectly tender pasta. To preserve most of those caramelized bits stuck to the bottom of the pot, it also calls for splashes of white wine, which capture and release them, and add pleasant acidity to the sauce. To complete the dish, the pasta, caramelized fennel and freshly chopped fennel fronds are showered with Parmesan and tossed until coated and the sauce becomes silky and glossy.
Everything Salmon With Creamy Caper Sauce
Covered in a crisp, everything-seasoning crust and served with a creamy, tangy caper sauce, this quick, weeknight salmon dinner is inspired by the beloved flavors of bagels and lox. The application of everything bagel seasoning forms a crisp crust on the fish fillets, adding deep flavor while preserving moisture. (You can use store-bought everything bagel seasoning, if you’ve got it, or create your own blend using pantry staples like sesame seeds, poppy seeds, granulated garlic and granulated onions.) Beneath the salmon, there’s a tangy cream cheese caper sauce laced with a subtle hint of lemon. For a refreshing bite, typical bagel and lox toppings — red onions and tomatoes — make a refreshing salad that rounds out the dish.
Mákos Tészta (Poppy Seed Noodles)
This four-ingredient one-pot meal takes 25 minutes to complete, so it’s easy to understand its wide appeal. Freshly cooked long, flat noodles are tossed in butter (sometimes oil) with ground poppy seeds and sugar. The results are pleasantly sweet, nutty and comforting. This dish of poppy seed noodles, also known as mákos tészta in Hungarian, originated as early as the 16th century as a humble meal beloved by peasants. Its affordability and appeal caused it to quickly grow in popularity until it was adopted across Hungary and certain parts of Eastern and Central Europe. The dish is enjoyed as a sweet main course, served on its own, or paired with a soup or salad.
Seared Chicken Thighs With Cherry Tomatoes and Olives
In this one-pan meal, freshly seared chicken thighs simmer in their own schmaltz alongside bursting tomatoes and salty olives. Those sweet and bright tomato juices serve as a starting point for a delicate sauce. To make the most of the leftover olive brine, this recipe uses it in lieu of salt to season the sauce, as well as to deglaze the pan and extract the rich flavors that stick to the bottom when you sear chicken. Tarragon sprigs add their irresistible peppery aroma. If tarragon is impossible to find, fresh rosemary or marjoram make equally tasty alternatives.
Salmon With Freshly Grated Tomatoes and Butter
With a minimal list of ingredients and prep, this light, flavorful salmon and tomato dish is an excellent contender for the perfect summer dinner. When tomato season is in full swing, this one-pan recipe makes the most of all those ripe, tender, bursting tomatoes. For fresh tomato flavor, the tomatoes are coarsely grated, yielding a delicate, low-effort sauce that is sweet and tangy, an ideal accompaniment for buttery seared salmon. Simple aromatics like freshly grated garlic, black pepper and thyme sprigs are simmered alongside the fish to round out the flavor. A piece of crusty toast to absorb all those juices completes the meal, along with an optional glass of white wine.
Lentil Tomato Soup
This tomato soup recipe elevates the beloved classic with the use of brown butter and protein-packed lentils, which make this soup even more satiating than other versions. The nutty brown butter brings depth and highlights the sweetness of the tomatoes. The milk solids present in the butter caramelize as the butter cooks, resulting in its characteristic taste. By introducing heavy cream — therefore more milk solids — to the butter browning process, the final result is a fortified brown butter that will bring more richness and depth to the tomato soup. Serve with crusty sourdough toast or grilled cheese, tomato soup’s soulmate.
Garlicky Alfredo Beans
This five-ingredient recipe transforms canned beans into a no-fuss, comforting meal that’s easy to whip together at the end of a long day. The beans are doused in a creamy, garlic-infused sauce that’s inspired by Alfredo, and topped with crunchy garlic chips. Choosing the right beans for this recipe might feel intimidating, but the most important thing to remember is texture. Beans that hold their shape and won’t immediately disappear in the sauce are ideal: butter (or lima), Great Northern or garbanzo beans will make great contenders for this recipe. When pan-frying the sliced garlic into chips, you’ll want to mix attentively for the best results, since the delicate garlic chips can burn very easily. Crunchy and flavorful, they’re worth the effort.
One-Pot Lamb Meatballs With Tomato, Fennel and Orzo
Tangy tomato sauce, hearty lamb meatballs and comforting orzo come together in one pot to create a perfectly balanced weeknight meal in just 45 minutes. Fennel stalks and fronds are often discarded, but with the right methods, they can elevate a dish. This recipe showcases the versatility of fennel in three different ways: fronds, as a garnish, for their fresh pepperiness; sautéed fennel bulbs in the tomato sauce, for their texture and sweetness; and stalks in the meatballs, for their herbaceous notes. Though this recipe benefits from the use of fennel fronds and stalks, if your grocery store only carries stalkless fennel bulbs, this recipe will still be a success.
One-Pot Cabbage Roll Soup
Instead of tightly rolling and simmering dozens of cabbage rolls for hours, this recipe takes all the ingredients of a cabbage roll — meat, rice, cabbage and more — and turns them into a hearty weeknight meal. There are numerous ways to make cabbage rolls, therefore this recipe comes with multiple routes: The first method counts on sauerkraut (a tangy, fermented cabbage) for its main flavor source. The sauerkraut brings brightness and complexity to the final dish, but if sauerkraut is not a realistic option, fresh cabbage and a splash of vinegar offer a reliable alternative, with the vinegar replicating that pleasant sauerkraut brininess (see Tip). Taking the time to properly brown the meat, toast the rice, as well as properly seasoning the broth with salt will ensure maximal flavor in the final dish.