Recipes By David Tanis
750 recipes found
Grilled Polenta With Spicy Tomato Sauce and Fried Eggs
Provoleta (Grilled Provolone Cheese)
In Argentina, a thick slice of provoleta, a provolone-type cheese, is cooked over coals until browned and bubbling, then served as a mouthwatering appetizer with bread. It’s a bit like fondue or queso fundido but not quite as molten and melty. Typically, a large meal, or asado, of grilled sweetbreads, sausages and various cuts of beef follows, but provoleta makes a great snack with drinks, regardless of what you serve afterward. For ease of preparation, provoleta can be cooked in a cast-iron pan, under the broiler or baked in a hot oven. If you want success at cooking provoleta the traditional way, directly on the grill, leave the cheese uncovered at room temperature for several hours or overnight to dry the exterior a bit. A dab of chimichurri salsa is usually served alongside.
Ramp Omelet
Right now, my favorite combination is ramps and eggs, a particularly satisfying pairing. Sizzled in a little butter, ramps make stellar scrambled eggs, and for not much more effort, a spectacular cheese omelet.
Yogurt Raita With Chile and Mint
Farro Pasta with Nettles and Sausage
Sausage Rolls
Though the concept of sausage wrapped in pastry exists in every cuisine in one way or another, the British have claimed sausage rolls as their own. They are always welcome, especially at holiday time. Boxing Day, a national holiday in Britain, celebrates the traditional post-Christmas servants’ day off, when upper-class families were forced to fend for themselves and subsist for a day on a lavish buffet of leftover feasts from the week. Sausage rolls are often part of the spread. A pleasantly spiced homemade sausage mixture is easy to make up with a pound or two of ground pork shoulder, not too lean. They are usually made with all-butter puff pastry (often frozen store-bought, a good option); these are wrapped in a very flaky lard and butter pastry. Both the pastry and the sausage filling can be made a day ahead.
Ad-Lib Turkey Cassoulet
Bell Pepper Salad With Capers and Olives
At summer’s end, sweet peppers of every color are ripe and ready, far better than the bland supermarket hot-house varieties available year-round. Thinly sliced and dressed with an assertive vinaigrette, these peppers make an ideal first course or antipasto.
Pizza With Sweet and Hot Peppers
This pizza is in the light-handed California style, with no tomato sauce. If you prepare the dough in advance (it takes only 20 minutes or so, and can be refrigerated for several days), putting a pizza or two together for dinner is actually a breeze, arguably easier than making a pasta. Omit the sausage for a vegetarian version.
Provençal Garlic Soup With Poached Egg
Sausages With Apples and Onions
There are lots of kinds of wurst, or sausage: bratwurst, bockwurst, knackwurst, weisswurst (similar to the French boudin blanc). Bratwurst is popular the United States, and there are some new high-quality packaged supermarket brands now available, or look for other types from a butcher shop. But let’s face it: Nearly any kind of sausage will taste great paired with caramelized onions and apples fried in butter.
Simple Spicy Asparagus in a Wok
Asparagus doesn’t have to be treated as a delicate, fragile thing, napped only with butter or creamy sauces, or served plain with olive oil and salt. That’s fine for the first week or two of the season, but then it’s time to dial up the interest factor and add some spice. Asparagus actually stands up quite well to aggressive flavors. A quick toss in a hot wok with garlic, ginger and chiles doesn’t overwhelm it at all, at least if you don’t overcook the spears. Instead, the vegetable’s sweetness becomes accentuated by contrast.
Polenta and Sausages for a Crowd (Polenta Alla Spianatora)
Picture a golden circle of polenta, spread on a large board or platter, and topped with a rich tomato-y sausage-laden ragù. It’s a traditional, somewhat theatrical way to eat polenta in Northern Italy, and it makes quite an impression when it’s brought to the table. Known as polenta sul tavola or polenta alla spianatora, it is usually served with forks but no plates, with guests gathered around the table for a very casual family-style meal. You can make it when there’s nothing in the house to eat except cornmeal and canned tomatoes, plus an onion or two.
Shrimp With Hot Fennel Sausage and Polenta
Shrimp with hominy grits is a favorite in the American South. Polenta stands in for this spicy Italianate version, fortified with hot fennel sausage and tomatoes. For the best-tasting results, be sure to cook the polenta slowly for at least 45 minutes, and try to get freshly made sausages from an Italian deli or butcher shop.
Tuna-Stuffed Piquillo Peppers
Bright red piquillo peppers from Spain come packed in a tin or jar. The little peppers are roasted and peeled, ready to be used. They can have any number of fillings, but tuna (high-quality tinned tuna) is a clear favorite. Tapas bars often have them stuffed with garlicky salt cod or slices of sheep’s milk cheese.
Bollito Misto (Italian Boiled Meats With Red and Green Sauces)
Bollito misto is the Italian version of a boiled dinner, somewhat similar to the French pot au feu, but more complex. (A New England boiled dinner pales in comparison.) The dish can be quite an extravagant affair, with many cuts of veal, beef, tongue, sausages and a fat capon. This is a simpler version, though it is still a project and easier to complete if the work is spread over two or three days. But it is a worthy adventure. Serve the broth as a traditional first-course soup garnished with tortellini or other small stuffed pasta shapes, or plain, in little cups, for sipping. Two bright sauces — one green, one red — round out the dish as condiments.
Chicken Tacos With Chipotle
For good tacos, you need fresh, hot tortillas and a zesty filling. Canned chipotle chiles will do the trick with their smoky heat; it's an easy way to get flavor fast. Look for small cans with “chipotle chiles in adobo” on the label. And Mexican groceries generally have better-quality tortillas than the ones you find in supermarkets; it's worth seeking those out and heating them gently over steam, or by toasting them in a dry cast-iron pan. You can also use this recipe with precooked chicken, which makes this already quite simple recipe as easy as falling out of bed.
Spinach Spaetzle With Bacon and Sage
Spaetzle, the delicious little German dumplings (sometimes called batter noodles), are easy to make, though it takes a bit of practice. I prefer to form them with a soup spoon, flicking tiny half-moons of batter one-by-one into the pot, or to put the batter on a board and cut off thin strips of batter with a wet knife. Many cooks use a special spaetzle-making tool that forces squiggles of the batter into a pot of boiling water. Others push the batter through the holes of a colander, but for this you need to make a slightly wetter batter. These are green spaetzle, made with spinach purée, sizzled with bacon and sage leaves. (Instead of spinach, you could add chopped herbs, but plain spaetzle are divine, too.) Spaetzle take only moments to cook and can be prepared in advance, then sautéed in butter to serve.
Apple Kuchen With Honey and Ginger
More coffeecake than dessert, this moist apple cake is pure comfort, with candied ginger, a touch of honey in the batter and a honey glaze. New crop autumn apples are wonderful to use in season, but you can make the cake year round. It will keep for several days, tightly wrapped, at room temperature.
Beet Salad With Goat Cheese Toasts
A beet salad can be spectacular if you roast your own beets, specifically fresh ones, not vacuum-packed or canned. They take at least an hour to cook so it’s a good idea to make them early, even two days in advance. Then, this tasty salad can be assembled in a few minutes. Choose any color beet, but the golden ones make an impression.
Baked-Potato-Style Red Beets
It’s fun to treat beets like baked potatoes sometimes, roasting them skin-on, and serving them with “all the fixings.” For simplicity’s sake, arrange little bowls of the usual suspects — crème fraîche or sour cream, chives, dill, butter and salt and pepper — and let the diners do the work. For special occasions, you can upgrade the presentation with a dab of caviar or trout roe.
Grilled Sea Scallops With Yellow Beets, Cucumbers and Lime
Here’s a simple bright dish that’s nearly effortless to put together. You make a sort of salad-like relish with onion, cucumber and golden beet, seasoned with ginger and lime juice. Once the scallops are grilled, you spoon the relish over and drizzle with fruity olive oil, along with a shower of chopped sweet herbs. Done and done. If sea scallops are not available, use wild shrimp or halibut or salmon fillets. It is best to cook and cool the beets in advance (even a day ahead).
Green Chile Chicken Stew
Many agree the best green chiles are grown in the Hatch Valley in southern New Mexico, so it’s great to make this delicious chicken stew in early fall when they’re are available. (Get a friend to send you some, or order them online.) But you can also make it throughout the year using frozen or canned green chiles. Though pork, beef or lamb are more traditional for green chile stew, this chicken version is a bit lighter, quicker to cook and still packs a punch. It’s not a dish for the faint of heart.
Herbed Spring Salad With Egg and Walnuts
This bright, herby, fresh-tasting salad makes a very nice accompaniment to a pan-fried breaded pork chop. Cooked beets (preferably golden) thinly sliced radishes, celery and turnips are dressed, then tossed with a mixture of zesty salad greens — use a combination of watercress, dandelion, curly endive, escarole, radicchio, mizuna, spinach, or red sorrel leaves. The components can be prepared in advance, but wait until the last minute before dressing and serving.