Recipes By David Tanis
753 recipes found
Creamy Leek and Parsnip Soup
This soup has a kind of quiet charm. Whizzed until creamy in a blender, it is a happy marriage of silky leeks and earthy parsnips — think leek and potato soup, but with more depth of character. It’s very good made with water instead of broth; sautéing the leeks and parsnips very slowly, to concentrate flavor before adding liquid, is the key to success.
Butter-Steamed Broccoli With Peppery Bread Crumbs
Here is an easy, elegant broccoli dish. If you wish, make the crumbs by pulsing cubes of day-old French bread in a food processor, but really any type of bread crumbs will do.
Italian Almond Cookies
These delectable almond cookies are made with just a few ingredients. Though they’re typically Sicilian, similar versions are found all over Italy. A bit like macaroons, they are crisp on the outside, with a perfumed chewy interior. They may be baked plain, decorated with candied fruit or whole almonds, or made into thumbprint cookies, filled with a spoonful of good jam. Ideal to bake in advance, these cookies keep well for several days, ready to serve at a moment’s notice.
Codfish Cakes With Sweet Peppers and Onions
Codfish cakes are traditionally made with salt cod, which needs a day or two of soaking to soften and desalinate the salted fish. This version uses lightly cured fresh cod instead, and a bright mix of green herbs. These cakes are not floured or breaded — instead, they are gently fried in olive oil until golden.
Fresh Pasta With Prosciutto and Peas
Pozole Verde
In most towns in Mexico, street vendors set up food stalls on summer evenings. Head for the pozole stand for bowls of brothy pozole verde, a stew of large hominy kernels simmered with pork. As opposed to pozole rojo, made with red chiles, this lighter, herby version makes a great summer supper. Set out bowls of condiments — chopped onion, cilantro, chopped chiles, avocado and oregano — so each diner can customize. A squeeze of lime for each serving is vital.
Spring Antipasto Platter
The antipasto table in old-fashioned Italian restaurants is a sort of precursor to the modern-day salad bar, though usually far better. The idea is to let customers serve themselves (or be served by the maître d’) a few spoonsful of room temperature vegetable preparations—grilled eggplant, roasted peppers, marinated mushrooms—along with a little cheese and salumi. It’s an easy concept to adopt at home for a dinner party. Serve it buffet style, on a platter, or on individual plates as a first course. Change the vegetables seasonally; for spring use asparagus, fennel, snap peas and young onions. Choose the very freshest mozzarella, burrata or ricotta, and thinly sliced prosciutto, salame, mortadella or lardo.
Steamed Clams With Garlic-Parsley Butter and Leeks
These beautiful clams are strongly flavored with the same kind of garlicky emerald-green butter that’s used on escargots, also known as snail butter. It’s just three ingredients — butter, garlic and parsley — so how you handle them matters: For an intense green color, use a food processor to chop the parsley as finely as possible. This is meant to be a small first course, just four or five clams per person, but feel free to increase the quantities for larger servings or to serve as a main course.
Pork and Green Chile Tacos
The best taco consists of a warm corn tortilla with a spoonful or two of savory filling. That’s it! If you’re feeling extravagant, add a drizzle of salsa or crema, maybe a sprinkling of queso fresco, a slice or two of jalapeño. Here, the filling is pork simmered with tomatillos, green chiles and spices, an exquisite mixture even if it’s gone in three bites. (Make extra!)
Phyllo Pastry With Fresh Figs and Ricotta
For an impressive dessert, try these flaky phyllo pastries, which are not at all difficult to make. Form little packages of phyllo leaves brushed with butter, add a smear of sweetened ricotta and top them with ripe figs cut into star shapes. Lightly sugared, baked and drizzled with honey, they are a cross-cultural pleasure, almost like a French tartlet, but with Middle Eastern undertones. Each pastry requires just one sheet of dough. Any remaining leaves can be carefully wrapped and refrozen.
Rhubarb Sorbet
Blend your own Rhubarb sorbet. It has the slight astringency of rhubarb and a delicate pink hue. A little Meyer lemon juice seems to bring it all together.
Roasted Coconut Carrots
Carrots don’t have to be boring or lackluster. Roasting, which captures the carrots’ natural sweetness, is emphasized here with the aromatic sweetness of coconut oil. Cilantro, mint, jalapeño and lime ensure there nothing one-dimensional about this dish at all. Chop the herbs just before serving for the freshest flavor.
Corn Soup With Red Pepper Swirl
Late summer is when corn and ripe peppers collide in the market. A well-seasoned purée of roasted red pepper swirled into this luscious soup makes a dramatic contrast to the corn’s sweetness.
Shave Ice with Fresh Berry Sauce
Top your frozen treats with berry sauce from scratch. Many centuries later, shave ice and snow cones are still popular, especially with children, mainly for the sugar rush.
Flaky Chicken Hand Pies
Everyone falls for the homey appeal of chicken potpie. This fold-over version made with buttery puff pastry takes the concept up a notch for an elegant lunch or supper. Store bought pastry makes it easy. You can do the cooking in stages, and even freeze the pies (either baked or unbaked) for a future meal. Serve with a green vegetable or leafy salad.
Baked Spinach Rice
A favorite family casserole, updated. My mother served this as a side dish for company. I have adapted it, using fresh spinach and other embellishments.
Butter-Stewed Radishes
Though we think of them as part of a crisp raw crudité platter, radishes are delicious cooked. Cooked radishes taste like young turnips, which makes sense, since they are related botanically. Simple to cook, they should be quickly simmered in a small amount of water with a knob of good butter and a little salt. Red radishes turn a dainty pink.
Roasted Squid With Chorizo and Pimentón
Everyone knows about fried calamari, but pan-roasted is a different beast entirely. This easy technique begins on the stovetop and finishes in a hot oven. In less than 10 minutes, you have savory roasted whole-body squid, made spicy with Spanish chorizo and a dash of pimentón, crisp on the outside and juicy and tender in the middle. Eat with a knife and fork or slice into rings for a warm salad.
Spicy Steak and Watercress on a Roll
Serve these little steak sandwiches with drinks. Horseradish, thinly sliced jalapeño and peppery watercress all supply a pleasant kick, tempered by sweet butter and sour cream.
Garbanzos and Greens with Chorizo
Farro Pasta With Peas, Pancetta and Herbs
This quickly made, exceedingly delicious recipe is a springtime celebration of peas: snow peas, sugar-snap peas and garden peas, all freshly shucked. (Of course, you can use only one kind, if you prefer.) A touch of pancetta adds a salty umami to the peas' sweetness. Good ham or thick-sliced bacon also work, and, for a vegetarian version, you can use roughly chopped green olives. Here, the rustic, nutty flavor of whole-grain farro pasta provides a lovely contrast. Look for dried farro spaghetti or, if you can find them, fresh farro pappardelle or fettuccine. But if farro pasta is unavailable, whole-wheat or buckwheat noodles are also quite pea-friendly.
Red Wine Spaghetti With Pancetta
An easy pasta, and a good one for every cook’s repertoire, this dish — known as “drunken” pasta, spaghetti ubriachi (or all’ubriaco) or pasta alla chiantigiana — requires few ingredients: red wine, onions, olive oil and grated pecorino. It can be made without meat, but usually it contains a small amount of pancetta, guanciale or Italian sausage. Well-seasoned and hearty, red wine spaghetti makes a fine impromptu meal.
Pappardelle With Pancetta and Peas
The very notion of buttery noodles and fresh sweet peas is enough to make anyone swoon. As a meal, it is the essence of simplicity. But no one will complain if there is also a whisper of new green garlic, a dab of herby pesto and a dollop of ricotta. Oh, and a touch of lemon zest. Add tender mustard greens and a few bites of pancetta or bacon to round it all out.
Sautéed Lamb Chops With Ramps, Anchovy, Capers and Olives
Wild spring ramps are an earthy aromatic twist to this otherwise traditional approach to lamb chops. But you can just as easily use minced garlic or young green garlic shoots from the farmers' market. Any of these pungent alliums harmonize with the other bold ingredients. The anchovy mellows, melting into the chunky sauce, and the flavorful, meaty olives, briny capers and crushed red pepper keep everything lively, along with a squeeze of lemon.