Recipes By Melissa Clark
1476 recipes found
Sheet-Pan Ratatouille With Goat Cheese and Olives
Cooking ratatouille on a sheet pan in the oven isn’t just easier than cooking it in a pot on the stove, it’s also better: richer and more deeply caramelized in flavor. To make it, the vegetables are slicked with plenty of olive oil, then roasted until tender and browned, their juices mingling and condensing. Toward the end of the cooking time, goat cheese and olives are sprinkled on top. The cheese melts and becomes creamy, while the olives heat up and turn plump and tangy. Serve this as a meatless main dish, with crusty bread and more goat cheese, or as a hearty side dish to a simple roast chicken or fish.
Roasted Cauliflower With Pancetta, Olives and Crisp Parmesan
Studded with salty olives, pancetta and Parmesan that gets golden and crisp at the edges, this is roasted cauliflower at its brightest and most full-flavored. You can serve the caramelized florets either as a vegetable-based main dish or a hearty side to roasted meats or fish, or big bowls of pasta. The recipe calls for using a package of finely diced pancetta that practically melts into the sauce. But if you prefer a chunkier texture, you can dice it yourself into 1/2-inch cubes, and add them with the cauliflower. Or, to make this vegetarian, just leave the pancetta out.
Sheet-Pan Cumin Pork Chops and Brussels Sprouts
In this convenient sheet-pan supper, bone-in pork chops are coated in a spicy, garlicky cumin rub before being cooked alongside brussels sprouts and sage leaves. Roasted at high heat, the sprouts get golden at their edges and tender at their cores while the sage leaves turn brown and crisp all over, almost as if you’d fried them. Feel free to double this recipe. Just use large rimmed sheet pans instead of smaller ones.
Lemony Chicken With Potatoes and Oregano
This might be the easiest roast chicken and potatoes recipe out there. Roasting lemon slices with the potatoes infuses them with a bright, zippy flavor. Then, you can eat the roasted lemon or not — the caramelized, intense flavor is for true lemon lovers only. Serve this with one or two of your favorite condiments on the side for dipping the potatoes.
Sheet-Pan Chicken With Roasted Plums and Onions
Beautiful to behold and easy to make, this sheet-pan dinner combines sweet plums and soft red onions with crisp-skinned pieces of roasted chicken. Toasted fennel seeds, red-pepper flakes and a touch of allspice add complexity while a mound of fresh torn herbs crowns the top. If good ripe plums aren’t available, you can substitute another stone fruit including peaches, nectarines or pluots, though if your fruit is very sweet, you might want to add a squeeze of lemon at the end. Serve this with rice pilaf, polenta or warm flatbread for a festive meal.
Spiced Chickpeas With Cauliflower and Roasted Lemon
In this hearty, meatless main course, chickpeas and potatoes are coated in a tomato-tinged spice paste and roasted until crunchy and browned. At the same time and in the same oven, cauliflower and tomatoes are cooked along with thinly sliced lemons until soft and caramelized. Just before serving, everything is tossed altogether and drizzled with an herbed, garlicky yogurt sauce. It’s a complete and satisfying meal that’s perfect for vegetable lovers. Meyer lemons work particularly well here because they are milder and sweeter than regular lemons. But use whichever you can find.
Maple-Roasted Tofu With Butternut Squash and Bacon
A small amount of bacon adds a lot of smoky flavor to sweet maple-roasted vegetables and glazed tofu. It’s a colorful, cozy sheet-pan meal for tofu lovers who also eat meat, or bacon eaters who are trying to eat less meat. To make this dish vegan, skip the bacon, and add 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika to the maple syrup mixture. Dicing the squash into small cubes helps it roast at the same rate as the brussels sprouts, so be sure to keep the pieces around 1/2 inch in size.
Sheet-Pan Tostadas With Black Beans and Peppers
In this vegetarian sheet-pan meal, crisp tortillas are topped with chile-laced black beans, sweet roasted peppers, avocado and plenty of crumbled queso fresco or grated Cheddar. A cumin salt, flecked with lime zest and sprinkled on right at the end, adds both brightness and a musky spice flavor. You will need 3 sheet pans for this. If you have only 2, crisp the tortillas in a skillet on the stovetop instead of in the oven.
Sheet-Pan Cod and Scallions With Cucumber Yogurt
You can use any mild, flaky fish for this quick, weeknight-friendly recipe. The scallions add sweetness and crunch to the delicate fish, flavored with soy sauce and fish sauce for an extra salty depth. Then it’s all dolloped with a tart, creamy yogurt sauce that’s both pungent from the garlic and cool and crisp from the chopped cucumber. Serve this dish with more sliced cucumber on the side and some pita bread or a baguette to soak up any remaining sauce. You won’t want to waste even a drop.
Sheet-Pan Chicken With Rhubarb and Red Onion
This easy yet robust dish celebrates rhubarb’s savory side. Here, a bit of honey, some sliced sweet red onion and the rich juices of roasted chicken thighs and drumsticks temper its tartness. Serve this dish with a crackly baguette or some rice to catch the tangy sauce at the bottom of the pan. It’s the best part.
Sheet-Pan Tarragon Chicken With Sherry Vinegar Onions
Roasting chicken with tarragon is a classic combination, but here it’s given a twist. Instead of a whole bird, bone-in thighs are marinated in tarragon and garlic, then quickly roasted over a bed of sliced onions. As the chicken cooks, the fat renders, coating the onions, while the fragrant steam rising from the onions flavors the bird. It’s a succulent, easy and very flavorful dinner. If you’d rather use all white meat, substitute bone-in chicken breast halves, and start checking them after 20 minutes.
Sheet-Pan Shrimp Scampi
This has all the garlicky, lemony flavors of classic shrimp scampi, but is cooked on a sheet pan instead of a skillet. This allows the lemon to char and caramelize, and gives the shrimp a condensed, deep flavor from roasting at high heat. Serve it with crusty bread for dipping, or over pasta to absorb the sauce, and with more lemon juice and red pepper flakes showered on top for pizzazz.
Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
This tender chocolate cake has a deep cocoa flavor that’s intensified by the slight bitterness of olive oil. Cinnamon adds a touch of spice here, and the Earl Grey tea, a mellow citrus perfume. Feel free to play around with the hot liquid used to dissolve the cocoa powder: Coffee, red wine, orange juice or any other flavorful tea will add their own notes to the cake, while water will let the chocolate shine on its own. Serve this as is, or with a dollop of whipped cream or some ice cream on top.
Gruyère and Chive Soufflé
This soufflé is as classic as they come, with beaten egg whites folded into a rich, cheese laden béchamel for flavor and stability. Gruyère is the traditional cheese used for soufflé, but a good aged Cheddar would also work nicely. This makes a great lunch or brunch dish. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Japanese Cheesecake
Japanese cheesecakes, sometimes called soufflé or cotton cheesecakes, have a melt-in-the-mouth texture that’s like a classic cheesecake crossed with an ethereal sponge cake. This one, adapted from Joanne Chang of Boston’s Flour Bakery, has bright lemon tanginess and crème fraîche richness as well. It’s best made the day before you plan to serve it, and will keep for up to 4 days in the refrigerator. Serve it plain and minimalist, with a sprinkle of confectioners’ sugar on top, or with fresh berries for added color and juiciness.
Strawberry Soufflé
This very light soufflé recipe, adapted from Julia Child, uses a base of syrupy fruit to flavor the egg whites, without the addition of fats or starches. And a combination of raspberries and strawberries makes it marvelously pink. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Brown Sugar-Cured Salmon
This grilled and smoked salmon recipe by the food writer Betty Fussell calls for curing the fish for several hours with salt, brown sugar and spices before smoking it over indirect heat on your grill. While the fatty fish absorbs the smoke beautifully, the fish can also be successfully cooked in a grill pan, or under the broiler. The salt and sugar cure, laced with sweet spices, both flavors the fish and firms up its flesh, giving it a meaty, silky texture. Serve it with a crisp salad for a light supper, or with rice for something more substantial.
Hot Honey Shrimp
Chile powder adds sting, honey lends sweetness, and butter gives a creamy richness to these succulent roasted shrimp. Even better, the dish comes together in minutes, making it an ideal after-work meal or extremely speedy appetizer. The shrimp are also excellent tucked into a baguette for a shrimp sandwich. If you happen to have a jar of hot honey (chile-spiced honey), you can use that instead of combining the honey and cayenne. Just be sure to use a light hand with the lime juice at the very end; hot honey also contains vinegar, so taste as you go. If you'd like to double the recipe, you can. Just use two baking pans so as not to crowd the shrimp.
Spicy Shrimp Boil With Lemon Butter
In this very spicy, very messy shrimp feast, diners peel their own shrimp, then dunk them in hot sauce-spiked shrimp broth, a bowl of melted lemon butter or both. Many shrimp boils call for adding corn, sausage and potatoes to the pot. This one focuses solely on the shrimp, though feel free to add the other ingredients if you’d like to bulk it up. Crusty bread for serving is a must, both to sop with the last bits of broth and butter, and as a palate-soother, for when the building heat of the cayenne and hot sauce starts to burn.
Seared Shrimp With Chard, Chiles and Ginger
Spicy sautéed chard with chiles and ginger is full of flavor, easy and pleasing with pretty much any protein. Here, it moves to the center of the plate with plump, seared shrimp. Any kind of chard can be used for this dish, but rainbow or red will be prettier than white-stemmed Swiss chard. That’s because those stems go right into the pan along with the leaves. It’s not only less wasteful, but the stems also add a pronounced, succulent texture to the mix.
Roasted Shrimp and Pineapple With Peanut Sauce
This tangy version of Thai-style peanut sauce, bright with chile, lime, and ginger, is excellent with chicken and beef — and outstanding with shrimp. Here, the sauce is paired with sweet, juicy pineapple and succulent shrimp, which broil in minutes. It’s a quick, satisfying dinner with the added bonus of leftover peanut sauce, which will keep well in the fridge for at least five days.
Grilled Salmon Salad With Lime, Chiles and Herbs
Made of soft, supple salmon; crisp lettuces and vegetables; and a very savory dressing run through with chiles and lime, this light salad is tangy and full of flavor. The dressing, based on nuoc cham, a traditional Vietnamese dipping sauce, has just enough fish sauce to give it depth and pungency without overpowering the brightness of the lime. You can substitute other fish, or even chicken, for the salmon. Just adjust the grilling time as needed, and toss with the dressing while still warm. Note that if you don’t have a grill, you can roast the fish in the oven.
Roasted Zucchini With Garlicky Bread Crumbs and Mozzarella
In this highly zesty recipe, thick slices of zucchini are broiled until golden and tender, then topped with milky mozzarella and bread crumbs flecked with anchovy and garlic. While it bakes, the cheese melts, the crumbs crisp and the whole thing becomes vaguely reminiscent of a lighter parmigiana — but without the frying. If you’re feeding more than two, this recipe can be doubled. Just make sure to use two rimmed baking pans so the zucchini doesn't overlap and become soggy. If you have Castelvetrano olives, use them here; they add nice crunch and color.
Spiced Ginger Shrimp With Burst Tomatoes
This speedy, buttery, one-pan meal stars plump, spiced shrimp zipped up with grated fresh ginger, and sweetened with ripe Sungold tomatoes that burst in the skillet. You can use any aromatic spice mix you have on hand here, which makes it a highly convenient meal as well. Serve this over rice or with crusty bread for mopping up all those rich, jammy tomatoes.