Recipes By Melissa Clark
1478 recipes found
Spinach Risotto With Taleggio
This recipe, based on the nettle risotto from River Café in London, substitutes spinach, which is easier to find and less perilous to work with. It’s best made with mature, crinkly spinach, which has a more robustly mineral flavor than delicate baby leaves, but use whichever you can get. The melting taleggio makes the rice supremely creamy, and adds a funky earthiness. Note that it’s easiest to remove the rind and cut the cheese into cubes when it’s straight-from-the-fridge cold, then let it come to room temperature as you cook the rice. If you'd like to use an equal quantity of nettles here instead of spinach, you can.
Vanilla Bean Spritz Cookies
Delicate, buttery and festooned with colored sugar or sprinkles, spritz cookies are a holiday staple. You can make excellent ones without any special items like the vanilla bean paste and cultured butter called for here. But those ingredients will make your cookies even more delicious. You can leave them tasting purely of vanilla, or add another optional flavoring, such as citrus zest, cinnamon or cardamom, or almond extract. These fragile cookies don’t ship well on their own, but you can increase their stability by turning them into sandwich cookies, filled with chocolate, Nutella, or thick jam.
Chilled Corn Soup With Basil
No-cook, chilled blender soups are so quick to make it almost feels like cheating. This one stars sweet corn that’s been tarted up with buttermilk and lime juice, spiced with garlic and scallion, and imbued with fresh herbs. While straining it isn’t entirely necessary, it will give you a smoother, more elegant soup. But when it’s too hot to breathe, let alone dig out the strainer, you have our permission to skip it. Serve this in espresso cups or shot glasses as an hors d’oeuvre, or in bowls as a first course.
Caramel Rice Flan
In Catalonia, many of the rice dishes are made with short grain rice. The pillowy texture of the short grains reminds me of tapioca, with a grainier bite. Short grain rice is also starchier than long grain, which helps the eggs bind the custard. Combining whole eggs and yolks would make the flan rich and light.
Turkish Flour Helva
Flour helva, a thick, sweet pudding that tastes of warm, toasted flour and browned butter, is both a ceremonial and everyday dish in Turkey. It’s essential at gatherings such as funerals and births, but is also often made as a staple family dessert. This version, from the Istanbul food writer Cemre Narin, was given to her by her mother-in-law, Ozden. It is much beloved for its deep brown butter and cinnamon flavor, as well as its comforting, smooth texture, with the contrasting crunchy almonds on top. It makes a filling warming dessert or snack that's especially lovely in winter. The key here is patience. The dish takes a long time to come together, and while you don’t have to stir it constantly, you won’t be able to go far from the pot while it cooks. Make this when you're in the kitchen anyway, tending to other pans or projects. Be sure to get the flour deeply golden brown so it takes on a rich, nutty flavor, otherwise your helva may be bland. Pine nuts are often used here in place of the almonds. Feel free to use either one.
Thai Red Curry Noodles With Vegetables
Think of this dish as red curry noodles, version 2.0. By doctoring up jarred red curry paste with fresh chile, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and spices, this dish gets a much more complex, intense flavor than the usual version. Once you have all the ingredients at the ready, the dish comes together quickly. And you’ll have enough leftover curry paste to make this again, even faster the next time. Omit the fish sauce (use soy instead) and egg to make this a vegan dish.
Bacon-Cheddar Quiche
This mashup of Julia Child recipes, combining elements of her quiche Lorraine and quiche au fromage, then pouring them into a lard-and-butter based pie crust, results in a serious breakfast feast. You could make the whole thing the night before serving it, and consume it at room temperature in the morning. But just making the dough for the crust in advance will save loads of time -- and the pleasure of the bubbling hot dish on a breakfast table is impossible to deny.
Savory Clafoutis With Corn and Swiss Chard
Clafoutis are baked French pancakes, usually filled with sweet cherries. This savory version calls for corn, Swiss chard and leeks instead of fruit, and includes plenty of Gruyère for a salty depth. It will emerge from the oven puffed and golden, then quickly deflate. Fear not, it still tastes wonderful after it flattens out, though for the best presentation, try to time it so your guests are at the table when it is ready. Serve it for brunch or a light dinner with a tomato salad on the side, if you’re making this in tomato season. In winter, sliced oranges drizzled with olive oil and salt are nice, too.
Persian Cod With Herbs and Tamarind
In this traditional Persian preparation for fish, called ghalieh mahi, a profusion of fresh herbs is slowly simmered with caramelized onions and tangy tamarind until the whole thing cooks down into a silky, sweet-tart sauce with a haunting flavor. This version, adapted from Nasim Alikhani from Sofreh restaurant in Brooklyn, uses both fresh and dried fenugreek, which is worth seeking out for its musky, forest-like flavor. But mint makes a good substitute if that’s what you can get. You can use any firm white fish fillets here. Or try pouring the sauce over roasted cauliflower steaks for a vegetarian take.
Nectarine and Peach Jam With Lemon Verbena
This is refrigerator jam, allowing you to skip the fuss and time of canning. Here, you’ll use a method from Christine Ferber, one of France’s eminent jam makers. She calls for macerating the fruit in sugar overnight so the juices release, then straining the liquid from the bowl and cooking that down to a syrup before re-adding the fruit. That allows you to cook the fruit less, retaining a better texture and fresher flavor. It works beautifully with this combination of peaches and nectarines spiked with lemon verbena.
Pasta With Garlicky Anchovies and Broccoli Rabe
Anchovies star in this robust, wintery pasta dish, lending a savory backbone to a pan full of wilted broccoli rabe and fresh tomatoes. Although the anchovies and garlic are sautéed in olive oil, butter is added at the end, giving the sauce some richness and body, and mellowing the bitterness of the broccoli rabe. Note that while the ricotta adds creaminess to the pasta, it is strictly optional. Leave it out for a leaner dish with a more concentrated flavor.
Pissaladière
Sweet, caramelized onions, briny anchovies and olives make the up the topping for this traditional Provençal tart. This version calls for a yeasted dough, which makes the tart somewhat like a pizza. But puff pastry, which Julia Child preferred, is also traditional, and quite a bit richer. If you’d rather use that, substitute a 12- to 16-ounce package for the yeast dough, and bake the tart at 375 degrees until the bottom and sides are golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Pissaladière makes great picnic fare, in addition to being a terrific appetizer or lunch dish. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Risotto With Milk
This intensely creamy Italian rice dish, called riso al latte, falls somewhere between rice pudding and risotto. The rice is cooked in vanilla- and lemon-infused milk, but barely sweetened, making it more appropriate for brunch than dessert. Crunchy bread crumbs and flaky sea salt add texture, while the optional drizzle of sweetened cappuccino (or regular milky coffee) lends bittersweet complexity. If you like, you can serve this with a juicy salad made from halved cherry tomatoes mixed with berries and pomegranate seeds, and seasoned with a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Or increase the sugar and serve it for dessert.
Savory Dutch Baby
This savory Dutch baby is like Yorkshire pudding meets a popover meets a gougère, flavored with browned butter, Parmesan and thyme. You can serve it for brunch, pancake style. Or try it as an hors d’oeuvre. Bring the whole thing out to your guests and let them tear it apart with their hands. Salty, cheesy and delicious.
One-Pan Tuna-White Bean Casserole
This is not the classic, cream-of-something soup tuna casserole you may be familiar with. It’s based on a recipe for a Breton tuna and white bean gratin from the food writer Diana Henry’s cookbook, “Simple” (Mitchell Beazley, 2016). Several steps were eliminated, and an essential potato chip topping was added, which may put it squarely into tuna casserole territory. But you can call it whatever you like. (This recipe is part of the From the Pantry series, started in the days after the coronavirus lockdown.)
Sous-Vide Turkey Breast With Maple and Rosemary
Cooking a turkey breast using sous vide makes for especially tender meat that’s never dried out. You’ll want to bring the meat to 145 degrees, which leaves it delicately pink, very juicy and perfectly safe because the long, steady heat of the sous vide machine pasteurizes the meat. That said, if you like your turkey slightly firmer and well done — more like a traditional roast bird — cook it to 152 degrees. Lastly, make sure to take the skin off the meat before cooking; the moist environment of the sous-vide bag makes it irreversibly soggy. Fans of crisp, golden skin can bake it separately instead.
Tamarind Spiced Nuts With Mint
The addition of tamarind and mint to what might otherwise be simply sweet and spicy cashews elevates these nuts beyond simple bar snacks designed to encourage thirst. They're sophisticated and exciting, while remaining quite simple to make.
Berry Blitz Torte
Blitz means “lightning” in German, referring to the lightning-quick way this old-fashioned cake comes together, at least compared with the more ornately frosted tortes popular a century ago. Buttery, nutmeg-scented batter is swirled with meringue and sprinkled with pecans before baking. The meringue, which browns on top but stays soft inside, takes the place of icing while the nuts add flavor and crunch. A whipped cream and berry filling makes the whole thing incredibly soft and rich. You can bake the cake layers up to 12 hours ahead, but it’s best to fill them with cream and berries within 3 hours of serving so they don’t get soggy. This recipe is adapted from my friend’s mother, Patricia O’Neal, who got it from her mother, Genevieve Lehmont.
Blood Orange Butterscotch Meringue Pie
With a snappy filling of blood orange curd that’s crowned by a glossy brown sugar meringue, this variation on the classic lemon meringue pie is slightly sweeter and juicier than the original, and just as eye-catching with its swirly, golden topping. If you can’t find blood oranges, regular oranges or tangerines make fine substitutes. This pie is best served the day it’s baked, though you can make the dough and filling up to five days in advance. The meringue, however, needs to be whipped up just before the pie is baked. Store leftovers in a sealed container at room temperature.
Swedish Meatballs
These mildly spiced meatballs are the essence of winter comfort food, just the kind of thing you’ll want to come in from a blustery day to enjoy. Serve them with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam, if you want something sweet.
Milk Chocolate-Banana Pudding
With layers of milk chocolate pudding, chocolate wafer cookies and bananas, this nostalgic dessert beats all grandmotherly versions by a landslide.
Roasted Chicken With Crispy Mushrooms
The sherry in this easy sheet-pan recipe makes it feel a little like chicken Marsala. But roasting everything on a sheet pan lets the mushrooms crisp at the edges and turns the chicken thighs golden brown. It’s slightly more sophisticated than your average weeknight chicken dinner, but still speedy and fuss-free. Serve it with rice or noodles to soak up all the buttery, winy pan juices.
Banana-Coconut Layer Cake
Don’t mistake this impressive layer cake for a modest banana bread. It’s a billowing, head-turning dessert covered in white swirls of coconut frosting. Roasting the bananas before mashing them into the batter intensifies their flavor, while the toasted coconut adds sweetness and crunch. It’s best served the day it is made, but will keep, lightly covered and refrigerated, for up to two days.
Blackberry Jam Crostata
With a press-in-the-pan buttery cookie crust and a tangy jam filling that’s topped with almonds and Demerara sugar, this crostata is simple, homey and utterly delightful. A touch of whole-wheat flour gives the crust complexity and a gentle nutty flavor, while homemade blackberry jam spiked with lemon verbena makes the confection festive enough for guests. This recipe is adapted from Elizabeth Minchilli, a food writer in Rome, who often buys excellent-quality cherry jam for the filling. If you’d like to substitute store-bought jam, use 1 1/2 cups.