Recipes By Melissa Clark
1476 recipes found
Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart
Briefly simmering fresh strawberries in a light sugar syrup before baking them into a tart keeps the berries plump and juicy and the crust from becoming soggy. Here, the syrupy berries are layered with a cream cheese filling and baked on a sheet of store-bought puff pastry, which turns golden and flaky in the oven. Quick to put together and elegant to serve, it’s a terrific way to showcase the fresh berries.
Strawberry Almond Cakes
These tender, strawberry-filled almond cakes are a riff on financiers, diminutive French pastries made from almond flour and browned butter. To get the most intensity from the berries, they are briefly roasted before being mixed into the batter. Roasting condenses the berries’ flavor and helps keep them from leaking juices into the cakes, which can make their light crumb heavy and a bit damp. Serve these cakes by themselves as a simple dessert or teatime snack, or with a scoop of strawberry ice cream or sorbet for something richer and fancier. Although they’re at their crisp-edged best served on the day they’re baked, they’ll keep for a day or two stored airtight at room temperature.
Roasted Shrimp Cocktail With Horseradish Sauce
Roasting shrimp for shrimp cocktail intensifies their sweet saline flavor and makes them exceptionally plump and tender, with less chance of overcooking than the traditional poaching. Then, instead of being paired with the usual bright red cocktail sauce, these shrimp are served with a horseradish-forward take on a classic French rémoulade, which is both bracing and creamy. It’s best to season the sauce to taste: Adding more ketchup makes it sweeter and pinker; more lemon juice makes it tangier; more horseradish makes it sharper.
Asparagus, Spinach and Leek Soup
This silky, verdant soup gets its color from a mix of green vegetables. Asparagus is the dominant flavor, with fennel and leeks adding sweetness, zucchini its plush texture, and spinach and herbs their earthy mineral character. The color is at its brightest right after puréeing and will darken as it sits, but this won’t affect its rich, complex flavor. If the soup thickens too much after cooling, add a little broth or water when you reheat it.
Asparagus Mushroom Grain Bowl
A savory, gingery mix of seared mushrooms and asparagus makes the main topping of this hearty grain bowl, which is rounded out by a jammy egg and a salad of shaved asparagus, scallion and sesame. Although shaving the asparagus for the topping does take a few minutes to do, it’s worth the extra effort for its crisp texture next to the soft sautéed vegetables. And the dish will still be ready in about half an hour. Use your favorite cooked grains here: Brown rice and farro are chewy and earthy, while quinoa and white rice are more tender and gentle in flavor.
Asparagus-Feta Pasta
A sauce of tangy feta and Greek yogurt (inspired by a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi) anchors the components of this creamy, vegetable-filled pasta, and the combination of asparagus and peas makes it especially colorful and perfect for spring. Although the textures are at their most supple when served hot or warm, this dish also works well at room temperature, served as a pasta salad.
White Lasagna
Made without any Bolognese or tomato sauce, a white lasagna is a celebration of pasta and vegetables bound together by a creamy béchamel. This version, brimming with herbs, spinach, asparagus and peas, is an ode to spring, like a baked pasta primavera in its richest form. Serve it in small squares as a first or pasta course, as it’s served in Italy, or in more substantial slabs as a meatless main course. It’s a bit of a project, so if you want to work ahead, you can make the béchamel up to a week in advance and store it in the refrigerator. The baked lasagna can also be made ahead and refrigerated for up to two days. Reheat, covered, in a 350-degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes.
Coronation Chicken Salad
Coronation chicken salad is an easy, pantry-friendly dish, loosely based on a posh, classically French chicken recipe that was created to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. This is the recipe you’d find during its heyday in Britain in the 1980s: a curried chicken salad loaded with dried fruit, mango chutney and sliced almonds, usually served as a sandwich filling or on top of baked potatoes. Debates rage over whether to include diced apricots or golden raisins (also called sultanas), but since each works well with the other flavors, you can use whichever you like. If you want a more intensely golden color, stir in 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric with the curry. And if you’re starting with leftover cooked chicken or a rotisserie chicken (you’ll need 6 cups), just skip Step 1. For a meatless version, you can try these cauliflower salad sandwiches.
Pork Bulgogi With Spring Vegetables
In this easy recipe, a deeply flavored Korean bulgogi marinade is paired with sliced pork, which is seared in a skillet with snow peas, radishes and mushrooms. You can use the basic recipe as a template, substituting other proteins like chicken, tofu or, most traditionally, beef for the pork, and whatever quick-cooking vegetables you like: cherry tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli florets are all great options. Don’t worry about browning the pork here. The goal is to sear it long enough to just cook it through, while the sauce condenses and caramelizes, coating the meat and vegetables.
Crispy Baked Tofu With Sugar Snap Peas
Adding grated Parmesan to a coating of cornstarch and oil makes for especially crispy tofu with a fricolike crust. Here, the tofu is roasted on a sheet-pan alongside sugar snap peas and onions, which become tender and caramelized. It’s a colorful spring dish that can be varied endlessly depending on the season. Try broccoli or mushrooms in winter, cherry tomatoes in summer or butternut squash in fall.
Roast Tarragon-Cognac Chicken
The sophisticated, French flavors of brandy, butter and tarragon season this golden-skinned roast chicken, adding panache to what is otherwise an easy and straightforward recipe, adapted from Christiane Baumgartner via her daughter, Florence Chapgier, a reader. Serve it with mashed potatoes or polenta, a soft bed to absorb all the heady, buttery juices. And if you’re not a tarragon fan, fresh thyme makes an excellent, milder substitute.
Butter-Poached Shrimp With Dill Mayonnaise
Poaching shrimp in a combination of butter, lemon juice and white wine gives them a bright, tangy flavor and plump, succulent texture, and it takes only about five minutes. Served in bowls with a little of their broth and a dollop of dill-speckled mayonnaise, they’re rich and soupy, perfect with a hunk of crusty bread on the side to mop up every last drop.
Parmesan Cabbage Soup
This warming, nourishing soup, thickened with rice, is full of soft strands of green cabbage. Parmesan is used here in two ways: The rinds are simmered in with the broth, and the cheese is grated and sprinkled on top, adding complexity and body. If you like a kick, you can increase the red-pepper flakes, or leave them out entirely for a supremely gentle broth. Add a squeeze of lemon right at the end if you like your soup on the tart side.
Golden Beet Borscht
Borscht is a name for many different types of soup found across Ukraine, Russia and more broadly Eastern Europe. The ones we know best in the United States are often made from red beets. But this version uses underappreciated golden beets, which are earthier and less sugary than their red cousins. Seasoned with coriander and caraway seeds, it makes a savory, wintry soup. Carrots add a touch of sweetness, while a dash of apple cider vinegar gives it just the right zip. A generous dollop of sour cream or yogurt makes the broth nice and silky. This soup gets better as it sits, so, if you can, make it a day or two ahead of serving.
Coconut Curry Sweet Potato Soup
The secret to this rich, deeply spiced soup is roasting the sweet potatoes and carrots before adding them to the pot. Roasting caramelizes the vegetables, concentrating their flavors and making them particularly sweet, which helps mellow the fiery chiles in the Thai red curry paste. Toasted coconut flakes, fresh sliced chiles and cilantro make a simple but bright and crunchy garnish for this plush soup, which is dense and creamy from coconut milk. The recipe feeds a crowd, and leftovers freeze well for up to three months.
One-Pan Shrimp Scampi With Crispy Gnocchi
The best part of shrimp scampi is arguably the garlicky sauce, usually poured over pasta or mopped up with bread. This recipe offers another take: Pillows of potato gnocchi are crisped in a skillet that is then used to cook the shrimp. The gnocchi add heft, and their soft yet chewy texture goes nicely with the springiness of the shrimp. Serve this with a big green salad to round out the meal.
Creamy Peach Pie Bars
With a crisp graham cracker crust, lemony cream cheese filling and a sweet peach topping, these bar cookies are like a cross between cheesecake and juicy peach pie. You can make them a few days ahead of time and store them in the fridge; they’re at their best when served slightly chilled.
Raspberry Pie Crunch Bars
These raspberry crumble bars have all the buttery, jammy, brown sugary charms of a raspberry crumb pie. But they’re a whole lot easier to serve at a large gathering and picnics, and can be eaten out of hand. You can make them a day or two before and store them in the fridge.
Coconut Pie Bars
This easy recipe turns a classic Southern coconut pie recipe into wonderfully chewy bar cookies with a shortbread crust. The chocolate chips are optional, but they add a bittersweet flavor that tones down the sugary coconut, especially if you use chocolate with a high cacao percentage (72 percent to 80 percent). Or, for something crunchier, use chopped pecans instead of chocolate.
Pasta Salad
This pasta salad has everything you could want in the bowl: loads of ripe tomatoes, chunks of mozzarella, sliced olives, salami and plenty of fresh green herbs, all tossed in a garlicky, oregano-spiked red wine vinaigrette. Serve it the same day it’s made for the brightest flavor and best texture.
Chicken Thighs With Sour Cherries and Cucumber Yogurt
If you’re lucky enough to have more sour cherries than you need to make a pie, save them for this sweet and tangy chicken dish. The cherries are briefly simmered with sugar, vinegar and a bay leaf, then added to a sheet pan to roast alongside boneless, skinless chicken thighs and wedges of red onion. As they cook, the cherries absorb the chicken juices, becoming very savory and concentrated. Then, the whole thing is topped with dollops of cooling cucumber yogurt. Serve it with bread or rice to catch the juices at the bottom of the pan. If you can’t get sour cherries, you can substitute seedless red or green grapes.
Chocolate Raspberry Meringue Tart
Scarlet threads of freeze-dried raspberry powder and streaks of bittersweet chocolate add richness and flair to this fluffy-topped meringue tart. It does take time to make, but many of the steps can be done in advance, and this stunning, intensely fruity confection is well worth planning for. The dough, filling and raspberry powder can be prepared up to five days ahead, then make the meringue just before the tart is baked. It’s at its best served on the same day as baking. Store leftovers in a sealed container at room temperature.
Farro and Mushroom Gratin
In this elegant gratin, nutty farro and earthy mushrooms are baked with herbs and mascarpone into a creamy casserole topped with Gruyère. It’s a rich, meatless meal that needs nothing more than a crisp green salad to round it out, though it’s also a satisfying side dish alongside roast chicken or fish. You can prepare the entire gratin earlier in the day (leave it at room temperature), then bake it just before serving — simply add a little extra time to ensure that it emerges from the oven steaming hot through and through. Note that if you’re using tangy crème fraîche instead of mascarpone, you may not need the lemon. Taste before squeezing.
Wine-Braised Chicken With Mushrooms and Leeks
Adding crème fraîche and fancy mushrooms to a pan full of wine-braised chicken makes it ultrarich and extra special. This recipe is perfect for a festive dinner when you’re looking for a chicken dish that’s a little more dressed up than your average weeknight meal, but it isn’t overly difficult. Make it a day or two in advance, and, like all braises, it gets even better with time.