Dinner
8856 recipes found
Rotisserie Chicken Salad With Greens and Herbs
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Pick up a heat-lamp roast chicken at the market on the way home — it’s O.K.! — and tear it apart to feed four, or half of it for two, shredding the meat with your fingers. Mix the chicken with a few handfuls of baby arugula, a large handful of sliced scallions and a lot of chopped cilantro. Cut an avocado or two into the mix if you have them on hand. Then make a dressing out of lime juice — one juicy squeezed lime will do — a pressed garlic clove and a few glugs of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. Drizzle that over the top and serve. Dinner in 15 minutes, tops. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Grilled Cheese With Jalapeño, Tomato and Fried Egg
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Sometimes I get it into my head to make a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. I don’t have a recipe because you don’t really need a recipe to make grilled cheese sandwiches. You just need desire, and a triangle in your head: salt; crunch; melting ooze. So I’ll slice some mild Cheddar. Get some decent bread, a sliced jalapeño, the tail end of a beefsteak tomato. Then, sizzle-sizzle-flip-flip in some unsalted butter, and top with a sunny-side-up egg. It’s the simplest kind of cooking, and on a weeknight that’s exactly what most of us need. Make grilled cheese! Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Spicy Tomato Pasta With Arugula
A back-pocket recipe for tired weeknights when you don’t want to cut an onion or mince garlic, this one-pot pasta is coated in a flavorful sauce thanks to a simple base of olive oil, tomato paste, fiery Calabrian chile paste and pasta water. Crushed Calabrian chiles blended with oil, salt and sometimes vinegar comprise this Italian chile paste that offers both heat and flavor, though a chile-garlic paste or hot pickled chiles can be used if you have trouble finding it. (Err on the side of caution with the chile, as you can always top your bowl with more.) Serve the arugula two ways: Add a tangle of it to the bottom of each serving bowl and toss it with the hot pasta to soften and cut the rawness, or pile it on top, drizzle with your nice olive oil and some grated cheese for a salad and pasta combination.
Ham and Radicchio Toast
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Take a quick trip to the supermarket on the way home: bread and a small head of radicchio, as well as a half-pound of thin-sliced ham at the deli counter and some good mustard. When you’re ready to eat, cut the ham and radicchio into ribbons, then sauté the radicchio in a medium-hot sauté pan with a few glugs of olive oil and some chopped garlic until softened. Take the pan off the stove, add the ham and toss to combine. Meanwhile, slice the bread — you want two slices per person — and toast it if you like. Either way, slash some mustard onto the slices. Pile the warm radicchio and ham on top and consume with good wine. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli
This simple stew of long-simmered beans and tiny pasta is one of the world’s great comfort foods. Like many cucina povera classics, it is both affordable and adaptable, designed to use what you have. White beans, such as cannellini, are typically used, but just about any medium-size dried bean, like borlotti (cranberry) beans or even pinto beans will do. Beans have a wide variation in cook times, so start checking at 6 hours if you can, and know that some batches can take up to 10 hours. Fresh or frozen green beans popped in at the end of the cooking time add a welcome texture and sweetness, but feel free to omit them or to use whatever you have: shredded cabbage, broccoli rabe or fresh or frozen spinach would all work beautifully. This recipe feeds a crowd, and if you plan to have leftovers, cook the pasta separately and stir it into each serving, otherwise the pasta will soak up all the broth as it sits and become too soft.
Salmon With BBQ Sauce and Hot Peppers
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. There are generally a few kinds of barbecue sauce in my refrigerator, leftovers from various experiments. That may be true for you as well? I bet there’s a half-bottle of store-bought sauce, anyway, or a dusty unopened one in the pantry. Check: There probably is. Let’s make dinner with it, and some salmon fillets. Put the barbecue sauce in a small pot on the stove over medium heat, then turn the oven to 400. Roughly chop a few jarred pickled hot peppers into the sauce, and add a couple of pats of butter to silkify the situation. Warm that through while the oven heats, then salt and pepper the salmon fillets and roast them skin-side down, on a lightly oiled sheet pan, for 10 or 12 minutes, or until they are just barely cooked through. Spoon the pepper-studded barbecue sauce over the top, and go to! Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Air-Fryer Salmon
Salmon cooks perfectly in the air fryer because the device’s circulating high heat keeps the fish moist and crisps skin-on fillets. Here, tomatoes and lemon slices provide a bright boost to the dish, but feel free to forgo or vary the recipe with seasonings like brown sugar and mustard or simply try out other salmon recipes. Keys to This Recipe How Long It Takes to Cook Salmon in the Air Fryer: The cook time depends on the thickness and temperature of the fillets. To test for doneness, insert a metal cake tester or thin paring knife into the middle of a fillet to see if the fish is warmed all the way through. If the metal feels cold, continue to cook for an additional minute or two. Generally, 6-ounce fillets take about 10 minutes. To cook frozen salmon, place unthawed fillets in the machine and add an extra 5 to 7 minutes. How to Double the Recipe: Use a larger air fryer and double the quantities below, but keep the cooking time the same. How to Use Leftover Salmon: Leftover salmon can be refrigerated for up to 2 days and would work well as a substitute for tuna in Eric Kim’s tuna rice recipe if you happen to have rice on hand. Or, toss flaked salmon into a salad for a hearty complete meal. How to Clean an Air Fryer After Cooking Salmon: To get rid of any lingering fishy smells, be sure to clean your air fryer right away, following these tips from Wirecutter.
Radicchio Caesar Salad
This fragrant take on Caesar salad uses up an entire tin of anchovies and replaces the sweet romaine with gloriously bitter radicchio. For the dressing: Though you could use a raw egg yolk and slowly stream in oil while whisking constantly, relying on the already emulsifying qualities of store-bought mayonnaise gets you to creamy heights with less fuss. This salad does not keep well, so serve it immediately, while the radicchio is still plump and crunchy. There’s no added salt in this recipe, as the many anchovies season both the bread crumbs and the dressing. But should your radicchio be especially bitter — pleasant though that flavor can be — feel free to add a pinch of salt to help tame the bitterness.
Asparagus Ricotta Pasta With Almonds
In this comforting pasta, fragrant herbs, spinach and crisp-tender asparagus offer the lightness of spring balanced by rich, garlicky, scallion-infused ricotta. For the creamiest sauce, look for ricotta without added stabilizers or gums, or try making it yourself. An almond crumble brightened with lemon zest adds a nutty crunch and makes each bite texturally diverse. Spiral-shaped pastas have long nooks and crannies for the thickened sauce to cling to, but other short shapes of pasta like penne work well here, too.
Shrimp Salad
Using plenty of lemon — both the zest and juice — is the secret to this tangy, creamy shrimp salad. If you’re using this to make sandwiches, chop the shrimp into pieces before adding them to the dressing. You can also leave the shrimp whole for an elegant salad, served with lettuce, avocado, and other vegetables if you like. If you’re starting with precooked shrimp, you can skip the first step entirely. The salad can be made and refrigerated for up to 6 hours before serving.
Creamy Chickpea Pasta With Spinach and Rosemary
Luxurious and hearty, cheap and easy, this vegetarian pasta uses mostly pantry staples, requiring just a few fresh ingredients, like baby spinach, rosemary and heavy cream. Canned chickpeas form the foundation of the dish: They’re cooked until crisp and caramelized. Half are then saved as a garnish, while the rest are simmered until they break down and thicken the sauce. You can swap out your greens or beans, and if you want to experiment with flavor, raid your spice cabinet: Ground coriander, toasted fennel seeds, coarsely crumbled pink peppercorns or a sprinkle of smoked paprika perk up the dish.
Sausage Ragù
Meat sauce is one of the recipes many American home cooks start with. It seems so easy; brown some hamburger, pour in a jar of marinara, and presto! Meat sauce. Not so fast, friends. Made that way, your sauce may be thin-tasting, sour, sweet, or — worst of all — dry and chewy. Meat sauce with deep flavor and succulent texture isn’t harder to make; it just needs more time and a low flame. This recipe from the New York chef Sara Jenkins, who grew up in Tuscany and has cooked all over Italy, shows how it’s done. Caramelization is involved; dried pasta and canned tomatoes are best practice; and pork, not beef, is the meat of choice. If your sausage meat seems timidly flavored, feel free to add chopped garlic, chile flakes, fennel seed and/or dried herbs like oregano and sage to the meat as it browns.
Pasta With Mint and Parmesan
The pairing of pasta with mint and Parmesan is a good one. There is something about the lightly assaultive yet somehow sweet nature of mint that is unlike any other herb. Older cuisines use it occasionally, but it is rarely seen as a major player. In this dish, however, softened by butter and cheese, mint converts a basic but undeniably heavy combination into an easy yet complex pasta dish best described as refreshing. To the inevitable question, Can I use olive oil instead of butter? my answer is that you can, but you will completely change the nature of the dish; it won't be bad, but it won't be as good. Better, I think, to cut the butter back to two tablespoons. But because this sauce is cut with the pasta cooking water, the butter is spread nicely throughout, and it really isn't a huge amount per person.
Perfect Instant Ramen
Make some instant ramen. Slide an egg into the hot broth, then some butter. Crown the steaming noodles with slices of American cheese. Scatter a bunch of toasted sesame seeds and chopped scallions across the top, if you want to. Hardly a recipe! But for the chef Roy Choi, who gave it to The Times in 2014, doctored instant ramen is a taste of Korean-American straight-from-the-bag soul food. The butter, egg and cheese help coat the ramen noodles and deepen their flavor. “It’s our snack, it’s our peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it’s our bowl of cereal,” Mr. Choi said. “It’s something that has been a part of my life forever.”
Roasted Salmon With Peas and Radishes
Salmon and sweet peas are the perfect pairing for a quick and satisfying supper. The salmon is roasted skin-side up, to protect the delicate flesh and keep the fish moist. Peppery radishes mellow during cooking, turning slightly sweet and juicy as they soften. Browned butter, mustard and capers coat the peas and radishes in a tangy sauce, and white miso provides depth. If there’s no miso to be found, just leave it out or sub with a splash of soy sauce.
Roasted Squash With Turmeric-Ginger Chickpeas
Custardy, mildly sweet roasted squash holds its own as a main course in this easy weeknight recipe. Although fresh turmeric root is suitable, a high-quality ground turmeric will do a better job of infusing the chickpeas with its earthy, floral notes. Marinating the chickpeas a day or two ahead will allow the turmeric, ginger and other aromatics to intensify in flavor. If you do make this ahead of time, hold off on tossing in the fresh herbs until just before serving. Pomegranate seeds add color and crunch, and a dollop of yogurt would be the last of your obligations, if you want to take this dish out of vegan territory.
BLT Pasta
When another summer tomato sandwich just won’t do, try this BLT pasta instead. This clever twist on the classic sandwich substitutes spicy arugula for lettuce and in-season cherry tomatoes for heirlooms, which cook in bacon fat and produce a silky, smoky sauce. If baby arugula is out of reach, baby spinach, watercress or Swiss chard would work well in its place. Serve with a raw, shaved zucchini salad tossed with lemon juice, olive oil and mint.
Olive Oil Baked Salmon
If you’re looking for a baked salmon recipe that produces silky fish with flavors that go with anything, you’ve found it. This fish gets so tender because it’s cooked at a moderate temperature and cushioned by a shallow pool of olive oil and lemon juice. Add lemon peels or other seasonings to the baking dish before the salmon cooks and they’ll infuse the oil; this mixture will become your sauce. Once the salmon is done, let it rest and squeeze more lemon juice into the sauce. The results are reminiscent of squeezing a lemon wedge over a piece of fish, but the flavor is a little more luxurious and developed. Any extra sauce can be used on a salad, steamed vegetables or crusty bread.
Classic Shrimp Scampi
Scampi are tiny, lobster-like crustaceans with pale pink shells (also called langoustines). Italian cooks in the United States swapped shrimp for scampi, but kept both names. Thus the dish was born, along with inevitable variations. This classic recipe makes a simple garlic, white wine and butter sauce that goes well with a pile of pasta or with a hunk of crusty bread. However you make the dish, once the shrimp are added to the pan, the trick is to cook them just long enough that they turn pink all over, but not until their bodies curl into rounds with the texture of tires. (Watch the video of Melissa Clark making classic shrimp scampi here.)
Pasta e Ceci (Italian Pasta and Chickpea Stew)
There is an incredible number of recipes for this classic Roman dish, and everyone has an opinion on how it should be prepared. This version is more stew than soup, but it can be loosened up with a bit more water if you prefer. It begins with sautéing onion, tomatoes, garlic and rosemary in olive oil, then tossing in the chickpeas, and smashing a few to give the stew a creamy texture. Water is added, then uncooked pasta, which cooks as the stew simmers (and results in one less dish for you wash). Escarole is folded in right before serving. This flexible stew can go in a number of directions, so tweak it as you see fit, but don’t forget to finish each bowl with grated pecorino and a drizzle of olive oil. Ciao.
The Best Scrambled Eggs
For silky, outrageously good scrambled eggs, cook them low and slow. This method, which Mark Bittman learned from James Beard, is very low and very slow: you place the eggs over very low heat, stirring frequently, breaking up the curds as they form. The results are without compare. Make them for breakfast on the weekend, while the coffee brews and the bacon fries.
Braised Chicken With Rosemary, Chickpeas and Salted Lemon
This stew takes inspiration from long-simmered tagine dishes with many layers of flavors. In this weeknight version, a broth seasoned with salted lemon, rosemary and tomatoes bathes the chicken and chickpeas, making a lovely, hearty stew. For a bold and bright finish, lemon slices quick-pickled in juice and salt are added to the stew. A handful of hearty greens, a scattering of fresh herbs and a spoon of creamy yogurt ensures every bite is rich and flavorful. Serve over steamed couscous or with thick slices of crusty bread for dipping.
Breakfast Burritos
A delightful breakfast, these burritos filled with soft scrambled eggs, scallion-flecked refried beans and buttery avocado slices are also great any time of the day. Cilantro adds freshness, and a few drops of your favorite hot sauce will deliver a nice zing. The nontraditional open-ended rolling technique used here will tightly encase the filling in the smaller-size tortillas while ensuring the optimal tortilla-to-stuffing ratio. To seal completely, wrap each tortilla in a strip of foil and twist both ends. For convenience, the little wraps can be made ahead of time, stored in the refrigerator or freezer and reheated in an oven.
Sausage and Egg Tater Tot Casserole
There are few things better for breakfast than fried potatoes swimming in a velvety pool of eggy custard, Cheddar cheese, seared bits of sage sausage and scallions. This recipe is inspired by hot dish, the Midwestern classic that gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. Traditionally a mixture of protein, vegetables, creamed soup and a starch, it still often dwells in church halls, or is covered in foil and brought to potluck suppers. This version is perfect for a hearty breakfast or brunch, something you can throw together when you want to feed a gang of loved ones or just two very hungry people. A simple green salad tossed in a vinaigrette would be a perfect pairing.