Dinner
8856 recipes found
Grilled Swordfish Kebabs With Golden Raisin Chimichurri
Swordfish is the perfect seafood for grilling — the flesh is sturdy and firm, with a mild flavor that readily absorbs the aroma of smoke without losing its own. Most people grill swordfish as steaks; the Miami chef Michael Schwartz cuts it into chunks for kebabs, a format that allows him to intersperse the chunks of fish with lemon slices and bay leaves, and grills them over wood (though you could use charcoal or, if necessary, grill over gas). The tips of the bay leaves char, imparting a fragrant herbal smoke. By way of a sauce, Mr. Schwartz serves a classic Argentine chimichurri with a not-so-classic twist — the addition of yellow raisins, which counter the traditional garlic and vinegar with an unexpected note of sweetness. If swordfish is unavailable, use another sturdy fish, like tuna or mako shark.
Amatriciana on the Fly
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Here’s a half-hour challenge that’s no challenge at all. Set a large pot of salted water on the stove, over high heat. In a pan, sauté chopped bacon — slab bacon, if you can get it — in a glug or two of olive oil until it’s crisp. Remove the bacon and add chopped onion to the fat, cooking until it’s soft and fragrant. Figure the equivalent of a slice of bacon and half an onion per person. Meanwhile, boil water for enough pasta to feed your crowd, and cook it until it is just shy of tender. While it cooks, add some canned chopped tomatoes and the cooked bacon to the onions, and stir it to make a sauce. Drain the pasta, then toss it with a knob of butter, and add the pasta to the sauce. Slide all that into a warm serving bowl, then top with grated pecorino. A scattering of chopped parsley is never going to be a bad idea here, but you can omit it if the clock’s ticking. Serve with red-pepper flakes and extra cheese on the side. 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.
Salmon in Fig Leaves
While this salmon dish evokes pure summer in California, it’s easily done almost anywhere. The salmon is king salmon, and its season is summer, which coincides perfectly with the ripening of figs in all but the northernmost parts of the country. There is nothing better than a good fig, but for this recipe, incorporate the underused leaves, which make a perfect package for the fish, contributing a kind of nutty flavor to it.
Dolly Sinatra's Marinara Sauce
Grilled Corn and Tomato Salsa Salad
At our farmers’ market we picked up a dozen ears of corn for a weekend barbecue. With several ears left over, I repurposed the corn as the starting point for two salads. One emphasized cherry tomatoes, the other Italian parsley, both in plentiful supply at the farmers’ market.
Pan-Seared Salmon With Celery, Olives and Capers
The salsa that I spoon over the salmon here is an explosion of contrasting flavors – sweet, salty and sharp – common in Sicilian cooking. I like serving this with sautéed greens and some bread.
Ziti With Sausage, Sweet Corn, Broccoli and Tomatoes
When your body craves vegetables, but your mind craves pasta and meat, this 30-minute pasta dish is a happy compromise. It's loaded with fresh cherry tomatoes, corn and broccoli, and the Italian sausage (hot or sweet) adds flavor and heft. Whatever you do, don't feel wed to the recipe. Use cauliflower in the place of broccoli, chicken sausage instead of pork, chopped plum tomatoes instead of cherry. It's the kind of recipe that can be a little different (in a good way) every time you make it depending on what's in your vegetable drawer or C.S.A. box. Also, don't forget taste and season well with salt and pepper as you go. The vegetables need a little seasoning to stand up to the assertive flavors of the sausage and garlic.
Rocky Mountain Rainbow Trout With Trout Roe
Whole trout makes for a stunning presentation, especially when it is topped with delicate pink roe, which sparkles like gems on top of the fish and imparts a salty, mineral flavor. Trout from the icy Rocky Mountain streams are at their best in late spring, when the ice has just melted. Cooks from the Shoshone tribe, among many others, make delicious meals using the entire fish, wasting nothing: Cheeks and eyes are considered a delicacy, as is the roe harvested from the females, which is prized for its distinct flavor and its relationship to renewal.
Mackerel With Lemon Olive Oil and Tomatoes
Mackerel is a sustainable, velvety, sweet-tasting fish that deserves more attention than it usually gets. Here, the pale fillets are roasted on a bed of fragrant basil leaves with a lemon zest-infused olive oil, chopped olives and juicy cherry tomatoes. If you have a bottle of cold-pressed lemon olive oil on hand, you can use it here in place of making your own. If infusing your own oil, feel free to use either a regular lemon or a Meyer lemon. Leftover lemon oil is great on salads, tossed with vegetables, or drizzled over avocado toast.
Clam Pasta With Basil and Hot Pepper
The beauty of this dish is that the clams can be steamed in the time it takes to cook the pasta, so the whole affair can be put together quite rapidly. High heat and a covered pot will have the shells open in minutes.
Fish Pie With a Sourdough Crust
This British fish pie deviates from the traditional potato topping by using sourdough bread as a crust. The result leaves you with a happy balance of crispy bread bits on top and softer bits where the bread has absorbed some of the creamy sauce. You can easily make this pie your own by swapping out the sourdough for any other good-quality white loaf, using other cuts of fish or seafood, such as cod, trout or baby squid, and playing around with whatever herbs you might have on hand. The English mustard is quite a dominant flavor here, and cuts through the richness of the pie itself. If mustard isn’t your thing, feel free to reduce the amount to 2 tablespoons.
Saffron Fish With Red Peppers and Preserved Lemon
This very flexible recipe is often served by Moroccan Jews and their descendants. Many who moved to France, for example, tend to prepare it with preserved lemons and olives. Others living in Jerusalem, like Danielle Renov, author of “Peas, Love & Carrots” (Mesorah Publications, 2020), might incorporate more spice. (Ms. Renov omits the saffron for Passover.) With the addition of red peppers and tomatoes coming from the Americas, it became the rich Moroccan dish it is today. Traditionally made with white fish, it also works with salmon or shad. Serve this as an appetizer, symbolic of the wish for abundance. Assemble it in the morning and cook it just before serving, or eat the fish at room temperature. For a main course, add quinoa or couscous to soak up the flavorful juices.
Lobster Pasta With Yellow Tomatoes and Basil
This is an uncomplicated dish for warm weather and sunny days. Olive oil, garlic, hot pepper, barely warmed tomatoes and tons of fresh basil are the only ingredients besides lobster and dried pasta, preferably a variety with a bit of texture, like frilly edged reginette, cooked perfectly al dente. The only real work is cooking the lobsters and chopping the meat. Once that’s done, go out and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.
Creamy One-Pot Mushroom and Leek Pasta
This deeply satisfying pasta, brimming with rich umami, is made in just one pot, an approach that bolsters its flavors. Once the leek and mushrooms are caramelized and sticking to the pot, they’re deglazed to lift all the extra depth from the bottom of the pan. (Use any liquid for deglazing, whether water, wine, stock, vinegar or tomato juice.) This recipe leaves the choice of mushrooms up to you: Cremini and shiitake are a good combination, but you could even use rehydrated porcinis. If you are craving greens to cut through the richness, stir a few handfuls of baby spinach into the pasta just before you turn off the heat.
Mark Bittman's Pasta With Clams
Here is a simple, elegant take on pasta with clam sauce that serves as a beautiful, light dinner with salad, perfect in advance of a movie night or reading session on the couch with family or friends. The key to its success is using less pasta that you generally might, which helps place the focus of the dish squarely on the meaty clams.
Bulgur-Ricotta Pancakes
Roasted Fish With Lemon, Sesame and Herb Bread Crumbs
Trout is an ideal weeknight dinner because its thin fillets cook in minutes. All it really needs is some butter and lemon, but an herb-panko mixture adds freshness and crunch. The breadcrumb mixture is inspired by za’atar, a spice blend that includes sesame seeds, dried herbs and tart-citrusy sumac. Using fresh thyme and oregano instead of dried herbs, and lemon zest in place of dried sumac yields a brighter final dish. If you want to use dried za’atar, swap in 3 tablespoons of the blend for the first four ingredients. Serve the fish alongside rice, a green salad, boiled potatoes or braised chickpeas. The fish roasts in about the same time as string beans, broccolini or snap peas would, so you can also roast vegetables on a second baking sheet while the fish cooks.
Whole Roasted Fish With Wild Mushrooms
A very large whole roasted fish brought to the table with head and tail intact is a visually dramatic and incredibly tasty dinner party main course. Even better is that it's both a breeze to cook (season it up, throw it in the oven and wait), and to serve (big fish have big bones, which makes it easy to scoop the flesh off the skeleton). Do not forget to call your fishmonger ahead to order a large fish. This recipe, with lemons, herbs and crisp wild mushrooms, will work with any 4- to 6-pounder, from delicate black sea bass to salmon-colored arctic char. The variety of fish here is less important than the size. Generally speaking, you'll need about a pound of fish per person, though three-quarters of a pound will do if you're serving it in the context of a multi-course meal. Also, if you can't find one very large fish, you can use two smaller ones, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds each. In that case, feel free to squeeze them into one roasting pan.
Pasta With Cherry Tomatoes and Arugula
This simple, glorious dish, popular in the southern Italian region of Puglia, is an argument for keeping cherry tomato plants in your garden or on your fire escape. Uncooked tomato sauce is juicy and cool on a summer evening. The recipe asks only that you halve the tomatoes (quarter them if they are particularly large), then combine them with garlic, salt, balsamic vinegar, arugula, basil and olive oil. Toss that with cooked pasta, and shower with salty, firm shavings of ricotta salata. Arugula adds wonderful flavor (all the more if you can find peppery wild arugula) and a nutritional punch.
Fish Milanese
This fast weeknight dinner features quick-cooking flounder prepared alla Milanese, the style of breading and frying meat cutlets. The fillets are lightly breaded and pan-fried until golden and crisp on the outside and tender in the middle. A lemony, brown-butter pan sauce with capers comes together quickly to add a tangy brininess to the dish. A bit of avocado on the side adds creaminess that balances the crisp fish and peppery arugula. Any leftover fish makes for terrific sandwiches the next day, stacked with lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo.
Fried Meat Kreplach
Mexican Scrambled Eggs
I often eat this beloved Mexican breakfast dish for dinner. Serve the eggs with warm corn tortillas.
Baked Fish and Chips
Baking fish and chips is not only easier and less messy than frying, but it also has the distinct advantage of allowing you to cook both fish and potatoes at the same time in your oven. The key to getting the crunchiest fries is to cut them thin (leave the skin on for extra flavor) and spread them out in one layer onto a preheated sheet pan to jump-start the crisping. (If you want to save a few minutes, start the potatoes in the oven while you prepare the fish.) We’ve paired this dish with a piquant horseradish tartar sauce, but ketchup works well, too, particularly for the grade-school set.
Pasta With Meatballs and Herb Sauce
Before you use herbs as a main ingredient — it helps to know which ones work on a grand scale. Parsley, obviously, works in abundance: it’s clean-tasting, pleasantly grassy and almost never overwhelming. You can add literally a bunch (bunches!) of it to salad, soup, eggs, pasta, grains or beans. The same is largely true of basil, and you can use other mild herbs — chervil, chives, cilantro, dill, shiso — by at least the handful. (Mint is also useful but will easily take over a dish if you add too much of it. But all of these are great for making herb pastes, or pestos, alone or in combination. Use the same technique you use for basil pesto.)