Main Course
8665 recipes found
Brussels Sprouts Amatriciana
Brussels sprouts have a special relationship with pork. Sturdy and lean with just a hint of bitterness, they thrive with a contrasting yet complementary flavor partner, like salty, fatty bacon. Simmered together in an amatriciana-style sauce of tomato, olive oil and red-pepper flakes, the sprouts become tender and smoky in this bright and simple enriched sauce that soaks into freshly toasted thick-cut bread. If you want a more traditional amatriciana, seek out guanciale instead of bacon. (Pancetta works too, though it will be leaner and smokeless.) Reserved crispy pork bits are used as a topping, accenting the luscious sauce.
Mushroom Mille-Feuille With Tomato Coulis
Rich Torrisi developed this intense and terrific recipe for the menu at Dirty French, one of a number of chic restaurants in downtown Manhattan that he runs with Mario Carbone. It is on one hand a simple dish: thin-sliced mushrooms layered with butter and salt, then pressed and chilled until they resemble the French dessert known as mille-feuille, or "thousand leaves." Sautéing a slice of the resulting loaf in a hot pan, and then pairing it with a lovely coulis of fresh tomatoes and herbs? That elevates it to the divine.
Pasta With Radicchio, Gorgonzola and Hazelnuts
This forgiving pasta makes for a hearty vegetarian dinner that arrives with salad in tow. The sweet, buttery crunch of hazelnuts and the salty, rich blue cheese balance the bitter crisp of the radicchio. If you don't have hazelnuts, any toasted nut like almonds or walnuts will do. If you’re not going meatless, crisp up a little pancetta before you add the radicchio or serve the pasta as a side to accompany roast chicken or pork.
Cedar-Planked Salmon With Soft Corn Pudding
Japanese Curry Brick
This recipe for buttery curry brick comes from the cookbook author and teacher Sonoko Sakai, who wanted a homemade alternative to the industrial, store-bought cubes that make the thick, spicy sauce for Japanese curries. Sakai wanted to avoid palm oil, preservatives and artificial ingredients, so her version starts with whole toasted spices, ground into a fine powder and stirred into a gently browned roux of butter and flour. Feel free to play with the spice proportions — increase the chile powder for a hotter curry or the kombu for more sweetness. No matter how you tweak it, the best part about Sakai’s recipe is that it makes enough for several meals, and you can store the extra curry bricks in the fridge or freezer, so you’re ready to make a curry whenever you like (see the note below for instructions).
Stuffed Flank Steak (Matambre)
Matambre is a contraction of the Spanish words for "kill" and "hunger" -- it's the hunger killer. It's beef traditionally stuffed with vegetables, herbs, hard-cooked egg and seasonings. I cannot abide hard-boiled egg in cooked meat dishes, so I've substituted olives. It is often served as a kind of cold cut in Argentina, where it was created, but it can also be served hot.
Grilled Pork Escabeche
You can use any cut of pork or chicken. The marinade is also good with mackerel or other fish (floured and sautéed or fried before marinating).
Cornish Game Hens Canzanese
Pizza Rustica (Easter Pie)
A deep-dish cousin to quiche that's packed with Italian deli meats and cheeses like prosciutto, pepperoni, soppressata, mozzarella and provolone, this rich pie, also called Easter pie, is traditionally made on Good Friday and served on the holiday to celebrate the end of Lent. This version came to The Times from Carlo's Bakery, in Hoboken, N.J., of “Cake Boss” fame, and it is the only savory item the bakery makes. It's typically eaten at room temperature, but the staff at Carlo's enjoys it warm right out of the oven.
Pasta With Sausage, Squash and Sage Brown Butter
Whether you’re after a night in with your special someone or your sweatpants, this is your pasta: a cozy combination of spicy sausage and squash that’s glossed with nutty, sage-spiked butter and Parmesan. It’s inspired by the cavatelli with sausage and browned sage butter at Frankies 457 Spuntino in Brooklyn — the most ordered dish on dates, according to the owners, but appealing no matter the occasion, according to us. The key to making the dish sing is the unsexy color (brown). You'll want to get a hard sear on the sausage and the squash, and let the butter bubble until brown and toasty. If you’re looking for a vegetarian option, omit the sausage. The meat will be gone, but the comfort won't be.
Nina Simonds's Broiled Halibut With Miso Glaze
Braised and Grilled or Broiled Pork Ribs
The barbecued ribs I like best are cooked all the way through, using moist, relatively low heat, then finished over a high flame for a final browning. And you can nicely, if imperfectly, replicate this process by braising the ribs and then finishing them over the grill or in the broiler. Of course the broiler won’t add wood flavor, but then neither will a gas grill or briquettes. What I did for the ribs in the recipe here was brown them, then slowly braise them in the oven (the top of the stove would work as well). When they were nearly falling off the bone I took them straight from the braising liquid and ran them under the broiler, just until they crisped up.
Roasted Mushroom Larb
Earthy mushrooms replace meat in this take on larb. A dish popular in the northern and northeastern regions of Thailand, larb is often a lively combination of cooked minced meat, fresh herbs and a punchy dressing. In this recipe, mushrooms are roasted until golden brown and crispy around the edges, and, once cooled, tossed with a mix of cilantro, mint, basil and aromatics, including sliced scallions. Lime juice and soy sauce keep the dressing tangy and savory. A subtle, nutty crunch from toasted ground rice is an essential element of the salad, so don’t skip this step. Serve the dish with steamed rice and additional lime wedges for squeezing. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Oats With Amaranth, Chia Seeds and Blueberries
Fresh blueberries are not in season at the moment, so I put my frozen organic wild blueberries to good use in this hearty mix. The chia and the amaranth pump up the nutritional value of this cereal -- both are high in calcium, amaranth is high in protein, and chia seeds are a great source of healthful omega-3s. They also contribute texture. For even more great texture, top the cereal with chopped toasted hazelnuts or almonds.
Braised Short Ribs
Mole de Olla (Beef Stew With Chiles)
Mexico has innumerable beef stews: puchero, birria, puntas al albañil — but the most universal, according to writer Pati Jinich, is mole de olla, a true one-pot dish, often made for family gatherings, with vegetables like corn, zucchini, cactus and chayote added at the last minute. If the name seems surprising, Ms. Jinich said, the word mole doesn’t refer just to the famous thickened sauces of Puebla and Oaxaca, but any kind of “saucy thing.” What makes mole de olla a stew and not a soup is the rich purée of roasted dried chiles that both thickens and seasons it.
Meatball Subs
In this classic Italian American sandwich, tender meatballs drenched in tomato sauce are tucked into crisp rolls then buried under a blanket of gooey cheese. It’s a messy sandwich no matter how you build it or bite into it, but wise construction can help: First, hollow out the rolls a bit so the meatballs have a place to sit. Then, use the leftover crumbs to make the meatballs, which will keep them light. Finally, toast the rolls to prevent them from getting too soggy with sauce. Of course, some crispy-gone-soggy bites are welcome, just as the cheese pulls, sauce drips and messy fingers are, too. They’re all part of the experience.
Vegetable Paella With Chorizo
This weeknight paella comes together in just three basic steps: Sweat the aromatics, bake until tender, then return to the stovetop to cook until the rice becomes crunchy. It becomes even more weeknight-friendly if you take advantage of store-bought pre-cut vegetables to cut down on prep time. For a more protein-rich dish, season a dozen medium shrimp with olive oil, salt and pepper and nestle them into the paella during the last 5 minutes of baking. If preparing the dish for vegetarians, skip the chorizo, swap in vegetable broth and add an extra pinch of paprika, if desired. The only non-negotiable step is finishing the paella over direct flame on the stovetop so the rice at the bottom of the pan forms a delectable crust, also known as soccarat.
Rotisserie Chicken and Greens Pasta
Rotisserie chicken, with its browned, crisp skin and juicy meat, provides a great leg up when there’s no time to roast one yourself. Add some pre-cut greens and it becomes the base for this rich, nourishing pasta sauce, which comes together while the noodles cook. Although convenient, rotisserie chicken meat can be underseasoned, so this recipe calls for seasoning it more. Look for baby cooking greens or chopped greens, like kale, spinach, chard or escarole, which will melt easily into the jammy onions and garlic. Fresh lemon juice rounds out this pasta, making it bright; cream is optional but highly endorsed. A sprinkle of Parmesan finishes this dish with even more depth and umami.
Green Beans and Tofu Skins With Rice Sticks
This light-on-the-noodles, heavy-on-the-vegetables dish comes together in under a half hour. Lots of fresh ginger and dried Thai chiles provide plenty of liveliness, a perfect counterpoint to the warm earthiness of the dark sesame oil. Never heard of tofu skins? They are the sheets that form on the surface of warmed soy milk, and you can find them in Asian specialty markets. They're tender and egg-y, and like tofu, absorb the flavors of the dish they're in.
Pasta and Bean Soup
The chef Tom Valenti channels his late grandmother in his cooking, utilizing her ''stove top approach to life'' by braising and stewing and slow cooking the kinds of food that snowstorms were made for. Her pasta and bean soup, a treat for carb-lovers with its addition of mashed potatoes to thicken the broth, was one of many old-country comfort foods that she fed Mr. Valenti during his childhood.
Camarones Embarazados (Adobo Grilled Shrimp)
Camarones embarazados translates to pregnant shrimp, but these crustaceans aren’t necessarily carrying roe. The catchy name is a play on words: “en vara” means on a stick, and “asado” means roasted, and together, “en vara asado” sounds like “embarazado.” These shrimp are soaked with an adobo that becomes a crunchy crust when grilled. This take on the dish, which spread from Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast of Mexico to beaches all over the country, combines guajillo chiles and chiles de árbol with the surprising addition of Mexican chocolate. The chocolate rounds out the sharpness of the adobo and provides a caramelized finish. Simmered extra adobo is delicious for dipping the shrimp hot off the coals.
Pasta With Creamy Herb Sauce
This cozy pasta is the perfect place to use up any hard-stem herbs like sage, thyme or rosemary that are languishing in your fridge. Add the herbs and a cinnamon stick to a pot of heavy cream. As they bubble together, the cream takes on a surprising but subtle herbaceousness. Use it to sauce pasta noodles and winter greens. If you don’t have the herbs listed, leave them out or swap in marjoram or bay leaves, or even dried chile, lemon peel, garlic, shallot or leeks. The method of infusing cream with flavorings, then using it to sauce pasta, is open to adaptation. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Paella With Tomatoes
The cooking process for this simple paella is identical to any other: soften some onions in oil, add seasonings (including saffron, if you have it), rice and liquid and cook. Adding lightly seasoned tomatoes is the major difference in this recipe.