Main Course
8665 recipes found
Spaghetti With Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce
This recipe came to The Times in 2003 from the chef Scott Conant, who was then cooking at his restaurant L'Impero in Manhattan. It is simple, classic Italian fare that makes the most of summer's tomatoes, but you can also make it with hothouse offerings and it will be delicious.
Cider-Spiked Fish Pie
This recipe for a smoky fish pie comes from the British food writer Ruby Tandoh. The filling is a simple mix of peas, cod and smoked haddock, gently poached in milk, thickened with roux and spiked with dry cider. Don't worry if the fish isn't completely cooked when you're putting together the pie; it will finish up in the oven, where it bubbles under a thick layer of mashed potato and grated cheese. The result is tender and luxuriously creamy comfort food.
Kuku Sabzi (Persian Herb Frittata)
Kuku, which is like a Persian frittata, comes in many forms, but this one, packed to the brim with herbs, is my favorite. Washing and picking through the piles of herbs can be overwhelming if you’re not used to staring down a mountain of produce, so feel free to prepare them in advance. I particularly love kuku sabzi for the contrast between its vivid-green herbaceous interior and its dark, sweet crust. Kuku is traditionally served with flatbread and a selection of crunchy and acidic condiments to balance the sweetness of the herbs; my favorites are fresh radishes, the chopped eggplant pickles called liteh and chunks of soft, salty feta cheese. Leftover kuku slathered with mast-o khiar makes for a wonderful sandwich.
Really Big Beets
Here is a show-stopping main course to please vegans and vegetarians — and one that even meat-eaters will want to eat. Diana Jarvis, a Manhattan resident who submitted this recipe to the Well blog's Vegetarian Thanksgiving feature in 2014, says to roast the beets for a long time, to achieve a giant, steak-like fist of vegetable, rich and salty-sweet. One hour works — two hours is better.
Hasselback Kielbasa
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Get a sheet pan ripping hot in a 425-degree oven while you cut up a small onion and a bell pepper, whatever color you prefer. Toss the vegetables in a splash of neutral oil, salt and pepper them, and tip them into a single layer on the hot pan. Allow these to roast in the oven while you cut the kielbasa into thin slices, stopping short of cutting all the way through the meat. You want to end up with a long accordion, basically, or an attenuated pill bug. Now remove the vegetables from the oven, give them a stir, and put the kielbasa on top. Return the sheet pan to the oven and allow everything to roast into crisp softness, 20 to 25 minutes, basting heavily two or three times with a mixture of equal parts apricot preserves and mustard, about 2 tablespoons each. Serve with steamed greens or a fresh baguette. It’ll go fast. 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.
Roasted Salmon With Toasted Sesame Slaw
Raw bean sprouts are the unexpected star in this version of coleslaw. The toasted sesame-seed vinaigrette brings out the natural earthiness in the crisp sprouts and shredded cabbage. This slaw, beaming with bright ginger, lemon and scallion, is the perfect accompaniment to silky, rich salmon. For a more filling meal, serve with white or brown rice on the side.
Whiskey-Glazed Salmon With Salt-Crusted Potatoes
The savory snap of baby potatoes crusted in salt is just what you want with the subtle sweetness of this fish’s glaze. The fish and the potatoes cook and come together at the same time in this fast meal. To achieve silky salmon without turning on the oven, gently cook it in a shallow pool of sauce that thickens to a syrup as it simmers. The potatoes, prepared using a technique from the Canary Islands, simply boil in generously salted water, then finish cooking with a splash of the liquid. When it evaporates, the salt that remains crusts onto the spuds. Shaking the pan vigorously helps the salt coat the potatoes evenly and sheds excess crystals. Serve with a salad or, after the glaze is scraped onto the fish, throw baby spinach into the still-hot skillet and stir to just wilt.
Winter Vegetable Soup With Turnips, Carrots, Potatoes and Leeks
I use the food mill instead of a blender — immersion or regular — because I love the texture of the soup when it’s put through the mill’s coarse blade, resulting in a flavorful, colorful mixture that you can almost chew on. But you can use a blender to purée the soup. The texture will be coarsest — which is what you want — if you use an immersion blender.
Crab Pasta With Snap Peas and Mint
Sweet crab meat and even sweeter sugar snap peas are a lovely match in this green-flecked springtime pasta. Don’t overlook the final garnish of olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper and flaky sea salt – it really brings out the saline flavor of the crab. Try replacing the mint with basil or chives, or even with tender pea shoots, which will increase the pea quotient in a delightful way.
Pork Vindaloo
Cooking Indian food at home for the first time isn’t easy. You may not have Indian red chile powder, Kashmiri red chile powder or tamarind pulp on hand. But a trip to a specialty market, or some time spent online, will yield the pantry basics. This fiery vindaloo is an interesting and not very difficult place to get started.
Sweet and Spicy Ribs With Cilantro and Cucumber
These ribs are a treat to put together, since everything cooks in one pan until the sauce becomes a sticky glaze and the ribs turn soft and tender. Some roasted potatoes or a potato salad would do well here if you’re serving this as part of a larger spread. Not to be confused with mango chutney, hot mango pickle is a traditional jarred condiment made by preserving mangoes and a variety of hot spices. It’s used most commonly in South Asia, and provides the sour and spicy qualities that give these ribs that special oomph of flavor. You can find it in the international section of many supermarkets or in other specialty markets.
Grilled Tuna in Flank Steak Marinade
Pasta With Mint, Basil and Fresh Mozzarella
In this green pasta dish, basil, mint, Parmesan and garlic are blended into a smooth pesto-like sauce, then tossed with pasta, creamy mozzarella and crunchy pine nuts just before serving. Marinating the mozzarella in some of the sauce as the pasta cooks imbues the mild cheese with flavor, and allows it to start softening so it melts in contact with the pasta. Serve this hot or warm, when the cheese is supple and a little runny.
Pasta With Prosciutto and Whole Garlic
This pasta dish, known as maccheroni alla San Giovanniello in Italy, is amazing in the summer months, when there are good fresh tomatoes around. But you can make it any time of year with canned tomatoes. You could also make it with much less prosciutto, really just enough to season the oil — a quarter cup or so. No matter how much you use, start with a hunk of prosciutto so you can dice chunks; you don’t want little thin slices. If you've got great basil, you can even skip the cheese. If you use fresh tomatoes, you can blanch and peel the tomatoes if you don't like the skins, but it's not really necessary.
Pesce all’Acqua Pazza (Fish in Crazy Water)
This classic Neapolitan dish involves poaching fish in a liquid that Marcella Hazan explained as being “denser than a broth, looser, more vivacious and fresher in taste than any sauce.” It’s made by simmering chopped extra-ripe tomatoes with water, garlic, chile and other flavorings. Once the water tastes like tomato, fish fillets are poached in it. This foolproof method prevents overcooking, so it’s ideal for all kinds of delicate seafood. Some think “crazy” refers to the broth’s spiciness, while others think the name comes from the fact that fishermen made the dish with seawater (but it could also simply reflect that water is the key ingredient).
Fish Pepper Soup
Pepper soup is a spicy dish made from a distinct blend of ground seeds, spices and fresh herbs. A generous spoonful might make your nostrils tingle, and even make you break a sweat, as you might during the humidity of noontime Lagos. Pepper soup can be made with any type of meat or seafood, and even obscure cuts and scraps can be elevated by the bold broth. This version uses a whole fish, taking the bones to make the stock, then poaching the fillets in the flavorful liquid. Ground pepper soup spices can be found easily at markets all over Nigeria; here in the United States, you can find them at African grocers or online. For the adventurous, I’ve included a recipe using whole spices that you can toast and grind into a blend of your own. Serve the dish alongside steamed white rice, steamed plantains or Agege bread, if desired.
Simple Marinara Sauce
Recipes hardly come easier. This marinara sauce is similar to our fresh tomato sauce recipe, but canned tomatoes stand in for the fresh ones so you won’t have to peel the tomatoes or put them through a food mill. If you buy chopped tomatoes in juice, you won’t even have to dice them.
Hearty Beef Stew With Red Onions and Ale
In this cozy beef stew, tender chunks of meat in a silky, savory, ale-tinged sauce share the pot with wedges of red onion and sweet nuggets of carrot. A little coriander and allspice add fragrance and depth to the mix, while a spoonful of tomato paste deepens and rounds out the flavors. Like all stews, it tastes even better a day or two later, and can be frozen for up to two months. Serve it over something soft and buttery to soak up the sauce: a mound of mashed potatoes, noodles or polenta.
Open-Faced Hot Turkey Sandwiches
Sometimes life requires an open-faced turkey sandwich with gravy and mashed potatoes, alongside a glop of cranberry sauce. It is neither a Thanksgiving meal nor a Christmas one, but simply a low-fi American reminder of diners and TV dinners and blankets and comfort itself: soft meat and rich, salty gravy over tight-crumbed bread, with buttery mash and a tang of cranberry. My recipe calls for roasting buttered turkey thighs in the oven while the potatoes were cooking, skin-side down to crisp the skin and allow the fat to render into the pan, creating sticky bits of fond you’ll use to build a base for gravy. Pile the sliced meat onto lightly toasted bread, drench it with gravy and serve alongside the potatoes and peas. Adding canned cranberry sauce, in this application, is no sin.
Grilled Swordfish With Corn Salad
Swordfish is one of the easiest fish to grill. Because it’s firm and thick, it can be cooked over hot coals for a while to pick up their smoky flavor, and it doesn’t fall apart when flipped. Serve with anything you’d eat with a steak or pork chop, like a bright and crunchy corn salad. Here, raw corn is mixed with long pieces of chives and cilantro in a move inspired by lao hu cai, or tiger salad, a Dongbei salad of cilantro and scallions, and buchu muchim, or Korean chive salad. When the salad is piled onto the fish, the rice vinegar and sesame oil dressing seasons the fish, and the corn and herbs soften slightly from the heat. The result is all at once fragrant, crunchy, juicy and satisfying.
Classic Pasta Alla Norma
This is down-home, primal Sicilian cooking, using inexpensive and commonly available ingredients: olive oil, eggplant, tomato and pasta. A showering of grated ricotta salata and toasted bread crumbs adorns this humble yet justly famous dish. The Sicilian composer Vincenzo Bellini adored it with such a passion that it was eventually named after his 19th-century opera "Norma" — or so goes the story.
Potato Gratin With Swiss Chard and Sumac Onions
This is not your typical potato gratin: The Cheddar and brown-butter pine nuts make it rich but not overly so, as the sumac onions and lemon juice lift the gratin to vibrant heights. Sumac is a tart and astringent spice used heavily in Middle Eastern cooking, adding sharpness to food where needed. These onions are great thrown into pasta and salads, or served with roasted chicken. The gratin can stand as a veggie main with a zesty salad alongside, as an accompaniment to your protein of choice or as part of a larger spread. Get ahead by making the onions and preparing all your ingredients (except the potatoes) well in advance, so they’re ready to be assembled together before baking. Once the whole thing goes in the oven, you’ll have ample time to get any accompaniments ready. You can serve this warm, but it also sits well to be served at room temperature.
Linguine With Lemon Sauce
The beauty of this recipe lies in its simplicity. All you need is pasta, a lemon, a knob of butter, a generous pour of heavy cream and a hunk of the best Parmesan you can get your hands on.
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.