Main Course
8665 recipes found
Braised Rabbit With Polenta
Pasta With Lemon, Herbs and Ricotta Salata
Here's a light, brothy pasta with chicken stock, lemon zest, mint and ricotta salata that Amanda Hesser brought to The Times in 2001. It's easy yet elegant; perfect for a impromptu weeknight dinner party. If you can get your hands on a Meyer lemon, do so and use that, but the recipe works just as well with a standard lemon from the corner deli.
Matelote of Monkfish
Cabbage-Sausage Risotto
Clear Summer Borscht
Borscht, an Eastern European beet soup, carries with it strong associations of dark, ceaseless Russian winters. But this glistening borscht is meant to be served cold, at the height of summer. Light, lemony and infused with garlic, the soup is utterly refreshing, even thirst-quenching. If you enrich it with yogurt, the color will be dark pink. If you don’t, it will be a clear, dark red.
Lobster With Pasta and Mint
Sage Chicken a la Kiev
Stir-Fried Rice Noodles With Beets and Beet Greens
I like to use golden or Chioggia beets for this stir-fry. Whatever beets you use, slice them very thin; for best results use a mandolin. Use a wok, not a pan, for stir-fried noodles as noodles will spill out of a pan. Tongs are a good tool for stirring and tossing the noodles, but a long-handled spatula will also work.
Sicilian Pasta With Cauliflower
A favorite island vegetable combines with raisins and saffron to introduce a sweet element to a savory, salty mix. Cauliflower is a favorite vegetable in Sicily, though the variety used most often is the light green cauliflower that we can find in some farmers’ markets in the United States. I found the recipe upon which this is based in Clifford A. Wright’s first cookbook, “Cucina Paradiso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily.” And it is heavenly. The raisins or currants and saffron introduce a sweet element into the savory and salty mix.
Pasta With Cauliflower
This dish is derived from a Marcella Hazan recipe. It’s dead simple, and the cauliflower can be precooked a day ahead or so. Or, the whole thing can be made at once: cook the cauliflower in water, scoop it out and then, later, cook the pasta in the same water. It’s already boiling, and you want the taste of the cauliflower anyway, so why not? The cauliflower gets cooked more, in a skillet with toasted garlic, so don’t boil it to death, although you do want it to be tender. And in the original Minimalist recipe, from 2000, bread crumbs were added to the skillet along with the cauliflower, but since some pasta water is usually added to the skillet to keep the mixture saucy, the bread crumbs become soggy. Better, then, to stir the bread crumbs in at the very end. They should be very coarse and ideally homemade, and if they’re toasted in olive oil in a separate skillet before you toss them in, so much the better.
Red and Black Rice With Leeks and Pea Tendrils
I made this on impulse when I found pea tendrils at the farmers’ market this week, but you don’t have to put aside the recipe until spring brings them to your markets — use baby spinach instead. The dish is inspired by a recipe for farro and black rice with pea tendrils from Suzanne Goin’s “Sunday Suppers at Lucques."
Striped Bass Poached In Spicy Soy Sauce
Poaching fish in a mixture of soy sauce and water is a simple, fast method that adds gorgeous flavor to fillets, which emerge moist and succulent. It is also flexible and forgiving, with a cooking liquid that can accommodate a host of seasonings. Here those seasonings are sugar (to cut the saltiness of the soy sauce), scallions and an optional fresh or dried chile pepper (either minced or put in whole), but you could experiment with ginger, garlic, lime juice or other flavors. Combine all the ingredients, except the bass, in a skillet. Bring to a boil, add the fish flesh-side-down, and adjust the heat so that the mixture does not bubble too aggressively. The fish cooks in 8 to 10 minutes, until its flesh is mahogany-colored and doesn’t resist when you slice in with a thin-bladed knife. Serve on top of rice, garnished with the cooking liquid and the scallions, which are now limp and tender. Other fish, like cod, halibut, monkfish and salmon, also work, but keep an eye on it as it poaches — you will likely need to adjust the cooking time slightly.
Fettuccine With Roasted Mushrooms
Sautéed Rabbit With Mustard Sauce
Olive-Oil-Poached Fish With Pasta
There are no fish I can think of that don’t cook nicely slathered in warm olive oil. Here, a mix of several varieties is tossed with pasta, tomato and herbs. How could you go wrong with that?
Pasta con le Sarde
When the photographer and filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg brought this recipe to The Times in 2008, he described it as “a perfectly balanced combination of sardines, fennel, currants and bread crumbs.” Adapted from Gusto in Greenwich Village, this seafood pasta needs no cheese: The saltiness and bite from the sardines and the sautéed vegetables should be more than enough.
Ginger Fried Rice
This recipe comes to The Times from the fertile mind of the chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Like all fried-rice dishes it begins with leftover rice (freshly cooked rice is too moist to fry well). It’s jasmine rice here, but white from Chinese takeout works nearly as well and is more convenient. Perhaps unsurprisingly — this is a chef’s recipe, after all — separate cooking processes are called for: ginger and garlic are crisped, leeks softened, rice and eggs fried. But no step takes more than a few minutes, and the results are absolutely worth the effort.
Eggplant Stuffed With Rice and Tomatoes
Travel anywhere in the Mediterranean region, and you will find stuffed vegetables. In Provence, they tend to be filled with meat (a way to stretch leftover stews), but in the Middle East and Greece rice and grain fillings prevail. Regional cooks make abundant use of fresh herbs like parsley, dill and mint, and sweet spices like cinnamon and allspice. Fragrant stuffed vegetables can be made ahead of the meal and served hot or at room temperature. They don’t require a lot of patience to assemble — they just need a long simmer and then a rest to let the flavors mingle and intensify. Eat them as a main dish or a side, and serve up leftovers for lunch. The filling for these irresistible stuffed eggplants is also good for peppers and squash. Substitute the chopped flesh of the summer squash for the eggplant, and just use the rice and tomatoes for peppers. Make these a day ahead for best results.
Fettuccine in Cream Sauce
Rice Bowl With Spinach and Smoked Trout
If you have just a few good condiments on hand, you can make a great, simple meal in minutes by adding cooked rice.
Beef Tartare Burger
Chinese Cold Boiled Chicken
This is an easy dish, put together in minutes and abandon for an hour on a low flame. If you do it in the morning, it will be ready for lunch. But it can also be cooked a day ahead. Its flavors deepen with a night in the fridge. The recipe in three sentences: Season the thighs with salt and pepper, ginger, star anise and scallions, cover with water and simmer slowly. Remove the chicken, reduce the cooking liquid, then pour it back over the meat. Wait until it’s well chilled. To serve, sprinkle the ice-cold jelly-clad chicken with sesame oil, scallions, cilantro and jalapeño slices. Give it a squeeze of lime. If you want something extra, add cucumber, avocado and crisp lettuce leaves. Or take off the skin, shred the chicken and have it with cold noodles.
Pasta With Tomatoes and Beans
This pasta is one reason I always keep a few cans of tomatoes and cannellinis in my pantry. Beans contribute protein to this pasta, which makes a great vegan dish if you serve it without the cheese.