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As you likely know by now, my most favorite kind of summer cooking is a simply grilled something surrounded by a bounty of farm-fresh, creative salads. (It always reminds me of my old magazine boss, Carrie, whose fashion philosophy was “Gap clothes, Prada accessories.”) This is probably why I love Susan Spungen’s new book Veg Forward so much. You might know Spungen, one of the original Martha Stewart alums, from her legendary annual holiday cookie round-ups. Or you might know her from her newsletter Susanality, a dependable source of inspiration for baking and grilling and — especially — vegetable-forward cooking. As she writes in her intro: “The veggies in this book are driving the bus, they’re not just along for the ride. Every idea for every recipe puts the vegetables first. They are never just tacked on as an afterthought.” Exhibit A: Grilled Savoy Cabbage Wedges with Thai-inspired Dressing, shown above, which I made on Sunday night. Holy moly was that a bold, interesting Prada-esque vegetable dish. And so simple! We served it with a grilled salmon, and I loved the fact that most of my psychic energy was directed towards vegetables instead of the main. Next time, I’ll serve the recipe alongside some baked tofu or seven-minute eggs, which would definitely earn it a spot in the Weeknight Dinner Hall of Fame.

Anyway, I’m working my way through the rest of the book, which is organized by season, and at a certain point I just stopped dog-earing pages, because everything just looked so up my alley. Veg Forward is available everywhere books are sold. Here is the recipe:

Grilled Savoy Cabbage Wedges with Spicy Thai-inspired Dressing
From Susan: Cabbage makes a brief visit to a hot grill, where it takes on a slightly smoky flavor and some crunch. I serve it with a steak knife and fork. Savoy cabbage has a softer texture and milder flavor than ordinary cabbage. Don’t be afraid to use the amount of fish sauce called for—it’s essential to the well-balanced dressing.

For the Dressing:
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar 
1 tablespoon fish sauce or Yondu
1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce or sriracha, plus more to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil Freshly ground pepper

For the cabbage
1 head Savoy cabbage (1 1/2 to 2 pounds) 
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Kosher salt
1 cup loosely packed mint leaves 
Big handful cilantro sprigs
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup salted peanuts, lightly crushed

To make the dressing: Blend the lime juice, brown sugar, vinegar, fish sauce, and chili garlic sauce or sriracha in a small bowl with a fork. Blend in the oil andpepper and set aside.

To grill the cabbage: Trim any wilted or torn outer leaves. Trim the bottom of the stem to remove the brown portion, but leave the stem and core intact so thewedges hold together on the grill.

Cut the head in half, wash well, and pat dry. Then cut each half into 4 wedges, for a total of 8 wedges. Spread out on a baking sheet and coat on all sides with the oil,then sprinkle lightly with salt.

Heat a gas or charcoal grill to medium-high. Grill the cabbage wedges for 2 to 3 minutes on each side until lightly charred on the edges and surfaces.

Arrange the cabbage wedges on a platter and drizzle with the dressing. Roughly chop most of the mint, reserving a handful of whole leaves for garnish. Top with the mint and cilantro and sprinkle with the scallions and peanuts.

We served the cabbage with the simplest grilled salmon filet…

And for dessert, Abby grilled up some pineapple rings…

…which we topped with leftover mint from the vegetables, and grated Sicilian dark chocolate.

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Last month, I was thrilled to speak with my old friend Elizabeth Mayhew, aka The Dutchy, for a Q&A assignment. We worked together at Real Simple and she is the one behind the banana bread that gets more ink on Dinner: A Love Story than either of my children do. Well, Elizabeth is still baking (as she told me in the interview: “That’s what I do. If you invite me to a dinner, you do not ask me to bring wine or cheese. You say, please bring a dessert. Everybody just knows that”), but you might say she’s leveled up a bit since the one-pan banana bread days.

She now runs a bakery in Millbrook, NY, specializing in what she calls Charm Cakes — think charm bracelets, but crafted with flour, sugar, icing and French buttercream. I love these cakes because the details are so incredibly personal and random (see above: McDonalds fries, Advil, Saratoga?!) so naturally I find myself wondering about the person being feted…and also daydreaming about which of my random enthusiams would define me…if one can be defined in French buttercream.

Speaking of that French buttercream — it is famously temperamental and calls for egg yolks, which means at all times Elizabeth has a surplus of egg whites in her Millbrook refrigerator. That, she told me, is how she ended up perfecting her egg white frittata. Here’s her recipe.

Elizabeth Mayhew’s Egg White Frittata

Beat together a dozen egg whites with one 5.3-ounce container of Total Greek yogurt, 5% or 2% (about 1 cup). Add salt and pepper. You don’t have to worry about it being fully incorporated — it’s just egg whites, it’s not going to bind as easily.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Add a little olive oil to a 9-inch cast iron skillet set over medium heat, and add 1 large sliced onion, cooking until caramelized, about 20 minutes. Add one 8-ounce container of sliced mushrooms (any kind) and cook until they have released all their water.

Meanwhile, mix together 1 1/2 cups grated cheese (Elizabeth does gruyere; or a mixture of 1 cup fontina and 1/2 cup Parm-Pecorino; or 1/2 cup cheddar, it’s very flexible!) Clean and chop 1 bunch of curly kale, about 4 to 5 stalks, ribs removed.

Fold in most of the cheese (reserve 1/4 cup of it) and the kale and to egg white mixture, — it’s going to seem like a lot of kale — then take half of that mixture, pour it into the skillet, and mix it together, so the onion-mushrooms are integrated. Pour in remainder of egg mixture.

Place the skillet on top of a cookie sheet in the preheated oven, and bake for 35-40 minutes. It should get puffy and resist when you touch it. It should come right out of skillet. Slice and eat all week long.

P.S. For simple vegetarian recipes, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians. Reminder: All the fun stuff these days happens in the Dinner: A Love Story newsletter on Substack, which is consistently in the Top 10 most-read food newsletters on the entire platform. You can subscribe here.

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Well, I finally did what I’ve been threatening to do since February’s London visit: I recreated the fish we ate at Noble Rot, that cozy black-wood-paneled restaurant on charming Lambs Conduit street in Bloomsbury that I still haven’t shut up about. We ate some pretty amazing food in London, but I think the fish we ate at Noble Rot is the dish I’m thinking about so many weeks later because of how absurdly simple and elegant it was. The whole thing, as I see it, calls for three main ingredients: A mild white fish (we used flounder; they used a fish called slipsole, slightly more firm), butter, and smoked paprika. In other words, I knew we’d be able to execute something close to it in our own kitchen back home. And we did. Good lord, it tasted amazing. And I’m proud to say the recipe is now on The Official Dinner: A Love Story Rotation. Thank you for the inspiration, Noble Rot.

Pan-Fried Fish with Smoky Brown Butter
I know I don’t need to remind you what the most important rule is when a recipe calls for so few ingredients: Make sure those ingredients are as fresh and high-quality as possible…crucially the fish. As for the brown butter, please know if you’ve never made it before that it’s not hard, but it’s also not the kind of forgiving, wing-it technique that I tend to write about. It definitely needs a little babysitting. Serves 2. Can be doubled.

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound (two 1/2-pound filets) mild white fish such as flounder, sole, gray sole
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Make your smoky brown butter: Add the butter to a small saucepan set over medium-low heat. Do not leave your stovetop perch! Watch as the butter melts, then foams, then begins to brown, swirling occasionally as you go. The whole process should take about 4 minutes, but its really an eyeball (and an aromatic) thing: As soon as it starts to smell nutty and you start to see the brown speckles at the bottom of the pan, remove the pan from the heat so the butter doesn’t burn. Stir in the smoked paprika and a pinch of sea salt and set aside.

Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil. Season the fish with salt and pepper, then pan-fry for about 3 to 4 minutes total, flipping once half-way through. (To measure doneness, the fish should feel firm to the touch but not mushy or rock hard.)

Remove filets to dinner plates and spoon a tablespoon or two of smoky brown butter on top as shown.

P.S. For simple vegetarian recipes, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians. Reminder: All the fun stuff these days happens in the Dinner: A Love Story newsletter on Substack, which is consistently in the Top 10 most-read food newsletters on the entire platform. You can subscribe here.

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“In the late summer of 2019, I hit a wall. I felt cruddy after years of eating everything I wanted, all in the name of professional research.” So beings Andrea Nguyen’s wonderful new cookbook Ever-Green Vietnamese, where she reimagines her traditional Vietnamese repertoire, seeking out savory depth while wearing more plant-forward goggles. Perhaps it’s not a surprise that the whole project energized her creatively and physically, conjuring her childhood in Vietnam, where her mom prepared mostly plant-based meals by necessity — meat was expensive and not as readily available. (Her family fled for Southern California in 1975.) Anyone who has spent a minute with me these last few years knows how much a part of my life Nguyen’s recipes are (her Shaking Beef, her Tofu Banh Mi!) and this book continues the tradition of making one of my more favorite cuisines eminently accessible….

The Pickled Bean Sprout salad that I brought to my friends house on Saturday night (shown here) calls for sugar, salt, white vinegar, water, and vegetables. There are Cauliflower Char Siu Cauliflower Sliders (Bánh Bay Kęp Chay) which involves tossing roasted crispy cauliflower with hoisin, sweet chili sauce, rice vinegar, and soy sauce and Shaking Salmon, the iconic Vietnamese main dish (Nguyen: “I’ve shaken beef and tofu…why not salmon?”) where there’s more salad than fish. And there is this homey, aromatic Tofu-Mushroom Curry, the recipe for which Nguyen was nice enough to share below. Can you believe how good that looks? I’m making it tonight.

Cà Ri Đậu Hũ và Nấm
From Ever-Green Vietnamese, by Andrea Nguyen
Printed with permission

(From Andrea) Here’s a confession: I made so-so Viet vegetable curry for years, relying on fish sauce as a cheat but the flavor was off. Finally, I developed this stellar vegan version. It employs the Indian method of browning fried onion to craft a flavorful base. Garlic and ginger lend zip; tomato, fresh mushrooms, and MSG add savory notes. Tofu soaks up all the flavors.Serve this alluring curry with baguette and a salad, or rice and leafy greens. Use leftovers for tacos.

Makes 4 servings

1 (14- or 16-oz) package extra-firm tofu, water poured off
Fine sea salt
3 Tbsp neutral oil (such as canola or peanut)
2⁄3 cup chopped yellow onion
1 Tbsp finely chopped peeled ginger
1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
3 Tbsp minced lemongrass
Scant 2 tsp Madras-style curry powder, or a combination of 1 tsp ground coriander, scant 3⁄4 tsp garam masala, and 1⁄4 tsp ground turmeric
1⁄4 tsp MSG, or 1⁄2 tsp Asian mushroom seasoning or Marmite (optional)
1⁄8 tsp cayenne pepper, or 1⁄4 tsp red pepper flakes
6 oz tomato, grated on the largest hole of a box grater (keep juices and seeds)
10 oz medium cremini or white mushrooms, halved through the stems
1 1⁄3 cups full-fat unsweetened coconut milk (whisk before measuring)
1⁄4 cup water, plus more as needed
1⁄4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro sprigs or dill fronds

Pan-fry the tofu

Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes. Season with a mounded 1⁄4 tsp salt, transfer to a dish towel, and let drain for 10 to 15 minutes.

Set a 12-inch nonstick or carbon-steel skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 Tbsp of the neutral oil. Meanwhile, pat the moisturefrom the tofu (I use a dry area of the dish towel). When the oil ripples, add the tofu and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, turning frequently to brownon two or three sides. Set aside to cool.

Cook the aromatics and simmer the curry

Set a 3-qt saucepan over medium-high heat and add the remaining 2 Tbsp neutral oil. When the oil barely ripples, add the onion and a sprinkling of salt and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until richly browned. Turn the heat to medium, then add the ginger, garlic, lemongrass, curry powder, MSG (if using), and cayenne. Stir for about 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the tomato, mushrooms, and 1⁄2 tsp salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. The mixture will condense to half its original volume; splash in water if things stick.

Add 1 cup of the coconut milk, re-cover, and lower the heat to a simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pan-fried tofu and water to barely coverthe solids. Simmer gently, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and gently stir in the remaining 1⁄3 cup coconut milk; let the curryrest for 10 minutes, uncovered.

Tweak, garnish, and serve

Taste the curry and season with additional salt, if needed; splash in water if the flavors are too strong. Stir in 3 Tbsp of the cilantro, transfer toa serving bowl, and crown with the remaining 1 Tbsp cilantro. Serve immediately.

(Photograph by Aubrie Pick.)

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Greetings eaters and readers! I’m thrilled to present Amanda Hesser’s Easter Menu as the next chapter in my Dinner Party Game Plan series. Here, Amanda, co-founder of Food52 and one of my personal food writing heroes, offers two options, both of which won me over for their ease and elegance. I am so thrilled about her star turn here, in fact, that I’m offering her menu to all Dinner: A Love Story substack readers, not just paying subscribers as usual. You can head over to my substack to get the recipes and the downloadable shopping list and what-to-make-when game plan. Happy Easter everyone, and thank you, Amanda!

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How do I eat vegetarian without leaning on carbs? Since I wrote The Weekday Vegetarians, I have gotten this question at every turn. The first thing I need to say about this is that in general, we eat a normal amount of carbs in our house. We’re not eating pasta every night, but nor are we serving riced cauliflower with our stir-fries. (I’ve tried. I just. Can’t. Do. It.) The second thing I want to say is low-carb vegetarian eating isn’t easy. But there are a few recipes in the old archive that have accidentally fallen into this category, so I wanted to re-up them for all the hounders. The not-so-secret secret is that in order to feel satisfied without carbs and without meat, you need fat and you need protein. To that end: Okonomiyaki (pictured above and recipe below) the savory Japanese pancakes traditionally made with eggs, flour (this recipe requires a very small amount, 1/2 cup spread across eight pancakes), shrimp and pork. I just load them up with mostly cabbage and shredded vegetables, and serve with a salad on the side for a quick Monday night event. Coconut milk can stand in for all kinds of carby things you think you need, as evidenced by Thai Green Curry if you just leave out the rice noodles. (Subscription only.) An indulgent sauce or dressing can do the job, too, as evidenced by this surprisingly satisfying Indonesian-ish Tofu Salad with Pineapple and Peppers which is drizzled with a spicy peanut sauce. Now that I think of it, that off-season caprese I opened with would work in this category as well, if rounded out with a few other small plates. Here is the Okonomiyaki recipe, and as always, please share your own discoveries if you’re into this kinda thing.

Okonomiyaki-Style Crispy Cabbage Pancakes
From The Weekday Vegetarians
Makes 8 3-to-4-inch pancakes

3 tablespoons mayonnaise 
2 teaspoons sriracha sauce
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce
4 large eggs
1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt
1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour
5 cups finely shredded cabbage, preferably napa
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives, plus more (optional) for serving
1 bunch scallions, white and light green parts only, finely chopped (about 2⁄3 cup)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more as needed

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayo, sriracha, and 1 teaspoon of the soy sauce. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt, the remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and 1⁄3 cup water. Gradually whisk in the flour—it’s OK if the batter is a little lumpy. Gently fold in the cabbage, chives, and scallions.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet set over medium heat. Heap 1⁄3-cup scoops of batter onto the hot surface, using the bottom of the measuring cup or a spoon to gently flatten them. Fry about three at a time, or as many as fit while giving them space. Cook until golden and crispy on each side, 6 to 8 minutes total. Transfer to a plate tented with foil to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining batter, adding more oil to the skillet if necessary. Serve alongside the sriracha dipping sauce and more chives, if desired.

P.S. For more simple vegetarian recipes, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians. Reminder: All the fun stuff these days happens in the Dinner: A Love Story newsletter on Substack, which is consistently in the Top 10 most-read food newsletters on the entire platform. You can subscribe here.

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I cleaned out our refrigerator over the weekend and found a tub of Gochujang (Korean fermented chile paste) hiding in the back, far away from where most of my condiments live. Which might explain why I forgot about it for some time. And I’m not sure how because it’s one of those ingredients that really earns its keep — it stays good forever in the fridge (up to 2 years) and a little goes a long way to impart a deep, spicy, slightly funky dimension to whatever you’re cheffing up. I particularly like mixing the paste into a glaze for roasted fish, which I did on Sunday. Here’s the no-recipe recipe.

Gochujang-Glazed Salmon
You can find gochujang at any Asian market or specialty store.

For the glaze: Whisk together 1 tablespoon gochujang, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice wine, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 2 teaspoons brown sugar. 

For the fish: Slice a 1 1/2-to-2-pound filet of char or salmon into four pieces, season with salt and pepper and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Set the broiler to high and cook salmon (unglazed) for about 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, brush a thin layer of the glaze on top of each filet, and broil another 2-4 minutes, watching carefully so it doesn’t burn. (If it looks like it’s burning, you can turn off the broiler and just let the hot oven finish cooking it.)

Remove the salmon from the oven when the glaze looks deep red and the edges of the fish are a little crispy. Brush with another suuuuper thin layer of glaze (just to make it a little shiny), sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve with a big green salad. (I made one with butter lettuce, arugula, avocados, radishes, cucumbers, basil, and a sherry-shallot dressing.) Perfect Sunday dinner.

P.S. For simple vegetarian recipes, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians. Reminder: All the fun stuff these days happens in the Dinner: A Love Story newsletter on Substack, which is consistently in the Top 10 most-read food newsletters on the entire platform. You can subscribe here.

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I’ve gotten really into shoving whatever vegetables I’ve got into a 400°F oven soon after breakfast so I have something hearty and healthy waiting for me by lunch time. (Perks of working from home, yes, I know.) Here are three recent winners, which you should of course feel free to serve for dinner.

Roasted Eggplant & Tomatoes with Tahini Dressing

1. Roast Vegetables: Toss eggplant slices and halved tomatoes in olive oil (I try not to drench the eggplant) salt and pepper and roast on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet for 25-30 minutes. Keep checking — you don’t want tomatoes, which cook faster, to burn. Let cool.

2. Make Maple-Tahini Dressing: Whisk together 1/4 cup tahini (I love Soom premium), 2 teaspoons maple syrup, 1 tablespoon olive oil, dash hot sauce, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 tablespoon water at a time (up to 4 tablespoons) until it reaches drizzle-able consistency. (Depending on your tahini, it might seize for a bit, but keep adding water and whisking, and it will loosen.)

3. Assemble: Combine roasted vegetables, something fresh (dill, cucumbers, a few lettuce leaves), and dressing. Top with za’atar or crushed pistachios. 

Note: Also works with Delicata Squash

Delicata Squash with Greens and Candied Pecans

Prep Squash: Toss delicata squash (sliced and seeded) in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet for 25-30 minutes. Let cool.

Make Dressing: In a small jar or measuring cup, shake or whisk 1/4 cup lemon juice (from about 1 1/2 lemons), 1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 1/2 teaspoon honey, salt and pepper. Once mixed, shake or whisk 1/3 cup olive oil into jar in steady stream until emulsified.

Assemble: Combine delicata with greens, minced red onions or scallions, dressing, and chopped spicy pecans. (These are from Trader Joe’s but be warned, they are absurdly addictive.)

Japanese Sweet Potatoes with Lemon Yogurt, Scallion, and Dukkah

We made this one for dinner, actually, and it was based on a side dish Andy ordered at Animal in L.A. and couldn’t stop talking about. To recreate it, I par-boiled two peeled and cubed Murasake potatoes (the not-so-cloyingly sweet variety with purplish skin and white flesh) for about 8 minutes…

…then fried them in a little vegetable oil to crisp up, and topped with lemon yogurt (1/3 cup plain yogurt mixed with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and enough water, about 1 tablespoon, to make it drizzle-able), finely minced scallion and dukkah. (You can also just use za’atar and finely minced pistachios if you can’t find dukkah.) Recipe can be doubled of course. The one above served two.

P.S. For more simple vegetarian recipes like these, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians. Reminder: All the fun stuff these days happens in the Dinner: A Love Story newsletter on Substack, which is consistently in the Top 10 most-read food newsletters on the entire platform. You can subscribe here.

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A few weeks ago, we met some friends for dinner at Maialino, Danny Meyer’s recently relocated Roman trattoria and wine bar that is now housed in the Redbury Hotel and, with its checkered tablecloths and sepia portrait-lined walls, still as charming as ever. We ordered the obligatory cacio e pepe and the vongole, and it was all wonderful, of course, but I confess I only had eyes for the Pollo alla Diavola, a half chicken — skin divinely crisped, meat next-level tender — bathing in a pool of bright orange, pickley peppery sauce. (I mean, come on, how good does that sound?) Naturally, the following weekend, when I was flipping through Samin Nosrat’s seminal Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, in search of something Saturday-night worthy, I stopped on her recipe for Chicken and Vinegar. It wasn’t exactly the same, but it was enough of a launching point to get me going in the right direction. I added tomato paste and Tabasco sauce in order to recreate the sauce (also borrowing a little from Gabrille Hamilton’s famous-in-my-house cider-braised chicken) and, tbh, really regretted not using skin-on thighs because that crispy sear on the chicken is pretty important. Still, I was happy with the decidedly tangy result…

…which we served with twice-baked potatoes, because they are Phoebe’s favorite and because, well, we aim to please.

Chicken and Vinegar
Inspired by recipes from Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and Gabrielle Hamilton’s Prune. Serve with a simple kale salad.

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
4 tablespoons butter
2 medium sweet onions, sliced thinly
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
3/4 cup dry white wine
6 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons thyme leaves or tarragon leaves, chopped 

Place the flour on a plate or dish, and season with salt and pepper. Add the olive oil to a large Dutch oven set over medium-high heat. When the pan is very hot, start dredging the chicken pieces in the flour then adding to the pot. Cook in batches, three or four pieces at a time, depending on your pot size — you’ll want them to have room to brown. Let the chicken sit undisturbed for at least 6 minutes to ensure a good sear. Flip the chicken and cook another 2 to 3 minutes, then remove each piece to a paper-towel lined plate. They do not have to be cooked through. Repeat with remaining chicken.

Carefully discard the fat and wipe down the surface of the pan. Turn heat to medium. Add the butter and onions, salt, and pepper, cooking until the onions are wilted and starting to caramelize, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Turn up heat slightly and stir in the tomato paste and Tabasco, cooking until the tomato paste darkens a little and looks toasty. Add the wine and vinegar, scraping down the pan with a wooden spoon to release all the brown bits. Bring to a simmer.

Place half the herbs and all the chicken back into the pot without submerging the pieces. Cover leaving the lid slightly ajar and simmer another 25 minutes. Remove the chicken to a platter, then spoon the sauce and onions on top. Garnish with the remaining tarragon or thyme.

(Top photo credit: Maialino)

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I was thrilled when I first learned that Lauren Fleshman, one of the most decorated American runners in my lifetime, was writing a memoir, Good for a Girl. A few years ago, she published a “Dear Younger Me” essay that went viral, and I think I am responsible for at least half its page views. She was the first person I knew who wrote about the addictive magic of the sport, but didn’t shy away from discussing the dangers of it, particularly for women and girls who get stuck in a cycle of disordered eating when their bodies change, believing the myth that being thinner will make them faster, which inevitably leads to injuries, both emotional and physical. (“There are so many ways to lose yourself in this sport,” she writes hauntingly in Good for a Girl.) As the mother of a competitive runner, I can tell you this was never discussed in locker rooms with high school coaches or in meetings with college coaches the way it should’ve been. Let me rephrase that: It was never discussed at all. Fleshman, who won five NCAA championships for Stanford and two national professional championships, before succumbing to her own devastating injuries, wants to change this. Her book, out today, makes a convincing case that American girls and women are participating in a sports system that is geared towards men and it’s failing them.

As you likely know by now, there are not many things I love more than a running memoir. This is probably because of my daughter and because I’ve run pretty regularly since I was a teenager, too. But also, I think it’s because the same qualities that define great runners — individualistic, introspective, deep-digging, driven — also happen to be the qualities that make great writers. Perhaps the most obvious Exhibit A here is the famous novelist Haruki Murakami. In his slip-of-a-manifesto, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, he writes “the essence of running is about exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life– and for me, for writing as well.” In other words, books about running are never really only about running. They’re about self-betterment. The idea that there is always another gear that your body, or your mind, can shift to — even when you’ve got nothing left in the tank — is endlessly fascinating to me. Maybe because it’s also endlessly elusive to me. (Don’t make me show you the splits on this morning’s three miles to prove that point.)

Fleshman continues with this tradition. The early part of her story where she is first discovering her talent and just winning winning winning is what we in the service journalism world might call actionable: So often she made me want to close the book so I could immediately lace up my Hokas. (“I would ramp up my speed until it was impossible to think of anything else but the running,” she writes, “until I wasn’t a girl, or a middle schooler, or in PE class at all. I was just a body, limbs and blood and breath and power. The high followed me out of the locker room into the halls and it grounded me.”) The book is also very insidery (some of my favorite moments were about her sometimes upsetting dealings with the top brass at Nike, her sponsor, including CEO Mark Parker). Ultimately, though, more than inspiring, more than insidery, it’s important.

A few years ago the runner Mary Cain, a young phenom and Olympic hopeful who joined the Nike Oregon Project right out of high school (and who turns up in Fleshman’s book quite often) published a video op-ed for the New York Times chronicling the emotional abuse and body-shaming she suffered at the hands of the legendary coach Alberto Salazar. When the story came up in conversation with a high school track coach a few days later, I’ll never forget what that coach, a guy, said. “What a waste. All that talent and she couldn’t tough it out.” It made my stomach turn thinking of this same guy coaching so many girls. In his defense, he was a full-time history teacher who coached the track team on the side, it’s not like he earned some kind of special certification to get that job. But I have to imagine this is the reality more often than not.

In summation: I want you to read Good for a Girl, but I want your daughter and your daughter’s high school coach and your partner (especially if that partner is male) to read it more.

Related: A talk with Olympic marathoner and filmmaker Alexi Pappas

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I know you’re not going to believe me, but I didn’t even realize these tacos were vegan until maybe the fourth or fifth time we made them. To give you an idea of how easy and thrifty the meal is, Andy scraped them together on one of those end-of-the-week nights when it felt like we had no food in the house, and we’ve been making and improving on the recipe ever since. Since going more plant-based, we have learned to lean on all mushrooms for their meaty consistency and deep umami, but this is doubly true for shiitake mushrooms. When you cook them long enough to release their liquid and get crispy, they taste like little bites of pork or beef. (Just don’t do a side-by-side taste test!) The recipe is in The Weekday Vegetarians, but I wanted to post it here so all readers can start off 2023 with a taste of the good life. You’re very very welcome!

Tacos with Refried Pintos, Crispy Shiitakes & Kale
Note: The easiest way to warm tortillas is in an oven, wrapped in foil, as directed here, but if I have time, I prefer to cook them over a grate one by one with tongs on the stovetop. Serves 4.

8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1 (14-ounce) can refried pinto beans
1 tablespoon canned chopped mild green chiles
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, halved
Shake of dried red pepper flakes
4 cups sliced shiitake mushrooms (10 to 12 ounces)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 1/2 ounces kale (curly or Tuscan), stems removed, and roughly chopped (about 4 cups)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

For serving: Avocado slices, chopped scallions (white and light green parts only), lime wedges

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Wrap the tortillas in foil and heat in the oven (for at least 10 minutes and up to 15) while you prepare the filling.

In a small saucepan set over low heat, heat the refried beans. Stir in the chiles, and keep warm over the lowest heat possible.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Add the garlic halves, cut-side down, and cook for 2 minutes to infuse the oil, then remove. Add red pepper flakes to the pan. Stir in the mushrooms, salt, and pepper and cook until they release all their liquid, 8 to 10 minutes. Once they are shriveled and crispy looking, stir in the kale and cook until it wilts, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vinegar.

Remove the tortillas from the oven. Spread each tortilla with refried beans, then top with the mushroom-kale mix, avocado slices, and scallions and serve with lime wedges.

P.S. For more simple vegetarian recipes like this one, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians. Reminder: All the fun stuff these days happens in the Dinner: A Love Story newsletter on Substack, which is consistently in the Top 10 most-read food newsletters on the entire platform. You can subscribe here.

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Unlike products I cook with — Trader Joe’s 100% Greek Kalamata Olive Oil, my Diamond Crystal Kosher salt, Grey Poupon Dijon, etc. — I somehow, after all these years, don’t have the same kind of brand loyalty to the products I bake with. So I thought this year, in anticipation of all the holiday cookie-ing, I’d ask two baking pros, Dorie Greenspan and Cheryl Day, what brands of flour, butter, and chocolate they order in bulk or reach for at their Main Street supermarket. Greenspan, a legend in the food writing world, is the author of, most recently Baking with Dorie (and the all-things baking Substack newsletter, xoxoDorie); and Cheryl Day is the James Beard-Award winning owner of Savannah’s Back in the Day Bakery and author of, most recently Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking. Not surprisingly their picks mostly lined up. As Greenspan says, “Rather than saying “best” ingredient, I think of these as my favorites, since when it comes to flavor, we’ve all got our idea of “best.” She also notes that she leads a double life when it comes to baking: “I have ingredients that I bake with when I’m making something for friends and family, and additional ingredients for testing. It’s the way I can be sure that my recipes will work for people all over the country.”

FLOUR: King Arthur
“I don’t think there’s a flour that I haven’t used in testing,” says Greenspan. I always keep supermarket flours on hand – Pillsbury, Gold Medal and Hecker’s – but I buy King Arthur All-Purpose Unbleached Flour in 10- and 25-pound bags (my husband, the bread baker in the family, and I share the big bags). I like the brand – I worked with them when we were shooting Baking with Julia and I got to know many of people there. I like the way they care about and help bakers.” Day agrees, saying “It’s a brand that I can always count on, and their values and dedication to baking and community align with my own.”

CACAO: Valrhona
They’re also in agreement on cocoa. “Valrhona has the most decadent, rich dark intense chocolate flavor,” says Day “and worth ever penny.” Greenspan: “I love it for its color, its rich flavor, and the texture it gives whatever it’s added to.” I use Dutch-processed cocoa for almost everything I bake.” (For testing, I might use Droste’s or Guittard, and “always has Hershey’s on hand.”)

BAKING CHOCOLATE: Valrhona & Guittard
Greenspan votes for, again, Valrhona. “I learned about it when I started working with the Paris pastry chef, Pierre Hermé in the late 1990s, and I’ve loved it ever since. It’s a splurge – not an everyday chocolate – but it makes everything luxurious.” Greenspan is “a bittersweet girl” but also really likes Valrhona’s milk chocolates, since they’re almost semisweet. Day favors Guittard for baking chocolate: “If you haven’t tried the big baking wafers in your cookies, what are you waiting for?” For everyday testing Greenspan uses a variety of chocolate, but is partial to Trader Joe’s, “a good chocolate at a good price.”

BUTTER: Plugra & Kerrygold
“I love European butter because the style of more fat and less water is always better in my style of baking,” says Day of Plugra, “yielding the flakiest layers in biscuits and pies, best delicate texture and crumb for cakes and cookies.” Kerrygold is my “treat” butter,” says Greenspan, “both the salted for eating and the unsalted for baking.” For every day and testing, she uses unsalted Cabot, Land O’Lakes or supermarket-brand butter. “If it’s on sale, I stock up and freeze it.”

Photo credit: Marti Sans for Stocksy.

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Greetings Dinner: A Love Story readers, old and new. I’m pleased to present the DALS 2022 Holiday Gift Guide, which, as tradition dictates, attempts to keep your family’s and friend’s eating and reading pleasures in mind. (Because, really, who wouldn’t be ok with that kind of gift.) With few exceptions, all of them are all under $50. Happy shopping and happy holidays, everyone!

Flower Griddle

kid * parent * friend * design nerd 

It’s true what they say: Anything can be art, including breakfast. Make things even more fun on Sunday mornings with pancakes molded in the shape of the Japanese artist’s iconic flowers.
Order: Takashi Murakami Pancake Griddle ($40)

Pasta Notecards

friend * mom * secret santa * daughter * pasta lover 

A pack of notecards featuring everyone’s favorite carbohydrate. (Includes farfalle, ravioli, shells, etc.) It’s the kind of gift that you see and think, OMG, I know exactly who to buy that for.
Order: Notecards ($38 for a set of 8)

Bloody Mary Gift Box

host * friend * sibling * coworker * parent * your regular brunch companion(s)

Brighter and tangier (tangy-er?) than your average Bloody Mary Mix, this combo pack works just as beautifully as a virgin drink as it does when mixed with vodka. Comes with pickled green beans and sriracha-pickled cucumbers.
Order: Bloody Mary Kit ($35)

A Book of Blessings

host * partner * bff * grandparent * deep thinker * that friend who just isn't into material things

If you read my newsletter, you know my daughter, an English major, recommended that I listen to John O’Donohue, the Irish poet and philosopher on Krista Tippett’s On Being podcast, where he gave his last interview before he died in 2008. O’Donohue believed in beauty as a human calling, and the idea that if we approach the world with “a watchful reverence” we will be amazed by what it will reveal to us about ourselves. When I wrote about him, reader Deirdre recommended this book of Blessings, which I promptly ordered for Phoebe, but I keep picking it up when I am craving comfort.
Order: To Bless The Space Between Us ($14)

Baking Book of the Year

bakers * parent * host * friend * Gramercy Tavern superfan

The first cookbook in twenty-one years from the legendary pastry chef at New York’s Gramercy Tavern. Don’t miss her take on family’s most favorite cookie ever, the Mallomar. Includes more than 140 recipes.
Order: Delectable: Sweet & Savory Baking, by Claudia Fleming ($34)

Indigo Dinner Napkins

host * friend * mom * secret santa friend

Hand-dyed, one-of-a-kind flour sack napkins –j ust the kind of beautiful thing you’d probably never think to buy for yourself. Which is of course what makes it a great gift.
Order: Indigo Shibori Dinner Napkins ($34 for set of 4)

An Immense World

friend * partner * college kid * grandparent * nature lover * poet

From my intern/husband Andy: “I’ve been giving this as a gift—or, better, a tonic—to pretty much everyone I know since it came out in June, and I’m not going not stop this holiday season. Why? Because Ed Yong’s sense of wonder shines through on every page, but also because this book is the perfect antidote to the relentless acid bath that is my Twitter feed, a much-needed reminder that this world is so much bigger and more beautiful than we can even know.”
Order: An Immense World, by Ed Yong ($20)

Marbelized Tray

mom * best friend * design nerd * that person who has everything

How beautiful is this? Light-weight, made from birch wood and just as practical as it is decorative. My friend Catherine keeps the tray on her coffee table where she uses it to hold books and magazines, but also deploys it for drinks and snacks when company shows up. (She has the metal tray stand, but it’s optional.)
Order: Marbelized Tray (19″ diameter; about $82)

Squeeze Bottle Olive Oil

host * mom * dad * stocking stuffer * friend * coworker * food enthusiast 

I bought the high-quality finishing oil (“Drizzle”) for a gift, from my new favorite local provisions store (shout-out Bloomy!), but ended up keeping it for myself because it’s so grassy and special and…fun. I use it on everything from hummus to soups to pastas. Now I want the whole set.
Order: Graza Drizzle & Sizzle Olive Oil ($35)

Decadent Cookies

host * parent * niece/nephew * grandparent * kid * friend * stocking stuffers * person you've been meaning to thank all year for that favor!

I dream of these NYC Levain Bakery’s famously decadent cookies, which are all gooey, crispy, and cakey. We have bonafide arguments in my house about which flavor is the best (I’m classic chocolate chip all the way) but the truth is, you can’t go wrong with any of them. (I guess that’s what the assortment option is for.) They’re selling a range of holiday flavors and festive tins now, too.
Order: Levain Cookies ($29-$79)

Batched Cocktail

host * neighbor * brother * parent * spouse * displaced detroit native * cocktail enthusiast

Last time I wrote about this pretty, herby cocktail (which was invented in Detroit), I remember thinking that it would look especially festive for this time of year. Especially if paired with a Negroni or batched in a flip-top stopper bottle. Tie a ribbon and note around the neck and you’re set. To make: 1 cup gin (I use Boodles), 1 cup Luxardo maraschino liqueur, 1 cup green Chartreuse, 1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 10 juicy limes). Mix all together in a giant pitcher and stir. If you plan to give or serve in the stopper-topped bottle, keep in mind that its throat is very thin, so best to pour your mixed cocktail into it using a funnel or a pitcher with a very thin-lipped spout. Chill until you are ready to give or drink.
Order: Set of 4 bottles ($25) or one ($12), plus approx. $50-75 for gin, Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur

Jewish Food Puzzle

kid * parent * friend * grandparent * synagogue pal * secret santa/hanukkah fairy gift

Black-and-white cookies, matzoh ball soup, bagels, babka, kosher hot dogs…I can’t guarantee someone won’t be starving working on this 500-piecer, but they’ll definitely be entertained.
Order: 100 Most Jewish Foods Puzzle ($20)

Babka

grandparent (esp jewish grandparent) * parent * party host * coworker * displaced New Yorker

Speaking of which. Stock up on these and delight holiday party hosts with their next morning’s breakfast treat. (Or, even better, bundle it with the above puzzle.) I’ve tasted a lot of babkas in my day and imho Zabar’s Chocolate Babka still remains king. Prove me wrong!
Order: Zabar’s Homestyle Babka ($15/loaf, cinnamon or chocolate)

Cookbook + Apron

friend * coworker * sibling * host * meat lover (not a typo!) 

Know someone looking to dial back on meat but just can’t figure out how to start? The Weekday Vegetarians helps out every step of the way — even if you’re cooking for young kids. P.S. Cookbooks make the best “bundling gifts,” i.e. it’s so easy to add something little and special to round out the present. Here, Jodi Levine bundled my latest cookbook with the coolest apron. (Be sure to check out the rest of her extremely creative gift guide.)
Order: Apron ($29), The Weekday Vegetarians ($21)

DALS Newsletter Subscription

mom * dad * older daughter/son just learning how to cook * the friend who always texts you "what are you making for dinner?"

If you’ve enjoyed The Weekday Vegetarians, you’ve maybe also enjoyed my Dinner: A Love Story newsletter, which means, you might know someone else who will also? Consider a gift subscription. For $5 a month or $50 a year, the recipient will get my weekly dispatch of Three Things I’m excited about — easy dinners, of course, but also sweets, treats, cocktails, novels, restaurant recs, vacation ideas, cookbook round-ups, podcasts, and tons of bonus content including personal essays, weekly dinner plans and complete dinner party menus. It surprises, it delights, it goes down easy! Thank you as always for your support.
Order: Dinner: A Love Story: The Newsletter ($5/month or $50/year)

Gift Gides through the years:

Gift Guide 2021
Gift Guide 2020
Gift Guide 2019
Gift Guide 2018
Gift Guide 2017
Gift Guide 2016
Gift Guide 2015
Gift Guide 2014
Gift Guide 2013
Gift Guide 2012

Wow, I’ve been doing this a long time. (Can’t promise that all the older gift links are still active).

Have a great holiday!
Jenny

The post Holiday Gift Guide 2022 appeared first on Dinner: A Love Story.

I’m so used to cooking for two in my recently emptied nest, that I felt almost like I had to re-learn how to cook for four when the girls came home for break. Plus, because I was busy prepping for Thanksgiving — and because I’m a human person — I was in search of dinner recipes for them that were welcome-homey and cozy, but didn’t call on an army of pots and pans that would pile up in the sink like a jenga tower. This one was the winner.

One Pot Chicken with Artichoke & Orzo
Serves 4

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2-2 pounds (about 6 medium-large) chicken thighs
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
dash red pepper flakes
2 cups quartered artichoke hearts (frozen or canned)
2 cups orzo
2 cups chicken stock
juice from one medium lemon (about 1/3 cup)
2-3 cups loosely packed baby spinach
1/2 cup crumbled feta (optional)
herbs such as parsley or chives (optional)

Heat the oven to 350°F.

Set a Dutch Oven or very large pot over medium-high heat and add oil. Season the chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and oregano, and place seasoned-side down in the pot. It’s ok if it’s a little crowded, they will shrink as they cook. Cook on one side until very well browned without touching, about 8 minutes — resist the urge to peek underneath, this is your chance to get a good, lacquered color on the chicken, you want to go longer than you think. Flip and cook on the other side, about 2 or 3 minutes. Remove to a plate, they don’t have to be cooked all the way through.

Turn heat to medium and add onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, and more salt and pepper. Cook 2 minutes, then add artichokes and orzo, tossing until everything is shiny and coated in oil. Add the broth and lemon juice and bring to a light boil, then turn off heat. Nestle chicken on top (you want that brown skin you worked so hard for to be peeking above the liquid — the chicken should not be completely submerged).

Transfer the pot to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the orzo. Place the pot on the stove top and carefully remove the chicken again from the pot. Add feta and spinach to the pot, stirring until the spinach wilts and the feta gets melty. Add chicken back to the pot and have diners serve themselves.

P.S. For vegetarian recipes and strategies on how to dial back on meat, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians. Reminder: All the fun stuff these days happens in the Dinner: A Love Story newsletter on Substack, which is consistently in the Top 10 most-read food newsletters on the entire platform. You can subscribe here.

The post One Pot Chicken with Orzo, Spinach, & Artichoke appeared first on Dinner: A Love Story.

Fun fact: I have only made one Thanksgiving turkey in my life and it wasn’t even on Thanksgiving Day (my mom owns that duty). It was one random afternoon in the middle of July, when I was in the recipe testing phase of my book. (Deadlines are deadlines!) If you’re wondering why you should trust a relative novice with one of the most high-pressure culinary moments of your year, I will only say 1) this is a version of my mom’s recipe that she has been making for years and it always delivers, and 2) having never roasted a turkey, I was intimidated by the task, but what sticks in my mind from the testing was just how simple it was. If you can roast a chicken, you can roast a turkey. I hope you agree.

Simple Herb-Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey and Gravy
From How to Celebrate Everything, where you’ll find the rest of the Thanksgiving menu. Serves 8-10 without leftovers. (Though this recipe accommodates all size turkeys as long as you time the roasting accordingly once the heat is turned down.)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, plus 4 thyme sprigs for the roasting pan
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves
2 large onions, 1 roughly chopped, 1 quartered
3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
5 to 6 cups chicken or turkey stock, preferably homemade, kept warm on the stovetop while the turkey roasts
1 13- to 16-pound turkey, giblets and neck removed, patted dry inside and out, at room temperature
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and mix in the chopped herbs. Set aside.

Add the chopped onions, carrots, celery, and the thyme sprigs to a large roasting pan. Stir in about 3/4 cup of the hot stock. Place a rack inside the roasting dish (on top of the vegetables), and place the turkey on top, stuffing the cavity with the quartered onion. Tuck the wings tightly underneath the bird, trussing the turkey legs with twine if the cavity feels too exposed. Brush herb butter all over the surface of the bird. Generously salt and pepper the skin and place the entire thing in the oven on a low rack.

After 30 minutes, baste with turkey juices and tent with foil; reduce heat to 325°F.

Here’s a good rule of thumb I learned from food writer (and Thanksgiving author) Sam Sifton: From this point, at this temperature, the turkey will cook 15 minutes per pound or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 165°F; set a timer accordingly.

Baste the turkey every 30 minutes with it’s own juices, supplementing with hot broth from the stovetop if the vegetables look like they are drying up.

Remove the foil for the last half hour of roasting and brush with any remaining herb butter. (You’ll need to warm up the butter on low heat.) When a thermometer stuck in the turkey’s thigh reads 165°F, and when the skin has reached the golden burnished color that will invite admiration, transfer to a cutting board and let rest for 30 minutes before carving.

Meanwhile, strain the pan juices into a medium saucepan for the gravy.

Gravy
(continued from above)
Serves 8 to 10 (drizzling portions)

pan juices
reserved hot stock from turkey recipe (you should have about 1 1/2 to 2 cups, but if you don’t add a little reserved stock)
3 to 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Turn the saucepan heat to medium low. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk 3 tablespoons of flour with about a quarter cup of the hot stock to make a kind of sludge, then add this in to the saucepan along with the butter, whisking vigorously until it reaches what you consider desired gravy consistency. We like ours on the thinner side, but do what makes you happy. (If you want it thicker, whisk in more of the flour-stock sludge using a tablespoon of flour at a time.) Taste constantly and add salt and pepper accordingly.

Arrange the turkey on your most beautiful platter and serve with gravy on the side.

The post Your First Thanksgiving Turkey appeared first on Dinner: A Love Story.

Honeynut squash is like a butternut squash’s best version of itself—sweeter and more intensely flavored. This recipe, Rigatoni with Honeynut Squash, Chard & Hazelnuts, which essentially adds vegetables to a peppery cacio e pepe–style sauce, is a simple, healthy, warm-your-bones way to enjoy it. If you can’t find honeynut, butternut or kabocha would be a fine swap-in, and the pre-cubed varieties you can find in most produce aisles are your weeknight self’s best friend. Here’s the recipe.

Rigatoni with Honeynut Squash, Chard & Hazelnuts
From The Weekday Vegetarians

Kosher salt to taste
2 small honeynut squashes (about 3 pounds total), peeled, halved, seeded, and cut into 1⁄2-inch cubes (6 to 7 cups)
1 small onion, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pound rigatoni or tube pasta of your choice—just don’t use noodles
3 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 garlic clove, minced
5 cups roughly chopped Swiss chard (including stems), amaranth, kale, or spinach
1⁄2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
1⁄3 cup crushed or roughly chopped toasted hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Combine the squash and onion on the prepared sheet pan and drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper and, using your hands, toss until every piece is coated and shiny. Roast until the squash looks crispy around the edges, 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, when the salted water comes to a boil, cook the rigatoni according to the package directions until it’s al dente. Reserve about 1⁄2 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta and immediately toss it right in the strainer with 1 tablespoon of the butter.

Set the pasta pot back on the stovetop over low heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, and the garlic. Cook until the garlic is golden, about 1 minute, then add the chard, salt, and black pepper, tossing until the chard has softened and wilted, about 2 minutes. Toss in the rigatoni along with the Parmesan, more salt and black pepper, and about 1⁄4 cup of the reserved pasta water to help distribute the cheese and make the pasta saucy. (Add more pasta water, a tablespoon at a time, as needed.) Toss in the squash-onion mixture, then serve in bowls topped with hazelnuts.

P.S. For more simple vegetarian recipes like this one, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians. Reminder: All the fun stuff these days happens in the Dinner: A Love Story newsletter on Substack, which is consistently in the Top 10 most-read food newsletters on the entire platform. You can subscribe here.

The post Warm-Your-Bones Fall Pasta appeared first on Dinner: A Love Story.

Last year, I wrote about a half dozen fall vegetable love stories: Cabbage Loves Apples, Beets Love Dill, Chinese Greens Love Ginger, and I’d like to add a new one to the list: Squash Loves Tahini. Specifically delicata squash; I’ve been making this salad above for lunch almost every day: Greens, roasted delicata, tahini dressing, and store bought dukkah, a Middle Eastern sesame-nut-spice blend that lends an addictive crunch to every dish it graces. The salad is filling and comes together fast, especially when I roast the squash ahead of time.

Greens with Roasted Squash, Tahini, & Dukkah
This recipe serves 2 but can be doubled and tripled accordingly. I imagine it could easily be turned into dinner by adding baked tofu or crispy-spicy chickpeas. VEGAN

14-16 pound delicata squash, halved, seeded, and sliced into moons (you do not have to peel)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Maple-Tahini dressing (below)
2 large handfuls fresh greens (this is a pre-mixed bag from the farmer’s market)
2 tablespoons finely minced red onion
2 tablespoons dukkah, I like west-bourne brand (or, alternately, crushed pistachios)

Heat oven to 425°F. On a parchment-or foil-lined baking sheet, using your hands, toss squash slices with olive oil, paprika, salt, and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes or until golden. (I find they are more toasted and golden on their undersides; you could flip halfway through if you want, but I never do.) Let cool.

Meanwhile, make tahini dressing.

Divide greens between two bowls and season lightly with salt and pepper. Top each with squash slices, minced onions, a nice drizzle of dressing, and a sprinkling of dukkah.

Maple-Tahini Dressing: Whisk together 1/4 cup tahini (I love Soom premium), 2 teaspoons maple syrup, 1 tablespoon olive oil, dash hot sauce, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 tablespoon water at a time (up to 4 tablespoons) until it reaches drizzle-able consistency. (Depending on your tahini, it might seize for a bit, but keep adding water and whisking, and it will loosen.)

You can find dukkah in Middle Eastern specialty stores, the spice aisle of better supermarkets, or online.

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When I had young kids, a lot of activities fell off the priority list — happy hour drinks with coworkers, catching the newest Wes Anderson movie in the theater, general self-care — but I was determined to continue having people over for dinner. For whatever reason, it was the kind of activity that reliably brought me joy and connection, not just with friends and the community but with my old pre-mom self. As a result, I was always in search of easy, no-stress menus for entertaining, and the words “make-ahead” generated the same kind of endorphin rush that, say, “sample sale” once had. And I managed to land on a menu strategy that seemed to work. As I wrote ten years ago in Dinner: A Love Story:

One strategy I fall back on when I’m menu planning for dinner guests is to “Cook a Signature,” i.e….a much-heralded recipe that has been developed by one of the Greats (Julia, Jacques, Marcella), a time-tested, guaranteed showstopper that has already been ingested and enjoyed in millions of homes before yours, sometimes even on holidays and special occasions. They’re sophisticated. They’re special. They’re classic. They say, “I know something about food.” Of course, you still have to cook it…but there’s a lot less stress involved when you know you’re going with a sure thing.

There’s another way to say Sure Thing these days. Kristen Miglore has been writing Food52’s “Genius Recipe” column for over a decade, devoted to this very concept of the tried-and-true, and has just come out with her third collection in cookbook form: Simply Genius. I like it more than the first two — and not just because Our Pork Ragu is in there! — but because she focuses on iconic, dependable recipes that teach. As Food52 founder Amanda Hesser writes in the introduction, “a genius recipe is one that changes the way you cook, and one you’ll want to cook for the rest of your life.” And unlike the kinds of signature meat-based meals I used to rely on a decade ago (Julia Child’s Coq au Vin, Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese, Nobu’s Miso-Glazed Black Cod) there are tons of vegetarian, 21st-century feeling recipes in this book, like Go Get Em Tiger Ria Dolly Barbosa’s Soccata with Tomatoes and Kale, which uses hydrated chickpea flour instead of eggs to create a custard-like quiche. As the recipe headnote says “This is the rare recipe where it really doesn’t matter if your brunch crew is vegan, omnivore, or anything in between.” Also, it’s mostly make-ahead! A descriptor that still warms my heart all these years later! I think those of you who are more in the brunch party lane than the dinner party lane will especially appreciate it.

Chickpea Soccata with Tomatoes & Kale

Serve 4-6

Olive oil or nonstick cooking spray
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
6 medium or 3 large shallots, thinly sliced
1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1 bunch Tuscan kale, stems removed and leaves cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups chickpea flour
1 3/4 cups water

The night before, get ready to bake: Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center. Coat the inside of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with olive oil or nonstick cooking spray. Line the pan with a parchment paper sling, so that the paper extends slightly up over the long sides of the pan (this will make the soccata easier to lift out. Oil the parchment.

Cook the vegetables: Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the shallots and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until soft and golden, 7 to 9 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium and add the kale and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring often, until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Slide the pan to a cool burner (turn off the hot one), add the tomatoes, a pinch of salt, and a few grinds of pepper and stir until evenly mixed. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to taste—it should be pleasantly salty. Scrape into the prepared loaf pan and spread evenly.

Make the batter: In a large bowl, whisk the chickpea flour and 11/4 teaspoons fine sea salt. Add 1/2 cup of the olive oil and whisk to combine. Add the water, 1/4 cup at a time, whisking well after each addition to smooth out the mix—it will look like pancake batter. Slowly pour the batter into the pan over the vegetables. Tap the pan on the counter to pop any air bubbles, then cover tightly with foil.

Bake the soccata: Bake until set, about 1 hour—a table knife inserted in the center should come away with no liquid batter on the blade. With oven mitts, uncover the pan (save the foil) and bake until the top is golden brown in spots, another 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack or cool stove burner until just warm, then cover tightly with the same foil and refrigerate overnight to set.

In the morning, slice, crisp, and eat: When you’re ready to eat, using the parchment sling, lift the loaf onto aa cutting board, and, with a chef’s knife, slice off as many 1-inch thick slices as you’d like to serve. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil shimmers, use a wide (not metal) spatula to add the slices, spacing them apart (you may need to do this in a couple of batches or use more than one skillet). Cook, flipping once, until browned and crisp on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Serve hot.

P.S. For simple dinner recipes, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians. Reminder: All the fun stuff these days happens in the Dinner: A Love Story newsletter on Substack, which is consistently in the Top 10 most-read food newsletters on the entire platform. You can subscribe here.

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One of my more favorite mini NYC itineraries when the girls were little was a walk on the High Line, a stop at the magical Books of Wonder on 17th Street, then, of course, a hot chocolate (or the iconic “cold hot chocolate”) and pretzel croissant at City Bakery, just off NYC’s Union Square. For decades before it closed in 2019, City Bakery helmed by chef Ilene Rosen, seemed to a place I always just ended up — for outings with the kids, for business lunches and breakfasts (the lychees at the yogurt bar!), for coffee dates, for afternoon writing sessions when I started working for myself and all I needed to fuel myself was a plate of their famous pretzel-crusted mustard chicken, maybe a giant chocolate chunk cookie, and a table in the loft-like upstairs so I could have the best angle to people watch. I was thinking of this at dinnertime recently because my mom’s golden fried chicken cutlets were on the menu for Sunday Dinner, and as I was setting up my dredging stations I realized that I had just a few dusty bread crumbs left in my panko can. I know I could’ve whirled just about any kind of bread in the food processor to make homemade breadcrumbs, but a bag of Trader Joe’s honey pretzels inserted themselves into my line of vision and then, all I could see was City Bakery’s famous dish. The result, I texted my daughter at college, was maybe the best thing I’ve made all year. “It’s like the bougiest kids menu item!” she replied, and then, “I’m getting on the next train home.”

Pretzel Chicken and Greens with Creamy Honey-Mustard Sauce
I used Trader Joe’s honey mustard rods for the pretzels, but you can use any kind. Just make sure there are some chunks, you don’t want it to be pulverized into powder because it’s all about the crunch. Serves 4 (FYI: The picture shows a serving for 2)

Chicken & Greens
6 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as necessary
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cups plain or panko bread crumbs
3/4 cups crushed pretzels (pulse them in the food processor about ten times)
1 tablespoon dry mustard powder
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts; if they are large, thick pieces, slice them in thirds horizontally
4 large handfuls of fresh greens, any kind
3 tablespoons finely minced red onion

Dressing
2 tablespoons Dijon
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
1/4 cup plain yogurt (any fat content)
2 tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Add oil to a large skillet set over medium heat. Set up your dredging stations: one rimmed plate for the eggs, one plate for the flour, and one plate for the pretzel and bread crumbs seasoned with the mustard powder, salt and pepper. Using a fork coat your chicken pieces first in the flour (shaking off the excess), then in the egg, then in the crumbs pressing the chicken into the crumbs to thoroughly coat.

Fry each breast in the oil for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Try not to crowd the pan. The cutlets are cooked when chicken is firm to the touch but not rock hard.

Remove and pat the chicken dry with a paper towel, then place on a cookie rack to cool. (This helps the pretzel crust stay crunchy.) Add more oil to the pan and fry the remaining breasts. Once all the chicken is cool enough to handle, slice on the bias into pieces as shown. Divide greens and red onion between four bowls and place chicken on top.

Combine all dressing ingredients in a jar and shake. Drizzle on top of chicken and serve.

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In what has become something of a Rosh Hashanah tradition, I’m delighted to once again feature a recipe from cookbook author Leah Koenig on Dinner: A Love Story. Leah writes the wonderful newsletter The Jewish Table, and even if you’re not celebrating the Jewish New Year next week, even if you are not looking for a modern, seasonal, delicious main dish for the holiday table, even if you are just someone who loves fall comfort cooking — and, um, isn’t that all of us? — you will want to try out this roasty, homey fig-glazed chicken with apples, which I think was pretty much invented for Sunday dinner.

From Leah:

My favorite autumn chicken dishes (yes, I think they deserve their own category!) always include apples. Fall’s most iconic power fruit soaks up all of the chicken’s savory goodness, while lending its own delicate floral perfume to the mix. In this recipe, I gild the lily by brushing a thick fig jam glaze over the chicken skin as it crisps. The sticky, sweet, schmaltzy combination is pretty irresistible. I like to make this chicken to celebrate the first day of school, and on crisp autumn Sundays, after an afternoon of apple picking with my family. But it shines brightest on Rosh Hashanah (aka the Jewish New Year), when apples and other sweet foods are served to symbolize our wishes for a sweet year ahead. Whenever you make it, serve it over pearled couscous, egg noodles, or mashed potatoes, and alongside plenty of squishy challah to sop up the flavorful juices left behind in the roasting dish!

P.S. Leah is offering a 20% discount for DALS readers this week — I encourage everyone to take advantage of this, but especially hosts who find themselves constantly on the hunt for modern, creative recipes for Jewish holidays throughout the year.

Fig-Glazed Chicken with Apples

Serves 4 to 6

2 medium, sturdy baking apples, unpeeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
2 medium onions, peeled, halved through the root, and cut into 1/2-inch slices1 head of garlic, cloves peeled but left whole (or halved lengthwise, if large)
8 thyme sprigs, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 chicken (3.5-4 pounds), cut into 8 parts (or use a mix of thighs and drumsticks)
1/2 cup fig jam
1 tablespoon maple syrup (you can leave it out if your jam is already on the sweeter side)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or coconut aminos)
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Arrange the apples, onions, garlic cloves, and thyme sprigs in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Drizzle generously with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat.

Arrange the chicken pieces over the apple and onion mixture, and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Whisk together the fig jam, the 2 tablespoons olive oil, maple syrup, soy sauce, and vinegar in a medium bowl. Brush half of the fig jam mixture over the chicken pieces.

Pour the chicken broth into the roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and lower the heat to 350˚F. Spoon some of the pan juices over top of the chicken pieces. Brush the chicken with the remaining glaze and continue cooking until cooked through (a meat thermometer should register 165˚F), 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and transfer the chicken pieces to a plate. Return the roasting pan to the oven, turn the heat back up to 400˚F, and let the apples and onions continue to cook, stirring once or twice, until fully tender, another 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer the onions and apples to a serving dish, arrange the chicken pieces on top, and pour any juices from the roasting pan over everything. Serve hot, garnished with additional thyme.

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