Ingredients
Whenever I want a simple, tasty breakfast, weekend dinner, or late night supper, I pull out some tomatada, a classic Portuguese tomato sauce I always have on hand. This is a riff on a traditional recipe, but instead of firing up the oven for just an egg or two, as the original requires, I make it on the stove. Less than 15 minutes later, I'm sitting down to eat.
Meat loaf is one of those dishes that can take on so much, like vegetables, leftover mashed potatoes, the end of a bottle of wine from the weekend, a bit of stale bread.
Sandwiches can be assembled up to 2 hours in advance, and kept covered at room temperature. Toast immediately before eating.
Preparing this dish will fill your home with the most intoxicating aroma ever. The smell alone may be enough to inspire the occasional home cook to prepare dinner on a regular basis. A mixture of orange juice and wine is infused with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and anise seed, then poured over sautéed apples, pears, and sweet Italian sausage and baked. The meal tastes just as wonderful as it smells.
You'll notice I use a little bit of water in the bottom of my roasting pans so that we're able to catch the drippings before they burn. When we're able to collect these tasty drippings along with the aromatic vegetables that have softened in the fat and drippings from the roast, you've got yourself the makings for an incredible tasting pan sauce.
It’s no surprise that the richness of salmon takes beautifully to the flavor of wood smoke. But what is a surprise is that you don’t need hours of smoking to bring out those great tastes. In this recipe, we speed up the smoking process by rubbing the fish with Spanish smoked paprika, and then slowly roasting the fish over wood chips. The salmon comes off the grill beautifully burnished and tinged with the scent of wood smoke. Try the fish with our bright green Somalian Bizbaz Sauce.
This is a summer essential: sticky, crispy barbecued chicken that comes together in less than 20 minutes. An ideal lazy-man’s recipe, here’s a technique that puts to rest once and for all the ornery side of grilling cutup chicken: one piece is raw at the center while another piece is turning to cinders. Instead, oven-roast the chicken ahead, so when it hits the grill all it needs is warming and anointing with a good BBQ sauce. While any will do, we recommend you give our Sweet-Tart BBQ Sauce a try. It is well worth the additional effort. Serve this chicken with Tijuana Cole Slaw and a pile of napkins.
The crusty char of grilled beef dressed with a mince of bright fresh herbs and a little good-tasting olive oil is a natural for summer. Even if those herbs aren’t growing on your windowsill or in the yard, they’re selling for next to nothing at a farmers’ market. This is a simplified version of Italy’s gremolata (there, it’s made with a mince of lemon peel, herbs, and garlic). Since summer eating is all about simplicity, use whatever combination of herbs you have around, and add a squeeze of fresh lemon to heighten flavors even more.
Essentially a lasagna with tortillas standing in for noodles, this is one of those dishes that can miraculously be on the table in short order, made from things you most likely have in your pantry and fridge. If you don't like, or you don't have, one of the ingredients, skip it. Or, if you have something else that you think might be appealing all layered in (like slivered bell peppers to sauté with the onions, kale, chopped, cooked broccoli — whatever the people in your home will eat), then fling it on in.