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This is the time of year when kitchen burnout really sets in. You battled the holidays — and won! — then realized there was still cooking to be done. Every. Single. Day. You’ve braised and stewed, indoors, for months now, fantasizing about when the season turns and “cooking” becomes a matter of slicing and salting fragrant tomatoes, ripe melons and juicy stone fruit.
Am I projecting? Maybe! (This is Becky, by the way, filling in for Mia Leimkuhler this week.) It’s possible that you excitedly spring out of bed every morning, leaving a dream journal filled with dinner inspirations behind you on your night stand. I’m happy for you! Teach me your ways!
For the rest of us, I have some ideas. In philosophy, there’s the problem-solving method of Occam’s razor: Put roughly, the simplest explanation is usually the best one. And when applied to the problem of dinner, the simplest solution is … pasta. Ideally, pasta zhuzhed with olive oil and a few fragrant, savory additions from your pantry.
Enter: this midnight pasta with garlic, anchovy, capers and red pepper (above) from David Tanis. It’s a five-star recipe for a reason, mainly because it tastes luxurious, dressed with anchovies melted into garlicky, spicy oil, but also because it’s supremely simple.
Featured Recipe
Midnight Pasta With Garlic, Anchovy, Capers and Red Pepper
If you can spare a few more minutes of prep time, Zainab Shah’s 30-minute broccoli korma is another recipe that manages to exceed by far the sum of its parts. The key to its nutty richness: a tablespoon of almond butter stirred into the aromatic pot of simmering, gingery, garlicky coconut milk.
Also on the subject of simplicity, let’s take a moment to appreciate ingredients that have the power to turn a roast chicken into a restaurant-fancy dinner. It goes without saying that this roast tarragon-Cognac chicken, adapted by Melissa Clark, provides plenty of je ne sais quoi for very little effort.
It’s still cold out where I live, and as good a time as any to make Ifrah Ahmed’s hilib suqaar. It’s a comforting Somali dish of sautéed beef and vegetables — in this case, potatoes, bell peppers and lots of garlic — seasoned with xawaash spice. You’ll want to follow the tip for making more xawaash than you’ll need for the recipe; just toast ground cumin, coriander, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom, and stir in ground turmeric at the end. That extra spice mixture is a perfect excuse to make this dish three more times, soon.
Another recipe for this last stretch of indoor weather: Melissa’s pearl couscous with creamy feta and chickpeas. After baking, the couscous takes on a porridge-y texture, with lush bits of feta throughout, perfect for a cozy night in while there’s still a chill in the air.
And hey, maybe a case of dinnertime burnout just means you should skip straight to dessert. Try this baked lemon pudding from David Tanis by way of the Irish pastry chef JR Ryall. It’s a sunshine-yellow custard that’s so bright that just looking at it might herald springtime.
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