Weeknight Kitchen

INGREDIENTS

You don’t have to do much to delight your guests—olives and chips go a long way—but if you want to step up from room-temperature snacks, ooey-gooey cheese toasties (grilled cheese to us Americans) is a great start. They are so simple and so generous. For a crowd, just lay them on a cutting board and cut into strips for everyone to dig in. In this version, chile jam adds sweet tanginess and heat. I also learned a tip from my co-writer Sara’s daughter, Adele, who at twelve is a prolific griller of cheese: Mayonnaise on the outside of the sandwich makes it easier to get a perfect crust.

Some things are classic for a reason. Eggplant parm is the ultimate freezer food because it somehow holds up more perfectly than almost anything else no matter how much you deviate from the recipe or how long you leave it in the freezer. This might not look like the Italian American version you know, due to its lack of breading, but this is a take on what they serve in southern Italy. This dish is easier and healthier – with no frying involved - but keep in mind that the ingredients here truly matter. Buy a high-quality mozzarella and marinara sauce, and try to shy away from the huge eggplants because their seeds will add a lot of bitterness. You can slice them and salt them for a few hours, but I find that that’s a step too far when medium-sized eggplants are just as readily available. The main thing to keep in mind is that this dish is meant to be easy.

This pasta is perfect for when summer is at its peak and tomatoes from the market are sweet and juicy. It gets an umami punch from both the tinned mackerel and the Parmesan cheese. There is nothing sadder than pregrated Parmesan cheese, so splurge for a chunk. Grate it over the fettuccine before serving, using the small holes on a box grater or a Microplane.

My daughter loves zucchini (courgettes). When she was very little, she collected some leftover change, saving it until she had a little pile of coins. I was surprised. My daughter is a princess and has everything she needs. But she showed me her savings and told me, “Daddy, I want to buy zucchini.” So that Sunday, my sacred no-work day, we headed to our favorite farmers’ market, Danilovskiy Rynok. I taught her how to pick out the best produce, and then we came home and made these oladyi, something between a pancake and fritter. Since then, they’ve become a staple in our home and we’ve even put them on the menu at both White Rabbit and Gorynich, where they’ve become bestsellers.

Big Islanders have a habit of reversing certain words and phrases, especially with food. We call it chicken barbecue; other islands call it barbecue chicken. Same for “ice shave” vs. “shave ice” and “broccoli beef” vs. “beef broccoli.”

Consisting of fresh green pea puree topped with crunchy and flavorful corn, peas, pea tendrils, radicchio, and herbs, dressed in oil and grainy mustard and topped with crumbled ricotta salata cheese, this salad is creamy, cool, crunchy, salty, sweet, and fresh-tasting all at once—a sort of concentrated dose of summertime. Thanks to its crisp textures and summery flavors, it makes a super accompaniment to grilled steak, chicken, sausage, or seafood, and it tends to go over like gangbusters at a barbecue—just brace yourself for enthusiastic praise and recipe requests.

Ingredients:

This gluten-free cake is simple to put together and so pretty. You can use virtually any fruit (think apricots in the summer or figs in the fall) to sit atop, but I love the sour rhubarb, as it marries so nicely with the sweet almond-flavored cake. I grow a small patch of rhubarb in the yard, but it's not the most successful crop because it prefers a cooler climate to Santa Barbara’s. Luckily, it’s available at our farmers market. It’s a perfect celebration of spring, and the positioning of the rhubarb on top looks like a woven basket when it’s put together.