Good Saturday morning, everyone. What's on your eating and cooking agenda this weekend? The contours change a little each week for my family, but most of the time, Friday through Sunday involves some combination of dining out and cooking at home. With Mother's Day tomorrow, restaurant reservations or a special from-scratch meal — or maybe both! — are on a lot of our minds. I'll say this much: Any meal not cooked by me (Mom) is a treat on any day, whether it's a simple plate of scrambled eggs or a multicourse tasting menu. Perhaps you want to split the difference by cooking a restaurant-quality meal at home for the mom, grandmother, aunt, mentor or busy friend in your life. Our recipes this week put that within reach. First up is the Pasta With Cauliflower and Chard that Joe Yonan shared from San Francisco's famed Greens restaurant, which has been led by women chefs since it opened in 1979. The current chef, Katie Reicher, penned the newly released "Seasons of Greens" cookbook and in it offers the same dishes you'd get if you were eating her take on California cuisine in person. This pasta dish feeds six to eight people, making it a great centerpiece for a family meal. It stars roasted cauliflower, golden raisins, olives, Swiss chard, briny olives and your choice of long pasta, coated in a sauce with lemon, butter, parmesan and white wine. A shower of crisp panko rounds out the presentation with easy elegance. If steak is more your guest's style, Aaron Hutcherson has you covered. His Stovetop Strip Steak will help you achieve a restaurant-worthy cut of meat at home at only a fraction of the price. The keys? Letting the steak rest a bit at room temperature, getting the skillet very hot, and moving the meat frequently once it's in there. A baste of herb-and-garlic-scented butter doesn't hurt either. Chicken parmesan is another go-to restaurant dish, but it's not always the simplest recipe to pull together. With her Chicken Parm Meatball Skillet, food writer Becca Jacobs came up with a clever, streamlined approach that keeps the entire process in a single pan. Tender chicken meatballs are baked in a simple tomato sauce before receiving a generous topping of melty mozzarella and golden breadcrumbs. It brings the spirit of your favorite Italian spot to your own home. Ellie Krieger had a different restaurant vibe in mind with her Fish Taco Salad. Instead of white tablecloths, she envisioned something beachy and casual: planting her feet in the sand, relaxing under an umbrella and listening to the sounds of the ocean, all while enjoying this vibrant bowl. In it you'll find seasoned white fish, crunchy romaine and radishes, creamy avocado dressing, and pickled onions and jalapeƱos. Anna Luisa Rodriguez also went with a meal-in-a-bowl recipe this week, drawing inspiration from two seemingly disparate places. In her Miso Pea Pastina, she infuses the brothy "Italian penicillin" (pastina refers to both the dish and the small pasta shape it's made with) with the rich green color imparted by peas and herbs — an homage to the rolling fields of England, her new home country — and the savory backbone of miso. It, too, would make a simple, satisfying meal to share with company. If you need more ideas for what to serve this weekend, check out Victoria Caruso's roundup of mains, sides, desserts and drinks to consider for Mother's Day brunch. What else can we help you plan for? Join Aaron and me Wednesday at noon Eastern for the next session of our live weekly cooking chat. Submit your questions now, and then be sure to join us for our lunch-hour conversation. To all the mothers and people celebrating mothers this weekend, here's to a meal full of love and good food. And if the day is difficult for you, for whatever reason or situation, I hope you get to take care of yourself, too. Until next week, happy cooking. |
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