Good morning! Today we have for you:
Peak piccata
Hello! Mia here, hopping in for Melissa. How’s everyone doing? Staying cool and dry and all soccered up? Great. Let’s talk lemon. I know citrus is a winter crop, but I can’t imagine summer without plenty of tart, highlighter-yellow lemons. In beverages and desserts, of course — lemonade, lemon meringue pie, lemon water ice (go Birds) — but also as the necessary acidic element in potato and pasta salads. Or as the star of a quick dinner, like Ali Slagle’s five-star chicken piccata. Quick is the key word here — the slim, halved chicken breasts cook in a flash, and the buttery, capery pan sauce comes together in mere minutes. This being an Ali recipe, there’s a clever twist, and that is that lemons come into play in two ways. Thin slices caramelize in that pan sauce along with shallots, and a splash of lemon juice adds its assertive tang to finish. (If you’ve never eaten a soft, caramelized lemon slice before, you’re in for a treat — I like mine laid on top of a piece of bread for a sort of savory lemon marmalade situation.) Featured Recipe Chicken PiccataThree more 30-minute dinnersAngel hair pasta with peppers and tomatoes: Standing over a pot of boiling water to stir noodles and wait for them to finish cooking is not a fun summer activity, which is why quick-cooking angel hair pasta is perfect for July. Add diced tomatoes and sweet peppers, plus garlic, red wine vinegar and a handful of ricotta salata or mild feta, and you have this superbly seasonal David Tanis dish. Steak quesadillas: Christian Reynoso never misses, and these steak quesadillas continue his five-star streak. They’re his take on the quesadillas served at Taquería Frontera in Los Angeles, using a clever skillet technique in which a slice of mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese is melted directly in a pan, and then a tortilla is laid on top so that the two adhere before flipping and filling. Bibimbap-style soba noodle salad: Is a cooking newsletter really a cooking newsletter if it doesn’t share a zucchini recipe the first week of July? And shouldn’t that zucchini recipe be versatile, good for meal prepping and deliciously cooling? I thought so. Here’s Hetty Lui McKinnon’s delightful noodle salad dinner (which clocks in at 35 minutes, but I’m hoping you’ll let those five minutes slide). For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started.
And before you goSpeaking of noodle salads: I put together a collection of some of my favorite pasta salads, 15 excellent options I would happily recommend to anyone on pasta salad duty for their next potluck. Or don’t share them at all, and instead stash your batch in the fridge for filling, ready-to-go lunches and dinners.
Thanks for reading!
|