How did it get to be August? I’ve barely been to the beach, or had shaved ice! I haven’t even made Julia Moskin’s gazpacho recipe yet, which in the past two weeks has taken off among the vast and beautiful NYT Cooking audience (a phenomenon noted on the website Cup of Jo on Wednesday). How far can it go? Could it become The Gazpacho, joining the ranks of The Cookies, The Stew, The Fish — The Rock of recipes, which is to say singular, world-beating, supreme?
Gazpacho aside, I cooked a lot this week, and my full report is below. Did you make that gazpacho? Do you have requests, thoughts, feelings? I’m dearemily@nytimes.com.
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Here are five dishes for the week:
CreditAndrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
1. Skillet Chicken and Zucchini With Charred Scallion Salsa
Oh we haven’t had a good new skillet chicken here in a while, and this one is ideal for summer: Bone-in breasts are roasted on top of a layer of cut zucchini, which brown in the oven and absorb all those juices. The scallion salsa that goes with it is delicious and — this is a good plan — I’d just double it and then also serve it in place of the salsa verde with the grilled fish below. Two dinners, one sauce.
2. Pasta With Zucchini, Feta and Fried Lemon
Do make this recipe, Alison Roman’s latest, for the combination of pasta and feta alone; don’t do what I did and accidentally attempt to add a full pound of cooked bucatini to the zucchini mixture, instead of the half-pound the recipe calls for. (Whoops.) Increase the zucchini and you don’t even need vegetables on the side.
View this recipe.
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3. Sumac-Scented Eggplant and Chickpeas
We had an eggplant left over after making Jamie Oliver’s Eggplant Parmesan over the weekend (an ideal, casual make-ahead dinner for a group, by the way, or for weeknight eating) and this is how I’ll be using it: Cooking with tomatoes, chickpeas and pomegranate molasses into a tangy, stewy, not-too-heavy midsummer veg dinner. Serve over rice, dolloped with yogurt and covered with herbs.
4. Grilled Fish With Salsa Verde
Simply grilled or broiled fish plus sauce (pesto, yogurt, romesco) is one of the easiest routes to a very good, very healthy dinner. It also has a chic simplicity to it: the black linen jumpsuit of meals. And if you’ve got your salsa verde (or something like it) already made — see the chicken with zucchini dish above — then all you need to do is get that fish going, and make a tomato salad on the side.
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I made BLTs for dinner on Wednesday night and was horrified — horrified — afterward to see we didn’t have a single BLT recipe on NYT Cooking. (We’ll fix that.) You don’t truly need one, though there are best practices in the prep: Cook the bacon in the oven, the strips spread out on sheet pan, at 400 degrees for about 15 to 18 minutes; use romaine lettuce and the juiciest tomatoes; toast the bread (this is law). This recipe swaps in onion for lettuce (you don’t need to do that) and it has a good tip for rubbing garlic on the toast before it’s sandwiched. Toss extra romaine with salad dressing for a side, and serve with chips if you have them. This is also excellent for a group: Form a BLT assembly line.
Now I need another BLT. Follow NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, or follow me on Instagram. Or just take the plunge and subscribe to NYT Cooking. Previous newsletters are archived here. I’m dearemily@nytimes.com, and if you have any problems with your account, email cookingcare@nytimes.com.
