Hello there, it’s Melissa Clark here, taking over for Julia Moskin, who was taking over for Sam Sifton, who has vanished into the woods for a well-deserved rest.
I’m just back from my own vacation. My family and I spent 10 glorious days in Greece, where I ate grilled fish — sardines, red mullet, mackerel — feeding the heads to the kitties that always seemed to be by my feet. They know a softy when they see one.
We also ate fried fish: tiny, crunchy, salty anchovies and whitebait that I showered with lemon juice and munched whole while watching the sun drift down into the Aegean. We savored it all with local wine, but not any of the bottles that Eric Asimov writes about this week in his story about red wines from Greece. There weren’t any actual wine lists at the tavernas where we went, just cold carafes of white, red or rosé, along with ouzo to start and mini glasses of syrupy mastic-flavored liqueur to end the night. I was glad I’d read Frank Bruni’s fascinating article on the medicinal possibilities of mastic (an aromatic variety of tree resin) before my trip, so I could feel good about my after-dinner tipple.
I also ate feta salads with tomato, red onion and cucumber every single day and did not get tired of them. And that’s why I plan to make Alexa Weibel’s new recipe for marinated feta with herbs and peppercorns (above) just as soon as I can get my hands on some really good feta, the kind made with sheep and goat milks, not cow, just as she sagely writes.
And I’m going to serve it with more grilled or broiled fish, any variety I can find at my local farmers’ market, either whole or in fillets (see Sam’s excellent grilling guide for all your grilling basics). Which leads me to this week’s no-recipe recipe, for lemony grilled fish with herbs and olives. This couldn’t be easier, and there are a few things I learned in Greece that make it extra fantastic.
Here’s what you do: Get yourself a whole fish, or two fillets about the same size (any kind of skin-on fish fillets will work). Brush the inside of the fish with olive oil, season it with salt, and stuff it full of whatever herbs you’ve got (or even fennel fronds). If using fillets, oil and season the tops, then sandwich them together with the herbs in the center. Place the fish in a grill basket, and grill over moderate heat until the skin blisters and the centers just cook through. Or if you’re broiling, broil for a few minutes, then flip and cook the fish for a few minutes more, until just done.
Now, here comes the part from Greece. While the fish cooks, make a lemony dressing. Squeeze a lemon into a bowl and season with salt until it tastes balanced between salty and tart. Then whisk in really good olive oil, but not too much. Just enough to make it something you could practically drink. It should be lighter and less oily than a salad dressing, and severely, wonderfully lemony. Pour this all over your grilled fish, and serve it with lots of olives and thinly sliced sweet onion on the side.
A simple tomato salad or a green salad is all I’d need to round it out (check out this great salad guide by Julia Moskin for more details). But if you want something a little heartier, there’s David Tanis’s tomato risotto. It looks utterly perfect.
Or if you don’t love fish (like my daughter, who subsisted on gyro and salad for the whole trip), perhaps try a recipe from the genius chef Clare de Boer of King restaurant, who is featured in our pages this week. I love all the food at King, but Clare’s recipe for corn and ricotta sformato is the one I’ll make first. If it’s chicken or bust, consider Julia Moskin’s recipe for pasta with roast chicken, currants and pine nuts, or one from this editors’ collection of my weeknight chicken recipes.
Then for dessert, how about those giant, crinkly chocolate chip cookies that are making the rounds? I haven’t made them yet, but they’re on the short list. Or these Key lime pie bars, which I have made, and they are terrific. (I added a tiny pinch of salt to the filling because I like citrus and salt, but it’s purely optional.)
I could go on and on several thousand times more, because that’s how many recipes are available at NYTCooking. If you don’t already, we’d be thrilled if you’d subscribe. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Come say hi, watch a video or leave a comment. We always want to hear from you. Or contact us directly at cookingcare@nytimes.com; we are here to help.
And finally, because Sam always does, I’ll tell you what I’ve been reading lately, which is classically themed because of the Greece trip: Daniel Mendelsohn in the New Yorker, Emily Wilson’s translation of “The Odyssey” and a smidgen of my husband’s volume of Pausanias. I also read Joel Agee’s translation of Aeschylus’s “Prometheus Bound,” to get ready for seeing it performed at the ancient theater of Epidaurus. Although the book centers on Prometheus lamenting his chains, to me the most wrenching character is Io, as played by Peggy Trikalioti.
Io refused Zeus’s amorous attentions, but still had to pay for them by being exiled from her home and forced to flee across the known world after being turned into a heifer. Watching it all while sitting on the worn stone benches of the ancient auditorium made the wrath of the gods particularly poignant to witness. I can’t wait to go back.
See you on Friday!
