Happy New Year! We are swan-diving into home-cooking season, one of the best times of year to just stay in. Somehow January has come to mean culinary austerity — it’s about what you can’t eat, rather than what you can — and I sort of hate that. There’s nothing really happening, and you also want me to go on a diet?
That said, I am finding myself wanting to bail on butter, steak and creamy cheese. It’s just not what I crave right now. What I do crave are stewy dishes with beans, salads, citrus, pastas, fish. I always tell you what I actually want to cook and eat at this moment, so that’s what you’ll find below.
One last thing before we get to recipes: Keep the weeknight cookbook suggestions coming! My inbox is flooded with mentions of our own Alison Roman’s book, “Dining In,” and Pierre Franey’s “60-Minute Gourmet” cookbooks (classic New York Times vibes!). I also received rapturous notes about the British authors Diana Henry (a brilliant recipe writer, beloved by many of us here in the Food department), Nigel Slater, Yotam Ottolenghi (another NYT Cooking contributor) and Felicity Cloake. Send your favorites, or just write me a note, at dearemily@nytimes.com.
Here are five dishes for the week:
One-pot spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and kale.CreditRyan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
1. One-Pot Spaghetti With Cherry Tomatoes and Kale
I just want to reach a fork into that pot and twirl the noodles right onto it. The technique here is Internet-famous — you cook the pasta and sauce simultaneously, in the same pot — and it delivers really good, and riffable, results. Add more kale or spinach to make it a full meal, and red pepper if you like a little heat.
3. Roasted Squash With Turmeric-Ginger Chickpeas
This recipe checks a lot of my personal January boxes: Roasted squash. Chickpeas. Vinegary, quick-pickled onions and ginger. A flurry of herbs and a dollop of yogurt to serve. The pomegranate seeds are a little bit of beauty at the end — skippable, but isn’t it satisfying to make it all look nice? Save a little time by buying the squash precut, and serve, if you like, with rice or other grains.
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5. Beans and Garlic Toast in Broth
Gorgeously simple and good for dinner. This dish is made with dried beans, which you should make ahead (an ideal job for a pressure cooker). Tejal Rao, who wrote the recipe, also slips a few Parmesan rinds into the pot to deepen flavor, one of those gemlike secrets to good cooking. You won’t need it, but a soft-boiled or fried egg adds color, richness and a little excitement; more herbs and a drizzle of chile oil would do the same. And you could use canned beans, though it really won’t be the same: Sauté garlic in a few tablespoons of oil; add two cans of rinsed beans, season, and cook for a few minutes; add stock and cook a few minutes more, until everything is creamy.
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My New Year’s resolution is to convince you to subscribe to NYT Cooking. O.K. not really — but a subscription gives you unlimited access to thousands of delicious recipes just like the ones above, which you can find in your weekly plan. Follow NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, or follow me on Instagram. Previous newsletters are archived here. I’m dearemily@nytimes.com, and if you have any problems with your account, email cookingcare@nytimes.com.
