It’s spring! And Passover! Chag sameach. Personally, I like to treat Passover as an opportunity to eat matzo brei, matzo ball soup and macaroons for dinner as often as possible. (I want to try Susan Spungen’s new matzo frittata, too, in keeping with my preference for a denser brei.)
Not all of the dishes below are appropriate for the holiday (looking at you, shrimp and orzo), but the chicken and shakshuka recipes absolutely are, and they are delicious under any circumstance. That chicken is so beautiful, you could even serve it as the main course for a Seder meal.
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How do you like your matzo brei? Any other thoughts, questions, concerns? I’m dearemily@nytimes.com.
1. Sheet-Pan Chicken With Shallots and Grapes
You could serve this sweet, savory and very simple recipe by Colu Henry directly from the sheet pan, or arranged on a platter for a more special presentation. It’s gorgeous either way. If it’s part of a Passover menu, this herb salad would be an ideal side.
2. Creamy One-Pot Mushroom and Leek Pasta
This recipe by Hetty McKinnon uses only one pot — convenient for cleanup, of course, but also a strategy for deepening the flavors in the dish, as the pasta cooks in stock in the deglazed pan with the caramelized leeks and mushrooms.
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Melissa Clark’s shakshuka, a NYT Cooking classic, was inspired by a trip she took to Israel years ago that fell on Passover. Gastronomically, this was bad timing, given the dietary restrictions of the holiday. The silver lining was that she ate a lot of shakshuka: eggs baked in a thick, highly spiced tomato sauce. It’s as good as it sounds.
I have been hearing for almost a year about how good this Ali Slagle recipe is. And: It is. I finally made it. In fact, it is dunk-your-bread-in-the-pan-sauces good. No-leftovers good.
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