Hi and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes, recipes for busy people who still want something good to eat. I have a tendency to go wild with herbs when I’m cooking, tossing them with abandon into salads and over vegetables, pasta and meat. My latest love is dill, fresh and feathery, thanks to the writer Naz Deravian and her Persian cookbook, “Bottom of the Pot.” I cooked a lot from it when I judged a round of the Piglet tournament of cookbooks on Food52 in March, and in that time my fridge became a leafy, branchy wonderland of herbs, which figure prominently in Persian cooking. (You can read our own Samin Nosrat on this very subject!)
I made two weeknight-possible recipes from Naz’s book that I loved so much I pledged to publish them here for you — and here we are. The roasted salmon is remarkably good, but it’s the sheveed polo, dill rice, that is the revelation. Tell me what’s going on with you and what your latest loves are at dearemily@nytimes.com.
[Sign up here to receive the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter in your inbox every Friday.]
Here are five dishes for the week:
Sarah Copeland’s whole wheat spaghetti with burrata.CreditDavid Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
1. Spaghetti With Burrata and Garlic-Chile Oil
This has been very popular with the wonderful people of NYT Cooking who actually edit your recipes, and it’s easy to see why: Pasta! Burrata! Fennel! Chile! Garlic! You could cook the fennel and garlic-chile oil in advance if you like, or just do it in the moment while you prep green beans or broccoli. And it’d still be delicious if you had to dial down or leave out the red-pepper flakes.
The maple-lime-soy sauce marinade for this salmon, from “Bottom of the Pot,” is so delicious I sipped it with a spoon. You can use smaller, individual fillets if that’s what you have; if you also have a little extra time, consider serving it with the delicious dill rice below. If you’re moving quickly, just put on a pot of water to boil for plain rice while the salmon marinates. Serve with a green salad; toss in some herbs or sliced radishes if you happen to have them in the fridge.
View this recipe in your weekly plan.
_____
I know what you might be thinking: “Emily, are you suggesting I just eat rice?” But this is not just rice. This is the most fragrant, most joy-delivering, most mood-altering pot of rice, also from Naz’s book. I’d happily have it for dinner with fried eggs, or with the salmon above, or with another, very simple fish. You could add fava or lima beans (which makes the dish baghali polo — here are directions for that). Basically what I’m saying is that this rice is so good you can let it take the lead.
4. Baked Mustard-Herb Chicken Legs
This is a perfect weeknight chicken recipe: It is easy to make, requires very few ingredients (and each one works hard for you), and everyone devours it, especially with egg noodles. For vegetables, you could put a pan of carrots, coated with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, in the oven alongside the chicken and roast for 40 minutes; use smallish, thin carrots, or cut bigger carrots into smaller, skinny pieces so they are sure to cook through and get very dark and tender and sweet.
View this recipe in your weekly plan.
_____
This mouthwatering one-bowl meal, inspired by galbi (Korean barbecued short ribs), features a relatively small amount of tender, flavor-soaked, quick-cooking, thinly sliced boneless short rib, which is then draped over rice. Finish the bowl with celery, lettuce and lime to add freshness and crunch. The list of ingredients may look a little longer than usual, but most are spices and the prep is a snap.
View this recipe in your weekly plan.
Love recipes? The New York Times? New York Times recipes? Then subscribe to NYT Cooking, where we have 19,000 gems just like the dishes you see above. You can also 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 encounter any technical issues or have problems with your account, email cookingcare@nytimes.com.
