Hi and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. I absolutely have to show you NYT Cooking’s newest baby, born on Tuesday evening and weighing in at 38 adorable meals. It’s “You Don’t Need a Recipe,” a collection of no-recipe recipes drawn from our boss Sam Sifton’s enormously popular newsletter. Each one is a dish you could cook tonight, and all are intended to make the dinner dance more exciting, free-form and delicious, even when you don’t exactly know the moves.
Both the words and photography are spectacular; they’ll be in a special section in this Sunday’s print newspaper if you want to see them all together on the page. I’ve picked out five for you below. And as always, I’m at dearemily@nytimes.com if you have thoughts, ideas or kitchen dilemmas.
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Here are five dishes for the week:
CreditDavid Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
1. Roasted Fish With Ginger, Scallions and Soy
The flavors here are weeknight lightning, and the method couldn’t be easier. My colleague (and editor on this newsletter!) Krysten likes to put a pot full of rice in a 350-degree oven along with the fish; they cook in about the same time. (Or you could cook the rice at 350 and then crank the oven heat up to roast the fish as directed while the rice stands.) Serve with bok choy or sautéed kale, and make a generous amount of sauce for drizzling over it all.
A simple quesadilla, made even sunnier (and more filling) with an egg on top. This is one of those lightbulb ideas: Of course we should be putting a fried egg on a quesadilla! Serve with a can of black beans if you want something extra, and sautéed spinach for something green.
View this recipe in your weekly plan.
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4. Freestyle Roasted Chicken Parm
Classic chicken parm is a personal favorite, but I always order it and never make it: It’s labor-intensive, with its various parts. While I love my local chicken parm purveyor, the idea of just popping this into the oven is very appealing and almost certainly better for me, and less expensive too. Serve with broccoli rabe (or even just roast broccoli florets on the pan with the chicken) — and, in the style of my local place, a half-pound of rigatoni.
View this recipe in your weekly plan.
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5. Party Board
I love this idea: a grazing dinner, pulling this and that from your fridge and cabinets. Arranging them together on a board has an elevating, almost magical effect, even if what you’re arranging is a short stack of Triscuits, large shards of Cheddar, rolled-up deli ham, carrot sticks, radishes and a small bowl of ranch dressing for dipping. Go for artistry and abundance here! Whatever board or platter you use, you want it full, ideally with a suprising mix of things.
View this recipe in your weekly plan.
That’s it! You don’t need a recipe! But we do have thousands and thousands of them for you over on NYT Cooking; you may want to become a subscriber. Follow me on Instagram, and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Previous newsletters are archived here. I’m dearemily@nytimes.com, and if you encounter issues with your account, email the wonderful people at cookingcare@nytimes.com.
