Hello and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. Last week, we established that summer is an ideal time to embrace simple cooking: Find fresh ingredients and let them shine.
But we did not talk about cleanup. In fact, recipes never talk about cleanup. But a sink stacked with dishes and a countertop strewn with sullied pots, pans and bowls adds easily another 30 minutes to the stretch of the evening known as “dinnertime.”
So here are four recipes that rely heavily on a sheet pan, an inexpensive piece of equipment that I wholeheartedly recommend you buy, plus a pasta recipe for those who you who are over sheet-pan cooking. (The pasta is still a one-pot affair.) You should also know that sheet pans can come out for breakfast, too, as with these pancakes by Jerrelle Guy. I’m dearemily@nytimes.com and here for your thoughts, feelings, concerns.
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Here are five dishes for the week:
1. Sheet-Pan Roasted Salmon Niçoise Salad
This is a little fancy for a sheet-pan meal, and yet a sheet-pan meal it is. Lidey Heuck calls for adding most of the vegetables of a salade niçoise (which are typically steamed or served raw) to the pan in stages. Salmon, which replaces tuna, goes last. You could skip the eggs to save a step — but the eggs are really good.
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2. Sheet-Pan Sausage With Peppers and Tomatoes
Smart and streamlined home cooking, courtesy of Ali Slagle: Broil sweet peppers with grape tomatoes, shallots, garlic and sausage. Serve tucked into a crusty roll for a sandwich, or over rice or pasta. Leftover vegetables are great with eggs for breakfast.
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3. Sheet-Pan Chicken With Sweet Potatoes and Fennel
The lemon-pecorino dressing in this recipe by Yewande Komolafe is what really makes the dish sing. Any number of sturdy roots or bulbs could swap in for the vegetables here; I’d try halved shallots or red onion sliced into thick wedges.
4. One-Pan Bruschetta Spaghetti
Just look at that enticing tangle of pasta, those juicy collapsed tomatoes. This recipe by Sarah Copeland pleases everyone. Use the biggest pan you’ve got: The pasta cooks directly in the sauce, and it needs room.
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