One of the smartest things you can do when cooking for one is make large quantities of pasta sauce to freeze and then defrost and adapt into quick weeknight meals. Such sauces can go well beyond a simple marinara. When I asked the queen of Italian cooking in America, Lidia Bastianich, for her favorite approaches to such a thing, she quickly came to me with this hearty vegetable stew that can do triple, quadruple, even quintuple duty: Use a cup of it to dress pasta, of course, but also spoon it onto charred bread for bruschetta, use it as a base on which to nestle grilled fish or chicken, or try one of the companion recipes: Baked Egg in Fall Vegetables (page 33) or Fall Vegetable Soup with White Beans (page 58). I couldn’t resist putting my stamp on this recipe: I did what I do with many tomato sauces and splashed in some fish sauce to deepen the flavor.
Turn humble onions into this thrifty yet luxe pasta dinner.
As energizing as an energy bar, with a much simpler ingredient list.
A flurry of fresh tarragon makes this speedy weeknight dish of seared cod and luscious, sun-colored pan sauce feel restaurant worthy.
Our go-to banana bread recipe is moist, nutty, and incredibly easy to make.
Use this simple vinaigrette to dress a plate of greens, some steamed potatoes, or anything else that strikes your fancy.
This easy, one-skillet chicken stroganoff features tender chicken breasts, savory mushrooms, and a creamy Dijon-crème fraîche sauce—perfect for weeknights.
This broiled hot honey salmon recipe results in sweet, spicy, glossy fish coated in a homemade hot honey glaze for an easy weeknight dinner or make-ahead lunch.
Spiced, tender meatballs get cooked atop a bed of rice pilaf speckled with pistachios and plump golden raisins in this quick, one-pot dinner.