Summer (Food) Style
Two Ingredient Chickpea Pancakes, the Tomato and Peach Panzanella I've been making for a decade, everything Green Goddess, and our house favorite dish, Bacon and Corn Pasta.
I was reading this Cup of Jo post last week about scrolling through recipes to relax after your kids go to bed:
If something looks good, I’ll text it to myself as a reminder. But the truth is, most nights I’m just too beat to try something new. Unless it looks really good and really easy, and I already have the ingredients, it’s not going to happen.
Most of us feel this way, right? I keep thinking about that question we’ve been talking about the last few weeks about HOW to actually make dinner happen. Many of us like to look at recipes (they’re everywhere!), and then we make the things we always make because we know how to make them. Sometimes we’re graced with a Sunday where we have more time to be creative, or maybe your kids are a little older and can hang out while you measure and chop and set timers, but I think for those of us who are fielding all the questions, or helping with homework, or walking in the door at 6pm, or just want to use your precious brainspace for something else, we’re only making something new if it looks really good and really easy, and we already have the ingredients.
Like the last few weeks, these recipes can be those recipes. They’re really good. They’re really easy. Aside from measuring out a cup of chickpea flour and a cup of water, I don’t usually measure out a single thing in any of these recipes, so use the amounts I give as guidelines, but feel free to eyeball everything. There’s chopping, but not a ton, and very few dishes. These are summery, full of peaches and corn and tomatoes and herbs, and again, can be made without a lot of attention.
Also, I’m playing around with the format again. Let me know what you think!
Sheet Pan: Panzanella
I’m putting this recipe first because I might humbly suggest that this is your salad of the summer, along with the Miso Corn Salad from last week. They’re just always the right thing. This panzanella is inspired by the one we used to have on the menu at Delfina, just with the addition of peaches or plums (or both!) and chickpeas or small mozzarella balls, if you’d like to make it a meal on its own. It couldn’t be simpler. Bake a tray of croutons, lightly pickle some onions in the bottom of the serving bowl while you’re chopping up everything else and toss toss toss. It’s warm and cool, juicy and crisp, and just the perfect thing to make again and again.
Quick: Chickpea Pancake (Socca or Farinata)
Remember above when we were talking about really good and really easy recipes? I know this one sounds like a page turner, but it’s both really easy and really good. Also, it’s filling, vegan, gluten free, and can accommodate any add-ins and can be topped with whatever. Here’s how it goes: whenever you have a sec, mix equal parts chickpea flour and water, and add a big pinch of salt and a glug of olive oil. Let that hang out on the counter for as long as you have, up to 24 hours. When you’re ready to cook, pop your cast iron skillet in the oven, and turn the oven to 450. When the oven and pan are hot, carefully add a glug of oil to the pan, add some onions and/or corn, let that go for 5-8ish minutes, add your batter, cook 10 minutes more, then carefully flip it onto a plate or cutting board. Make a very quick salad of whatever’s in your fridge (in this picture I had fennel, cucumbers, radishes, and parsley—bare bones but it worked!). If you texted me and asked me what you should make for dinner tonight, this is what I would text you back. Also, because we keep it real around here, I also made chicken nuggets from the freezer for my girls.
Make Ahead: Everything Green Goddess
I know it doesn’t feel fair for me to give you a dinner recipe just for a sauce, but I’d argue that this sauce is a dinner maker. You can make any boring old thing and serve it with this green goddess, also inspired by the dressings we used to throw together for staff salad at Delfina, and it feels like an intentional meal. In an exchange I had with a reader who was asking about the HOW of getting dinner on the table, we agreed that spending a Sunday afternoon prepping meals for the week sounded… not great. My advice to her was to make one thing to make your life easier for the coming week, and this sauce/dressing is absolutely one of those things. It’s great with grilled steak or chicken, drizzled over potatoes, as a dip for veggies, as a marinade for pork. Of course it’s delicious as a salad dressing. It’s also really, really good with that chickpea pancake up there. Like I said in the headnote, don’t get too caught up in measuring. Do like we did at the restaurant—a couple of big spoonfuls of yogurt and/or mayo, many handfuls of herbs, a generous squeeze of lemon juice and you’re half way there.
Wild Card: Bacon and Corn Pasta
I know we’ve talked about this pasta before. It’s my family’s favorite meal that I make. It’s the dish that they measure everything else against, as in, “Is this better than Bacon and Corn Pasta?” Well friends, we’re hovering right around corn season. What are you waiting for?
