a passover menu + tax day
plus: spinach artichoke pan pizza and an interview with alexandra stafford
Monday, April 15, 2024
Good morning!
In Defense of Never Learning How to Cook [NYT, unlocked]
How I Learned to Fall in Love With a Smaller Kitchen [Eater]
Thank you so much for your excitement over last week’s braiser news. We didn’t anticipate it but it sold out in just a few hours. We will absolutely restock. It might take 4 to 6 weeks because they’re made in France, but I’ll be sure to let us know when they are. Hang tight; it’s worth the wait!
This week is also a packed newsletter — hooray. We’ve got a Passover line-up for those of you celebrating next week. We’ve got a new recipe (spinach and artichoke pan pizza), a new podcast episode (tomato soup), new TikTok videos (tomato soup, pancakes, pizza, and crumb cake), a few budget-friendly things to cook if you’re feeling broke after paying your taxes today, and an interview with the wonderful Alexandra Stafford, whose second cookbook, Pizza Night, is out tomorrow and you’re going to love it as much as I do.
Cheers!
Deb
My new podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, launched over a month ago and our fourth episode, out last week, is all about Tomato Soup! You can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts and I’ve set up a new podcast tab/page where you can keep up on it here, too. We will have new episodes every two Mondays. We’ve been working on this behind the scenes for the last year — I hope you enjoy listening along.
spinach and artichoke pan pizza
New! A bright green spinach pesto and artichoke heart pizza we can’t get enough of and a love letter to failproof pan pizzas, so perfect for home cooks. Big thanks to @notfolu for the Instagram inspiration!
PASSOVER
matzo ball soup
Put down that box mix! This is the only recipe you'll ever need for perfect-every-time matzo ball soup that your local deli could only dream of. Make your bubbe proud and your belly happy.
chicken liver pâté
Today is the day I get to spill all of my chicken liver secrets for all five of you who haven't run screaming from the room at the mention of offal. Everyone who is left is in for a treat -- a thoroughly Seder- (and once, a holiday party) tested version that I think gets everything right. I hope you agree.
wild mushroom pâté
A hunt for vegetarian chopped liver led me to the land of earthy, luxe and flavorful mushroom spreads. But don't get stuck on the word pâté, I find a jar of of this in the fridge useful in a dozen ways: tossed with angel hair pasta and parmesan, as a sandwich spread with greens and sharp cheese, and folded into a crepe or risotto, or as shown, on crackers or matzo with all sorts of bright fixings.
potato kugel
Basically a massive hash brown (or mega-latke) with profoundly crispy edges and steamy-soft insides. It's the show-stealing complement to breakfast eggs, a dinner or Seder roast or even fancy party things, like crème fraîche and caviar.
tangy spiced brisket
If you’ve been felled by brisket recipes in the past that produced leaden, forgettable roasts, this recipe wants to be your brisket vindication -- tender, perfectly cooked, perfectly flavored every single time. And, it's even better on days two and three, should you want to get a lead on the feasts ahead.
tangy braised chickpeas
"Brisket"-braised chickpeas -- that is, with all of the flavors of my favorite meaty braise -- with not a speck of brisket involved. This vegan dish is a perfect cozy and hearty holiday main, or apparently for eating straight from the fridge, as we can never seem to stop doing with leftovers.
carrot cake with coconut and dates
This flourless, dairy-optional carrot cake is hearty, spiced, and totally perfect for any day of the year, whether brunch or dessert or just because it's Monday and the vanilla bean-flecked cream cheese squiggles are calling to you.
lemon cream meringues
Crisp outside and pillowy within meringues, puddled with lemon curd and finished with a dollop of whipped cream, are an absolute favorite this time of year for both Passover and Easter -- and because they look a bit like sun emerging from behind the clouds. We're ready.
chocolate caramel crackers
Salty, buttery, chocolaty, crunchy, and habit-forming, these are so easy to make, well, I know exactly what I’m doing with the unused box of matzo I just found.
raspberry coconut macaroons
If you think coconut macaroons are terrible, well, I think it's because you're not making these, which are marbled with fresh raspberries and such a cinch to make, you're going to want to do it pretty often.
heavenly chocolate cake roll
My family has been making this featherlight flourless chocolate cake rolled with lightly sweetened whipped cream since 1975 (!), and it's a Passover tradition too, because it's flourless. Plus, it looks like a giant Yodel. There's nothing not to love.
TAX DAY
a really great pot of chickpeas
8 arguments for turning a pot of deeply flavorful, deeply economical, brothy chickpeas into dinner -- from a swirl of olive oil or salsa verde, sprinkle of parmesan, handful of wilted greens, spoonful of tomato sauce to burrata or an egg on top or even ladled over grilled garlicky toast. We're just getting started.
spaghetti pangrattato with crispy eggs
One of my favorite things to make when I think I don't want to cook: spaghetti tangled with intensely seasoned crunchy breadcrumbs and a broken crispy fried egg comes together as a quick, perfect bowl of undiluted comfort. Monday dinner crisis, averted.
buttermilk roast chicken
Sure, the best part of fried chicken is the battered, seasoned, golden crisp exterior. The next best part? The buttermilk-brined impeccably tender meat within. This is that, no cauldron of deep-fry oil required.
stovetop americanos
Need coffee? Me too. This method is how this non-expert figured out how to make really good coffee at home and became one of those people who previously baffled me: those who prefer their homemade coffee to anything they can buy.
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. Wondering what you might cook from Smitten Kitchen Keepers now that spring is finally here? I thought you’d never ask! Try the sesame asparagus and carrot chop, double shallot egg salad, leek and brie galette, toasted ricotta gnocchi with pistachio pesto, and fettuccine with white ragu. To finish, I recommend the bee sting bars, mango curd tart, and/or the carrot cake with brown butter and no clutter. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I’ve added these in a separate page and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
AN INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDRA STAFFORD
My shelves are full of wonderful cookbooks I don’t get to talk about enough, so I’ve added this section so you can get to know the cool people behind them. Today we're chatting with Alexandra Stafford. Her cookbook Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad comes out tomorrow, 4/16.
1. What inspired your cookbook?
Pizza night has always been my family’s favorite night of the week. But during the pandemic, when pizza night became more than a once-a-week tradition, I found myself getting bored with the three or four pizzas I was making over and over again. It made me wonder if other people might be similarly bored by their pizzas and perhaps their accompanying salads, too. I polled my Instagram followers over IG stories one day, and it turned out they, too, could use some inspiration, so I set to work drafting pizza-salad combinations until I had enough pairings to inspire a year’s worth of pizza nights. And here we are! Because I have a sweet tooth, I had to include a handful of simple desserts. There’s nothing like a chocolate chip cookie to make pizza night complete!
2. What recipe are you the most proud of in the book, or felt the most triumphant when you got it right?
The Detroit-style pizza. I found this style of pizza the hardest to get right. Whereas Sicilian-style pizza (which utilizes the same dough as Detroit-style) requires less finesse, Detroit requires a little more attention due to its size and defining characteristics: the cheese frico crust, the light airy focaccia-like base. The keys for success include a parbake (which ensures the crust won’t taste doughy or gummy) and sufficient proofing at every step of the process. Once you nail the parbake with Detroit-style pizza, the rest is easy.
3. What recipe is so low-effort, high-reward that it's worth cooking for dinner tonight, even if we're tired and don't want to cook?
The White Pizza with Arugula, Pistachios, and Honey. It’s a minimally topped pie with toppings that require little prep. It’s like a cheese plate meets salad meets pizza, and I find it completely irresistible.
Also: any of the pizza doughs! They take no time to whisk together — like 5 minutes of active work. And by making this little effort, you are setting yourself up for pizza bliss in the days to come. I often do this after dinner, and it is such a treat to wake to a vat of bubbling dough, which you can portion and stash in the fridge until you need it. It will keep for at least a week.
4. What's something you wish more people knew about your book?
I want more people to discover the joys of pan pizzas — Detroit, Sicilian, Grandma, etc. I can’t sing their praises enough: the dough can be made days ahead of time and stashed in the fridge. The crusts for Sicilian- and Detroit-style pizza can be parbaked days in advance and stored at room temperature or frozen for months. The pizzas can all be assembled hours before baking. They feed many more people than Neapolitan-style or other small, round pizzas. And while these pizzas are heartier than other styles, the crust is still light and airy. When I am entertaining, I always make pan pizzas to avoid the up and down and constant assembly required by other styles of pizza. They are a gift!
Thank you, Alexandra! You can preorder Pizza Night right here.
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most — yes including the new braiser! For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!