my 10 favorite summer dinners ☀️
plus: a salad with all the summer peas
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Good afternoon!
I can’t believe they drew this picture of me in a grocery store. [yes, I’m joking]
How avocado toast can cost $20 [Food & Wine]
A love letter to a 750-square-foot roll of plastic wrap. [NYT, unlocked]
Greetings from the other side of the July 4th holiday! I bet you think I forgot you this week — I could never! I wanted to wait until our cooking queues were cleared of the holiday’s flag cakes and firework-themed cocktails to move onto what I consider an essential summer theme: My favorite summer dinners.
Last week, I told you we are child-free for the month [while our kids seemingly have so much fun at sleepaway camp, I’m not sure if they’ll ever come home]. My husband and I presumed we’d go out most nights, now that we have time to wait an hour for a table when needed, and are freed from the cost of babysitters and/or displeasure of children who don’t want to eat what we do. But the strangest thing has happened: We’re really enjoying eating at home and we’re dipping heavily into my favorite summer meals. It doesn’t hurt that they’re so good, and so easy. Below, I’ll walk you through them and I hope this helps fill out your cooking dance card for the next eight weeks.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. I’m thrilled that this warmer weather means you might be able to cook some of my summery favorites from my most recent cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, such as: zucchini cornbread and tomato butter, snow peas with pecorino and walnuts, cucumber salad with garlicky dill yogurt, clam chowder with bacon croutons, zucchini and pesto lasagna, and crispy chili garlic butter shrimp, raspberry crostata, strawberry summer stack cake, and the blondie chipwiches.
summer pea salad with unexpected dressing
New: What do you do when your kids leave you for a month? [Aside from all the margaritas and queso, of course.] Cook the kind of salad my kids would have hated but that we grownups love: a heap of peak summer vegetables, some crunch, salty cheese, and a dressing with a shunned ingredient so good here, I'm certain it's going to convert you.
zucchini butter spaghetti
This is my all-time favorite simple summer pasta, just a heap of zucchini cooked until it has melted into a puddle of butter and garlic, laced with a little heat, then tossed with basil, parmesan, and spaghetti. And it's perfect: cozy, seasonal, and simple enough to be made anywhere.
mathilde's tomato tart
A gorgeous peak-summer tomato tart that tastes the way I imagine a vacation in France would feel right now, from Sanaë Lemoine’s novel, The Margot Affair. It deserves to be eaten outside with a big green salad, glass of wine, and the kind of friends who drop everything when they hear you're making dinner.
corn butter farro
This is the coziest summer dish I've ever made. It uses corn two ways: some left in kernels that stay lightly crunchy and sweet, and some blended with butter into a silky, lush sauce stirred in at the end, giving farro a risotto-like decadence (but not heaviness).
baked farro with summer vegetables
A pinnacle-of-summer baked grain dish that has all of the decadence of a pasta bake -- tomatoes, gooey cheese, and a crisp, burnished top. Farro, small, nutty and slightly chewy, provides heft while letting the vegetables star. We love this.
burst tomato galette with corn and zucchini
Everything great about summer produce -- burst cherry tomatoes, quick sautéed zucchini, sweet crunchy corn, freshly dug scallions -- folded into one immensely flaky rustic parmesan-flecked crust. This dish is a forever SK favorite.
zucchini quesadillas
Not just any quesadillas, but filled with zucchini that's been cooked until tender and concentrated, then stuffed into bronzed tortillas with messy, lacy brown edges that form when the melted cheese lands on and crisps in the skillet. We eat those first.
eggplant involtini
I never want to stop making eggplant involtini, which is essentially a summerweight, weeknight-friendly eggplant parm with no skimping on the tangy mix of melted cheese, tomato sauce, and silky eggplant.
linguine and clams
A forever summer favorite, you do not need one fancy thing to make this, save the freshest clams you can find. If I invite you over for a weeknight dinner on our terrace in the summer, I’m probably making this.
chicken gyro salad
Grilled chicken, tzatziki, pitas, and a salad in a great big help-yourself platter is one of my favorite recipes on Smitten Kitchen, and the one I make the most when family drops by.
crispy oven pulled pork
A low-effort, high-reward pulled pork roast that channels the masterful simplicity of David Chang's Bo Ssam but taken in an oven barbecue direction. There are 10 ingredients, including the fixings. This is one of my favorite summer recipes of all time.
swirled berry yogurt popsicles
Lightly sweetened Greek yogurt + half-blended fresh berries = yup, we're having popsicles for breakfast all summer.
saltine cracker candy ice cream sandwiches
Summer fact: The only thing better than toffee caramelized crackers slicked with chocolate is sandwiching them with ice cream.
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. I recently added several new favorites I’ve bought in the last year. 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!
