I had a conversation this last week with my partner about cooking. The fact that this was noteworthy might be surprising. We talk all the time about what we are going to eat for dinner and what we are going to do with leftovers as I am not good at eating leftovers. The thing that made this conversation different and interesting was that he told me that he is not confident in his ability to prepare food. I think he was telling me that he appreciates that I cook dinner regularly and that he appreciates that I choose to cook tasty dinners that he enjoys eating. At the same time, I was a little frustrated because I spend time every week trying to help members of our community understand that cooking isn’t hard and doesn’t have to be frustrating and with a couple of pretty basic skills, cooking can be fun and exciting.
Most of the time that I cook dinner, I don’t use recipes and I don’t make extravagant dishes. Nine times out of ten, our conversations about dinner via text messages look like this:
- What u want 4 dindinz?
- Fish w a topping OR
- Pasta sauce n meatz OR
- Fancy sausage with a nice topping (toppings are a recurring theme)
Like most of you, I don’t regularly have a ton of energy when I get home from work every night. For those of us who get home after 5 p.m., there is often not a whole lot of time to cook before everyone is hungry and needs to eat.
Here are two easy-to-prepare recipes for weeknights when time is limited, and hunger is rampant.
Classic Shrimp Scampi
By Melissa Clark
INGREDIENTS:
2 T butter
2 T EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
4 garlic cloves, minced
½ c dry white wine (or broth)
¾ t salt
1 t red pepper flakes
Black pepper to taste
1 ¾ lb large or extra-large shrimp, shelled and deveined
½ c parsley, chopped
Half a lemon, juiced
Cooked pasta or crusty bread
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large skillet, melt butter with olive oil. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add wine or broth, salt, red pepper, and plenty of black pepper. Bring to a simmer, reducing wine by half, about 2 minutes
2. Add shrimp and sauté until they just turn pink, 2 to 4 minutes depending on size. Stir in parsley and lemon juice and serve over pasta or accompanied by crusty bread.
Cheesy White Bean-Tomato Bake
By Ali Slagle
INGREDIENTS:
¼ c EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3 T tomato paste
2 (15-ounce) cans white beans
½ c boiling water
Salt and black pepper, to taste
⅓ lb grated mozzarella
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. In a 10” ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Fry the garlic until it is lightly golden, about 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste and cook for 30 seconds, reducing the heat as needed to prevent garlic from burning.
2. Add the beans, water, and generous pinches of salt and pepper, stir to combine. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top and bake until the cheese is melted and browned in spots, 5 to 10 minutes.
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