Strangely enough, peanuts and sweet potatoes make a great pair. Between the warm fall hues of this sweet potato soup and the crisp, bright flavors of the Fennel-Apple Salad accompanying it (get the recipe in the Nourish Weekly Menus archive), this meal is truly a feast for the senses.
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This simple sausage and grape recipe, my slightly off-kilter ode to harvest, was adapted from Micol Negrin’s gem of a book, The Italian Grill.
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I fell in love with this simple, stunning Melone e Limone (Melon and Lemon) appetizer at our friends’ wedding recently. The peeps behind the awesome SCOPA restaurant here in Healdsburg, CA, had cut fragrant, peak-of-season melone (that’s Italian for melon) into tiny (perfect) cubes, tossed them with lemon juice and served them mini skewers with a sprinkle of sea salt as an hors d’oeuvre. I’ve made several more rustic versions since; this is my favorite. It also makes me smile because my daughter, Noemi, still mixes up the words ‘lemon’ and ‘melon’ … so this easy side dish spares her the riddle. So, pick up some fresh melone, and enjoy!
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This wild salmon recipe has become one of my weeknight faves. Wild salmon is an ingredient that doesn’t need a lot of “help.” It has rich texture and full flavor, so your best bet is to keep it simple. This super-easy rub calls on smoked paprika to complement the richness of the fish. We love it on tortillas, topped with our Fiery-Sweet Peach Salsa, Quick-Pickled Red Onions and sliced avocado.
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This is one of my favorite ways to serve summer squash. You can use any type of squash, but I prefer the denser, green-fleshed varieties, such as zucchini. It’s a great summer squash recipe to use up a bumper crop. I also like to add a dash of Guatemalan smoked chile pepper a friend of mine gave to me; this is a great dish to be adventurous with anything special you want to play with too.
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True barbecue involves indirect heat and smoke, and dedicated barbecue aficionados invest in a smoker. But you can set up a standard charcoal or gas grill for smoking, which works fine for tender cuts like tri tip, seafood or poultry. Tri tip (also called triangle roast) is a lean, quick-cooking cut of beef sirloin that’s an ideal introduction to smoking. It’s the cut used in Santa Maria-style barbecue in California’s Central Coast. I’ve added a touch of brown sugar to the spice rub for a little flavor of the Deep South. The result is smoky, spicy, subtly sweet, incredibly tender and, as my husband says, very “more-ish.” Serve this with our Santa Maria-Style Beans, corn or flour tortillas and your favorite salsa. Sometimes I’ll serve it with our Roasted Red Pepper Romesco Sauce (only I’ll put the veggies on the grill to smoke with the meat). Leftovers make divine sandwiches for lunch!
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Bulgur wheat is a quick-cooking whole grain you’ll want to keep on hand for an easy side dish. Chop up the herbs while the bulgur stands. You can vary this recipe in any number of ways – use vegetable or chicken broth in place of the water, stir in your favorite fresh herbs or garnish it with toasted nuts and a sprinkling of feta or goat cheese.
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My friend Honore jokes that she’ll put lemon seeds in a dish of doctored-up jar mayonnaise to give her quickie aioli an air of authenticity. Feel free to serve this faux aioli recipe — pungent with smashed garlic and made with a mix of light and regular mayonnaise — with or without seeds.
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The barbecue of Santa Maria, Calif., is famous for delicious smoked tri-tip, and it’s always accompanied by a pot of pinquito beans. This legume, a cross between white and pinto beans, is grown only in the Santa Maria Valley. You can order them online, use standard pintos or experiment with other varieties of heirloom beans, such as Eye of Goat (which I used here) or Yellow Indian Woman. Using a pressure cooker yields tender beans that hold their shape in about a third of the usual cooking time. If you don’t have one, soak the legumes overnight and cook them in simmering water for 2 hours or until tender. Cooking time will vary, depending on the size and age of the beans. Use any leftovers to make kick-ass burritos the next day.
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If you need fast-cooking whole grains, stock your pantry with whole wheat couscous. As Maria Speck notes in her wonderful book, Ancient Grains for Modern Meals (Ten Speed Press), couscous is an anomaly. “It is neither a grain nor a pasta,” she notes, but it is eaten like a grain. You can vary the flavor of this recipe by using different types of pesto. We used our Basil-Mint Pesto here, but you also could use our Asian Pesto or Spicy Sage and Parsley Pesto, or even some from a jar. Whether it’s homemade or store-bought, use a bold pesto you really love since it adds most of the flavor to this dish. Serve with fish or chicken. “Garnish with 1/4 cup chopped toasted pistachios,” Speck suggests. “Or make it a light meal with crumbled ricotta salata, goat cheese or feta cheese and a few olives.”
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