On the evenings when my dairy-avoidant husband is out and my teenager and I are on our own for dinner, we go big on cheese. Whether it’s a Parmesan-proud Caesar salad, mozzarella-loaded garlic bread or some version of baked pasta, oozing with ricotta, we rejoice in the opportunity to trip the lactic fantastic.
The latest entry in our cheesy repertoire is Nargisse Benkabbou’s crispy halloumi with tomatoes and white beans. It’s got everything we crave in a cheese-centric dinner — blistered cherry tomatoes, velvety white beans and melty, brown-speckled slabs of halloumi that stay a little chewy in the center, all of it drizzled with lemon, olive oil and a touch of honey. And since we can whip it up in just half an hour, there’ll even be time for a “Pride and Prejudice” rewatch, depending on the homework load.
Featured Recipe
Crispy Halloumi With Tomatoes and White Beans
More food for thought:
Egg and cheese toasts with salsa: Although the stars of Rick Martínez’s vibrant new cheese toast recipe are runny-centered eggs and bracing, chile-spiked salsa, there’s enough gooey queso Chihuahua on the bolillo rolls to qualify this dish for mother-daughter cheese night. Onto the list it goes.
Sheet-pan salmon and broccoli with sesame and ginger: Sporting a pretty, springtime palette of pinks and greens, Lidey Heuck’s healthful sheet-pan supper features bright, pungent flavors from a glaze of fresh ginger, rice vinegar and soy sauce, with a gentle crunch from a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
Avgolemono chicken soup with gnocchi: Most avgolemono soup recipes call for rice to help thicken the eggy, lemon-spiked chicken broth. But Carolina Gelen’s speedy version of the Greek classic uses shelf-stable gnocchi and the torn-up meat from a rotisserie chicken to give it a heartier, stewlike texture. It stays beautifully silky, though, from egg yolks whisked into the broth.
Coconut curry with potatoes and greens: Perfumed with lime and Thai curry paste, sweetened with coconut milk and swirled with leafy greens and soft cubes of potato, Hetty Lui McKinnon’s light-bodied curry is the stuff of one-pot dreams. Serving it with rice noodles may be overindulgent, but that’s precisely why it earns my highest endorsement.
Made-in-the-pan chocolate cake: Cocoa powder gives this super easy cake a deep, bittersweet flavor, balanced with a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top in lieu of icing. Cut it into squares and serve it straight from the pan. Utensils are optional, and they’d only slow you down anyway.
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That’s all for now. See you on Wednesday.
Melissa Clark has been writing her column, A Good Appetite, for The Times’s Food section since 2007. She creates recipes for New York Times Cooking, makes videos and reports on food trends. She is the author of 45 cookbooks, and counting.
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