I identify as a tomato person. I love summer tomatoes in a way that’s deep, irrational, even a little loony. I buy a genuinely crazy number of them at the farmers’ market, and then I have to spend the whole week thinking of ways to use them up. (I eat a lot of salads.)
But tomatoes are not the only fruit (yes, botanically they’re fruit) that deserve a prominent place in your midsummer meals. Audaciously sweet and juicy with distinct flavors, peaches and mangoes are gifts from the gods. They’re the key ingredients in two savory dishes you’ll find below, along with three other dinners for the last languid beats of July.
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1. Roasted Chicken Thighs With Peaches, Basil and Ginger
This unfussed dinner from Melissa Clark is a home for peaches that aren’t as ripe or flavorful as you’d like; everything softens and sweetens in the oven. Perfect peaches work, too, of course, though I might save them for this salad.
2. Bánh Mì Salad
Christian Reynoso distills the intricately balanced flavors and textures of bánh mì into a salad — an excellent idea and easy no-cook dinner adorned with sliced ham or rotisserie chicken.
3. Pesto Pasta With Corn and Green Beans
David Tanis built a whole menu around this pasta dish, a reminder that sweet corn and grassy green beans are a strong summer pairing. I made this on Sunday night with store-bought pesto and got excellent results, though homemade is best if you’re up to it. (I prep giant pesto batches and freeze them when I can.)
4. Chile-Garlic Salmon With Mango and Cucumber Salad
We’re in the thick of mango season, so there couldn’t be a better time to make Ifrah F. Ahmed’s new recipe, which pairs hot-and-sweet salmon with a cool, creamy, crunchy salad of mangoes, cucumber and avocado. (I feel you also need to know about these mango shortcakes with lime-coconut cream and this two-ingredient, no-churn mango soft serve.)
5. Diner Burgers
Kenji López-Alt shares his considerable burger knowledge in a new episode of our series Cooking 101. He has six different burgers on New York Times Cooking, but the recipe I want to make right now is this diner burger, a straightforward and unapologetically beefy patty that you can cook indoors or out.
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Emily Weinstein is the editor in chief of New York Times Cooking and Food. She also writes the popular NYT Cooking newsletter Five Weeknight Dishes.
The post The Best Way to Have Peaches for Dinner appeared first on New York Times.
