The (Quick) Dinners I Wait All Year to Make

Hi, everyone, Ali here, filling in for Emily Weinstein! I develop recipes for New York Times Cooking — maybe you’ve seen or even made my shrimp scampi with orzo, crispy gnocchi with burst tomatoes or turmeric-black pepper chicken with asparagus.

I spend most days tinkering with new recipes, so when it’s time to eat dinner, there are usually whole meals leftover from that morning’s testing to eat, or various ingredients to puzzle into a dinner. Some of those use-what-I’ve-got situations give me an idea for a new recipe, and the cycle continues.

But! Every season brings a handful of dishes that are non-negotiables, meals I have to make regardless of what’s already in the fridge. It wouldn’t be summer without charred bits, bread soaked in salad juice, and sprightly herbs and vegetables, all of which are captured in the five dishes that follow. Some tweaks are included for each, too: Like many NYT Cooking readers, I don’t always follow recipes exactly.

By the way, salad juice (noun) is the potion that collects beneath a salad consisting of juicy ingredients such as tomatoes, soft cheese, citrus and cucumbers. Used in a sentence: “Caprese’s salad juice of spritzy and salty tomato water, milky mozzarella and peppery olive oil is reason enough to make caprese.”

Which foods make your summer? Mango with chile and lime? A tomato sandwich? Peach pie? Consider this a reminder to add bucket-list dishes to a dinner plan very soon.

Credit…Joe Lingeman for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.