Weeknight Meals

This recipe is a lower-fat version of a dish Richard remembers from the Blackhawk Restaurant in Chicago.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

For variety, try adding black olives or roasted red peppers to this dish.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 50 min Pasta wasn't always the carbohydrate vehicle of choice — in the '40s, lots of saucy things were spooned onto toast. These mushrooms appeared in one of our stories about Katish — the Russian cook immortalized by Gourmet's Wanda E. Ivanoff — who liked their versatility as a side dish or main course, and who often made a big batch to keep on hand for impromptu snacks.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Remove the kernels from the cobs by holding each ear of corn upright on a flat surface and running a chef's knife along the cob and cutting downward, as close to the cob as possible.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Active time: 1 1/4 hr Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Soupe au Pistou During Marion Cunningham’s last visit with Richard Olney, he made a version of this recipe, which comes from Simple French Food. As he made it, he told her that he thought the trick to cooking is tasting — in the case of the soup that day, adding the right amount of salt and pepper, then cheese, then a little olive oil, and finally some macaroni. After making the soup in our own kitchens, following the recipe from the book (it's highly adaptable to seasonal produce or the contents of your larder), we can understand why this recipe is so loved among Olney’s fans.

These lamb chops—an easier version of recipes you may have made before—go nicely with sugar snap peas with ginger and garlic and couscous with apricots .

Rather than making herbs part of a green salad, why not make these fresh, flavorful greens the salad. The idea comes from Paris chef Alain Passard, who years ago served me an all-tarragon salad at his Left Bank restaurant, Arpège. When tarragon is fresh in the market or your garden overflows with this extraordinarily powerful herb, why not serve it with honor as a salad on its own? Years later Passard expanded what I call "the tarragon tangle" to a full-scale mixed herb salad—just a few well-dressed bites on a small salad plate—as an accompaniment. The idea really is to mix and match judiciously. Just don't use so many herbs that they lose their personality. Good combinations include parsley, mint, and tarragon. Or consider an all-mint salad to accompany grilled lamb, an all-tarragon salad to accompany grilled chicken, a sage-heavy salad to accompany roast pork. Other herbs that can be added to the following salad mix include a very judicious addition of hyssop, sage, chervil, and marjoram. Just be sure to include leaves only—no cheating—leaving all stems behind!