Cookbooks

You don’t need bread crumbs in my take on chicken parm. The blend of finely and coarsely grated cheese with just a little flour creates a crunchy, savory crust. I love to serve this with Salsify in Lemon Butter (page 192).

Miso, A japanese fermented soybean paste, is the ultimate marinade. It infuses chicken with a subtle yet intense salty-sweetness. Both leafy and woody herbs add freshness to this summer cookout dish.

Every home in France has a version of this rustic dish—now my home in New York does as well. I love how the vinegar infuses the chicken with a rich tanginess. Be sure to have some good bread on hand to sop up the sauce.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are often derided as dry and bland. But I love pounding them and then grilling them until juicy. Their subtlety makes them perfect for a range of flavors—especially in salads. This is one I eat throughout autumn as a complete meal.

Imagine eating mussels in their purest form. One bite of this dish and you’ll feel like you’re at sea. Quickly steamed in a rich seaweed broth, the mussels here are simply amazing. Sticky rice is great for soaking up the sauce, although I also like slurping it straight from the mussel shells.

This recipe is a perennial favorite in my home. Over the years, I’ve experimented with many techniques, and this one is easily the best. Brining keeps the meat moist, and brining with konbu adds an amazing savory succulence. To get crackling skin over the juicy meat, I broil the cut pieces just before serving. The combination of textures is out of this world.

With both fennel seeds and fresh fennel, you get an intensely fragrant dish. I can’t think of a simpler or faster dinner. With good crusty bread for soaking up the juices and a simple salad, you’re all set. Look for small Prince Edward Island mussels—they’re my favorite.

The beauty of this dish is the butter and soy combination. I dress a fresh green salad with a light, lemony soy sauce vinaigrette, then top it with shrimp coated in a creamy beurre blanc. To marry the two elements, I use champagne vinegar in place of the traditional white wine for a sharper beurre blanc.

Cold soup and hot shrimp—this is a fantastic combination on a warm night. Blending the honeyed sweetness of this summer melon with intensely savory vegetables makes this dish incredibly refreshing. And I give the hot, spicy shrimp a hit of freshness by grilling finely sliced mint right onto them.

The ginger syrup for the grapefruit intensifies the citrus flavor while adding a bright yet subtle heat that cuts through the richness of the cakes and avocado.

There are few things better than a good Maine lobster. With this technique, I preserve the taste of the sea by cooking the meat in its own juices. The secret? Cut the lobsters in half and balance the shells so that they capture all of the cooking juices. If you have a wood-burning oven, now is the time to use it.

At the height of summer, I’m always thinking of new ways to combine farmer’s market vegetables. Eggplants and peppers are a natural pair, and I like to highlight their different textures here. I roast the eggplants until they almost collapse, but quick-char the peppers to keep their crunch while giving them a smoky flavor. Perfectly seared scallops tie the two textures and flavors together.

I think tomatoes and summer squash always taste great together. The key to this two-vegetable simple spin on ratatouille is roasting the tomatoes first. It intensifies their sweetness and makes the whole dish rich in flavor.

Here I combine woody herbs with the potatoes and tender herbs with the fish. The result is an intensely flavorful and fragrant dish.

Super-savory green olives form the base of an amazing vinaigrette that brings out the sweetness of snapper and late-summer corn and potatoes.

Barbecue sauce, especially a spicy one, may seem an unusual pairing for fish, but the richness of salmon not only stands up to the heat, it actually is enhanced by the flavor of the sauce.

This broth is so good I could drink it by the bowlful. Be sure to serve this with steamed sticky rice. Even better: When I have leftover sticky rice, I press it into small cubes and fry them until crisp and golden brown. You can find konbu, bonito, miso, and yuzu at a Japanese grocery or a well-stocked Asian market.

Any fish on the bone works here—whole red snapper or salmon steaks would also be good choices—but I especially love just-caught sea bass. Set on a bed of fennel and smothered with tart-sweet Meyer lemons and cherry tomatoes, the fish absorbs all those flavors while it steam-roasts in dry white wine. I love the distinctive citrus aroma of Meyer lemons, but you can use regular lemons here, too.

Savory sausage, bitter kale, and sweet tomatoes—is there a better trio? Instead of cooking them in a braise, I throw them on pizza.

When i was a kid, one of my favorite fall activities was hunting for wild mushrooms with my brothers in the woods around our home. For this pizza, make sure the mushroom pieces are all roughly the same size so they cook evenly. The runny egg yolk that sauces this pizza binds all the flavors together.