Notes about Recipes in this book

• Asparagus pizza with arugula salad

  • SheilaS on February 28, 2025

    Nice pizza! I used half ricotta and half goat cheese and mixed them together before spreading on the dough. The asparagus I used were very skinny so I didn’t slice lengthwise but did cut into segments so I could distribute them evenly on the pizza. The olives in the salad seemed a curious choice but they added a nice salty punch.

  • lholtzman on April 05, 2025

    A delicious pizza recipe. Incredibly easy and fast if you’ve prepared the dough.

  • rmardel on April 13, 2025

    Delicious pizza. I did not use the author's dough recipe, but some I had on hand. I did not use ricotta, just goat cheese, and thought the combination of flavors was amazing. Castelvetrano olives are important here. I was low on them, so used a mix, but the Castelvetrano olives really sang and rounded out the other flavors, whereas the other olives were just there, at least to my taste.

• Warm-weather farro bowls with grilled tofu

  • lholtzman on April 05, 2025

    The farro bowl is beautiful, but I found it very under seasoned. Given the amount of raw veggies, I felt like it needed it. I liked the tofu, but the problem with the preparation is the flavor only goes to the surface, so when you cut through, it’s also a bit bland. I’m not sure if the tomatoes were meant to be cooked. In the main recipe, under step 3, it only says to cook the asparagus and tofu. In a note that instructs on how to cook in the oven, which is what I did, it says to roast asparagus, tomato and tofu on one sheet pan. I opted to keep raw because that is how they are in the picture.

• Bucatini with pea pesto, ricotta, and shaved asparagus

  • SheilaS on February 28, 2025

    This is a perfect spring pesto to enjoy before the summer basil is ready. I used fava beans (the frozen, double-peeled type) in place of peas and mint and parsley as the herbs. The shaved, raw asparagus spears looked rather sharp and angular so I put them into the serving bowl and drained the pasta water over them to soften just a bit and they were still crisp but a little more flexible. I also added some red bell pepper for color.

  • lholtzman on April 05, 2025

    I liked the pasta and pea pesto, but I found the shaved asparagus unnecessary. I preferred the dish without.

• Roasted asparagus with white beans and green garlic pesto

  • SheilaS on March 01, 2025

    This recipe makes a mixed herb pesto with parsley, mint and arugula, walnuts and green garlic. The flavor is much more mellow than standard basil pesto and lacks the bite of regular garlic. I may have been generous in estimating my “loosely packed” herbs but I made a half recipe of the pesto and ended up with a full cup of it. The recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of the finished pesto for 4-6 servings so I have plenty left over. The green garlic was pretty expensive at the farmers market and while it was a nice match for the milder herbs, I wouldn’t hesitate to use regular garlic instead. I used Rancho Gordo alubia blanca beans. For my asparagus, 8-9 min was good vs the 12-14 min given in the recipe. I followed the plating instructions in the recipe but find the long asparagus spears awkward to fit on a plate and would prefer turning this into a toast or crostini situation, spooning the bean/pesto mix on toasted bread and topping with pieces of asparagus.

  • lholtzman on June 18, 2025

    I found green garlic at a local farm market. They were not thick stalks, so I had to use an entire bunch. The pesto is great and an excellent way to punch up a can of beans.

• Pan-roasted artichoke frittata with mint and lemon

  • lholtzman on June 18, 2025

    It is so hard to find some ingredients here in Boston. I think I saw one package of baby artichokes in my grocery store once this year and haven’t seen them since. Anyway, I decided to try with frozen artichoke hearts and the recipe came out really well. I saved both time and money. I used 1.5 lbs frozen artichoke hearts, which was a bit much. I think I’d use just 12 oz in the future. I let them defrost on my counter. Because in the original recipe you need to keep the prepared artichokes in lemon water and then use that lemon water to cook the artichokes, I had to make my own. I just put 1 tbsp lemon juice in 1/2 cup water. I followed the rest of the recipe as written, except I didn’t use the mint.

• Emerald pasta with nettle sauce

  • lholtzman on June 18, 2025

    Try as I might, I haven’t had any luck finding nettles. I even asked my local Buy Nothing group. Only one person responded saying it was too early here in Eastern Massachusetts. Alas, I used spinach and it was delicious. The sauce was really easy, so the dish can be made on a weeknight. It would be a great way to get kids to eat spinach.

• Grilled pizzettes with whipped ricotta, roasted radishes, and herbs

  • lholtzman on June 04, 2025

    This was good, but definitely took time. I wasn’t a huge fan of roasted radishes, but mine were on the thicker side because that is what was available. I would halve before roasting if yours are also larger. I didn’t grill this because I only have a charcoal grill and I lack the confidence and time to try it. I didn’t get the charred spots, but the dough was really tasty baked at a high temp on a pizza stone. I preheated oven to 500 with pizza stone inside then put the dough in after an hour. I flipped every 2-3 minutes until done (about 2-3 flips).

• Roasted asparagus with basted eggs and Parm

  • SheilaS on February 27, 2025

    I love asparagus with a runny egg! The basted egg method is described as easier than poaching. You cook the eggs, covered, in a small amount of water for 3-4 min. It does indeed produce a tender white but unfortunately, the yolk was cooked through when I checked at 3 min. It’s possible I was a little late setting my timer but I will stick to poaching so I can see what’s going on.

  • lholtzman on April 17, 2025

    I loved this, but I definitely overcooked the eggs, which was disappointing. This was definitely small and I was still hungry after eating it. I made for dinner, which was my mistake. Definitely more appropriate for breakfast. I do recommend 2 lbs of asparagus instead of just 1 for four people. My husband and I ate the entire pan between the two of us.

  • rmardel on April 23, 2025

    This was delicious and the combination of flavors quite enticing. However I took issue with the "basting" technique, which I will not repeat. At the times listed you would have a hard-cooked yolk, even on the lowest powered burner on my stove. Besides, basting can be done in an open skillet. Same technique with water and butter, as the water evaporates the egg cooks, the difference is that you baste, making it a more hands-on technique, tilting the skillet and using a spoon to drizzle the hot liquid over the egg whites to ensure that they cook evenly before the yolk becomes to hard-set. I will make this again. I won't follow Spungen's technique.

• Spring toast with fresh ricotta, favas, and asparagus

  • SheilaS on February 27, 2025

    I liked this a lot. It needed a hit of acid for my taste. I went with a squeeze of lemon juice plus the sweet and tangy little tomatoes I served alongside.

  • lholtzman on June 18, 2025

    This was a great dish for breakfast or lunch. I used frozen fava beans because I had them. It made making this recipe much easier.

• Zucchini, leek, and potato soup

  • lholtzman on April 26, 2025

    Delicious and super easy. My son’s favorite dinner is soup, so he was very happy to come home from gymnastics to this. I don’t think Massachusetts has garlic scapes yet (it’s not farmers market season), so I used garlic cloves. I also opted not to use basil and milk/cream. This definitely needs salt. I used a bit more than 1 tsp of Morton’s kosher salt.

  • bernalgirl on May 28, 2025

    I made this with leftover potatoes that were cooked with lemon and oregano, so I eliminated the basil. I added whole milk at the end. We loved this, especially with the lemon it is both comforting and light enough for a cool summer evening.

  • alinutzamica on August 02, 2025

    Very good. I had some courgette and potatoes from the allotment and this recipe looked perfect way to use them. I use a slab of chicken fat from a home grown chicken as chicken stock and chives and basil at the end.

• French vegetable salad with pickled shallot vinaigrette

  • lholtzman on June 18, 2025

    This is pretty good and very healthy. It’s nice and crunchy. It does take a lot of time, but you can make it ahead of time. Using the food processor to shred the beets and carrots saves a bit of time (and possibly your hands from getting cut).

• Little gem and radish salad with buttermilk-feta dressing

  • dosojosazules on June 25, 2023

    Loved this. Buttermilk feta dressing was great. Used very fresh garlic and it provided a great zing. Might up the lemon a tad next time. Used dried dill and will definitely opt for fresh next time.

  • bernalgirl on February 19, 2025

    We really enjoyed this salad with a few tweaks: we don’t love dill so I added more lemon juice and ground pepper, as well as Aleppo chile, and very thinly sliced carrots on top for color and added flavor.

  • SheilaS on April 15, 2025

    Even though I prefer salads that don’t require me to use a knife while eating, this is an easy salad that makes a nice presentation. The dressing only takes about a minute to mix up with a fork then it’s just lettuce and radishes.

  • rmardel on May 19, 2025

    This was lovely and the salad dressing nicely balanced the greens. Although lovely, I felt the use of three dairy items: yogurt, buttermilk, and feta, made a dressing that was disappointing in that it was neither brighter nor more appealing than say Nick Sharma's or Joshua McFadden's yogurt dressings.

• Simplest asparagus

  • SheilaS on March 01, 2025

    I wondered if it was worth preheating the baking sheet to 500°F. It does give a nice brown color to the side facing the pan. For my asparagus, 8-9 min was good vs the 12-14 min given in the recipe.

  • rmardel on April 23, 2025

    Preheating the pan does speed up the roasting without too much extra work as you are preheating the oven anyway. My asparagus cooked more quickly than the recipe specified. I liked the addition of the garlic powder.

  • bernalgirl on May 10, 2025

    I usually grill asparagus or char it stovetop but this was perfectly easy and delicious for when I don’t want to turn on the grill. I used the optional garlic powder.

  • lholtzman on June 18, 2025

    This is not really a recipe that I really needed, but I liked the technique and suggestion to add garlic powder.

• Sugar snap, cabbage, and radish slaw with buttermilk dressing

  • SheilaS on April 11, 2025

    I tend to prefer a zippy slaw and found the dressing underwhelming. A generous dose of Trader Joe’s yuzu hot sauce added the tartness and heat I was missing.

• Kohlrabi-apple salad with poppy seeds

  • rmardel on January 19, 2025

    This is very good. I think the name is slightly misleading, as there is more daikon by volume than apple, although I do think the salad would be even more delicious with double the apples. Light, crisp, fruity, and sharp with a lightly creamy dressing. Edited to add that I like it less as it sits. The author says it keeps a couple of days, and it does, but the flavor of the daikon seems to strengthen and overpower the kohlrabi and apple. I still think this would be good with more apple and less daikon.

• Sungold spaghetti carbonara

  • Rachaelsb on July 11, 2023

    Yum!!!! So easy and quick (20 minutes!) but such rich deliciousness. If you can find the guanciale so worth it.

  • SheilaS on February 27, 2025

    This was fine, the recipe works well, but I won’t repeat. The contrast between the rich carbonara and the candy-sweet tomatoes might appeal to some but was too jarring for me.

• Farro and sweet red pepper bake

  • bernalgirl on August 30, 2025

    This is a delicious, well-conceived, and adaptable recipe. I selected it for the adaptability since I had bits of things that needed using. I made it mostly as directed, roasting the peppers (I had Jimmy Nardellos) and red onion in the braising pan while I cooked the pearled barley and prepped the remaining ingredients. I used about 1/2 jar of drained, garlic and herb oil-cured sundried tomato slivers, added a diced roasted pepper rolling around the fridge, and substituted grated low moisture mozzarella and pepper jack for fontina. I opted for water instead of stock and left out the rosemary and the dish was plenty flavorful. The slivered sopressata adds a great savory note, and I think salami would work fine, too.

• Heirloom tomato tart

  • Rachaelsb on July 09, 2023

    Yum! So easy to make and just delicious! Used dark rye flour instead of light rye-added nice depth to crust. We had as side with salmon and corn but would be great at party as an app.

• Sheet-pan roasted ratatouille with socca

  • bwhip on April 30, 2024

    Really lovely, interesting and easy. We love the combination of the socca, a bit of goat cheese, and the roasted vegetables. We’ll make this again.

• Cold cucumber and avocado soup

  • rmardel on February 08, 2025

    This was very good. Made out of season but I had all the ingredients on hand. The soup keeps a few days, maintains its fresh flavor, and most notably, neither browns nor separates out.

• Grilled three-bean salad with charred tomato vinaigrette

  • patioweather on November 17, 2024

    Everyone was skeptical about grilling CHICKPEAS but it worked out great. Between the proteins we were grilling, the beans, the chickpeas, and the tomatoes, we didn't have that much grill space. The green beans ended up on the top of the chickpeas so they didn't get as grilled as we would like, but it was still delicious.

• Triple-sesame string beans

  • alinutzamica on August 07, 2025

    Very good. I halved the amount of miso but otherwise I followed the recipe precisely. Try to get shiso leaves, it really elevates the dish. I also added Vietnamese coriander and Thai Basil and it was excellent.

• Butter-steamed potatoes

  • Rachaelsb on July 11, 2023

    So easy and simple! Why haven’t I done this before. Tiny new potatoes essential. Little pops of buttery potato salty goodness.

  • bernalgirl on April 26, 2025

    I love steamed waxy potatoes and this is even better — it’s really a gentle braise. The butter seems to infuse the whole potatoes without being oily or greasy, they’re just beautifully soft morsels. I had an herby yogurt sauce so I didn’t garnish with fresh herbs, instead I added dried herbs to the butter. I crisped up about half of them at the end to suit my family but I thoroughly enjoyed the texture without.

• Air-fried zucchini

  • Lottabooks on August 01, 2023

    Made this as a side dish. I'm sorry to report it was very bland and the zucchini had a mushy texture. Additional salt helped. Also very messy getting the coated zucchini slices into the air fryer.

  • pattyatbryce on April 06, 2025

    Very nice - add salt. I have a combo-small oven, so it took a long time to cook on the "air-fryer" setting. I'd try again with this because it was very easy.

• Eggplant Parm and pasta bake

  • patioweather on November 04, 2024

    NOTE: COOKING TIME IS 2 HOURS. My partner doesn't like eggplant and he thought this was great. Of course it is; baked cheese is piled on top! As the person who had to cook it, though, I have some issues. It takes a while, and the pasta gets quite mushy instead of al dente. I made the tomato sauce from scratch using the book recipe and would prefer to cook down the onions much longer next time.

• Poblano corn chowder

  • hbakke on September 30, 2023

    Nice chowder despite the slightly unappealing green color. I used the jalapeño and whole poblano pepper and thought it could have been spicier.

  • pattyatbryce on January 02, 2025

    Very much enjoyed. Agreed that it could have been spicier, but a warm hug of a soup overall.

  • katiesue28 on October 21, 2025

    This soup is so bright and refreshing, while also being comforting. My poblano was on the small side, so I used two. Serve with some grated cheddar or Gouda on top!

• Roasted and raw Brussels sprouts salad

  • rittingerv on November 17, 2025

    This is a good salad - a little fussy to make but there are ways to make it easier on yourself. Added cooked chicken to make it a main dish salad.

• Fusilli with soft-cooked broccoli and olives

  • SheilaS on January 10, 2025

    Quick, efficient and delicious pasta dish. I prefer leaving more texture in the broccoli vs cooking it down completely into a sauce but I enjoyed trying a different style. If I make it again, I’d add another veg like red or yellow bell pepper strips for color and texture and would consider feta instead of pecorino.

• Smashed potato and shallot gratin

  • bernalgirl on January 13, 2025

    The timing is perfect, it’s relatively hands-off, and the resulting potatoes are the best parts of mashed and gratin potatoes. I used larger Yukon golds and added 20 minutes cooking time. My family asked that I make this for holidays.

  • lholtzman on March 12, 2025

    This is delicious. Takes time, but pretty hands-off. I ate just this for dinner and was perfectly happy.

• Onion and cabbage panade

  • lholtzman on March 25, 2025

    This took a lot of time and for that reason I’m not sure I’d make it again. It tasted great, but it is definitely a recipe for a cold and dreary day when you want to be stuck inside. In the future I’d use a French baguette instead of sourdough. Usually I like sourdough, but it had a strange too sour flavor in this recipe. I used the optional cognac, which deepened the flavor of the onions. I also used a combination of fontina and Gruyère cheeses.

• Roasted vegetable hash with harissa and poached eggs

  • rmardel on January 20, 2025

    This is a basic roasted vegetable recipe, and the results are ok. My thoughts are that the vegetables mentioned do not all roast at the same rate so that some are soggy while others still crisp. I personally also think that, although I love roasted radishes, radishes require different seasoning than some of the other root vegetables. The addition of harissa and ketchup is an interesting note. The sugar in the ketchup offsets some of the heat of the harissa, and also adds sugar that will aid in caramelization. But the combination also adds moisture, which can ge difficult if some of the vegetables (such as radishes) give off significant moisture as well. This was interesting, but not enough to repeat.

• Okonomiyaki (crispy veg pancake) with shrimp

  • bernalgirl on February 10, 2025

    A good version of okonomiyaki, which is a standard fridge-cleaning recipe in my house. I substituted daikon cut julienne for bean sprouts and otherwise followed the recipe. Note that her sauce tastes exactly like tonkatsu sauce, so I’ll just keep using that for ease.

• Caramelized onion and potato galette

  • Nancy402 on December 17, 2023

    This recipe really delivers. Made a very special lunch with a green salad. It is rich but very flavorful. Made the onions and pastry the night before, which worked well. Onions took longer than recipe suggested- a good reason to make them ahead.

• Vegetarian borscht with beluga lentils

  • NicoleBrown on January 24, 2025

    A joy to make and a delight to eat! My grocery store does not carry beluga or puy lentils. Following the author’s advice, i avoided larger lentils (i feel like I could have made larger lentils work just fine…) and subbed canned butter beans, which I doubled up on. If I went back in time and remade this soup I would do perhaps one less carrot (originally did 4 large) and 4 Yukon potatoes rather than 2. Doubling the beans was the correct choice for me. Glad the author notes it freeze well because it does indeed make a gallon!

• Citrus salad with green olives, burrata, and honey-roasted pistachios

  • bernalgirl on January 13, 2025

    This salad offers a classic combination of fennel, olives, and citrus in a wonderfully balanced and refreshing salad. I served it on a platter, tossing the endive and fennel with about 1/2 the dressing and slivered red onions, layered the different oranges on top, then the remaining dressing and olives, replacing burrata with feta. This gorgeous presentation truly lights up winter.

  • pattyatbryce on January 25, 2025

    We thought this was really good. It's a mild salad, so it's great with other food. I would leave the egg out of the nuts on personal preference. And I might add more olive if they are mild (as mine were).

  • rmardel on May 09, 2025

    This was a delicious, classic and fresh salad that we really enjoyed. They mild meatiness of the castelvetrano olives played nicely with the flavors, as did the salty/sweet pistachios. Although I love burrata, I thought it didn't add anything here and would have preferred something sharper, perhaps some feta, as bernalgirl, suggested.

• Sheet-pan braised fennel with Parm and hazelnuts

  • bernalgirl on February 16, 2025

    The recipe as written doesn’t seem to work, but with adjustments it’s absolutely delicious and worth fiddling with. I think the oven is too hot or the cooking time is too long and there’s too much liquid. I drained the liquid off before the fennel cooked to mush and added the parm per the finishing step, omitting the nuts per family preference. Next time I’ll start with the hot oven and reduce the cooking time till the fennel is just charring, add 1/2 the liquid and finish in a 375 degree oven to see how that goes.

  • lholtzman on May 17, 2025

    It’s not winter, but I had a large fennel bulb that needed to be used, so this was 1/3 of the recipe. That said, i did use the full amount of vegetable stock. I love braising fennel and this recipe was really good. It works just as well as a side in the spring as it does in the winter.

• Smashed Japanese sweet potatoes with nori

  • bfurrow on February 01, 2025

    These are really yummy. Personally I don’t know if they’re worth the extra effort over just baking them whole in the oven. Not mad about them in the least though.

  • bernalgirl on February 28, 2025

    This is a straightforward recipe that highlights the flavor and texture of this particular vegetable — I loved it. As others noted the nori doesn’t hold up, so I topped them with furikake and really liked that.

• Pull-apart focaccia

  • kannenberg on December 01, 2025

    Best recipe and fun for a group to wat at the table!

• Simple chunky tomato sauce

  • patioweather on October 31, 2024

    I bought the ingredients for the eggplant parm before I realized how long the recipe took so I woke up the next morning and immediately started making the sauce before work. I felt like an Italian grandma, squeezing tomatoes with my hands at 6:00 a.m. The recipe as is calls for very little salt so I used my judgment on that . The picture shows onions being caramelized but the recipe doesn't quite call for that. Also, if I only cooked it down as long as it said it would still be soup so I had to cook it down longer. Glad I woke up early. Adding six basil leaves to an entire pot of sauce also seems silly. The recipe says that you won't use the entire amount of tomato sauce in the eggplant parm, but if you follow the instructions, you do. I think there are a few editing issues here.

• Charred tomato vinaigrette

  • patioweather on November 17, 2024

    I cooked the tomatoes on the grill and this ended up being smokey and delicious.

  • SheilaS on March 02, 2025

    This is delicious and quite easy. The tomato solids serve as an emulsifier to give a silky texture that doesn’t break even after standing for some time. I used it in the warm weather farro bowls and look forward to trying it on a bean salad.

  • lholtzman on April 05, 2025

    The tomato vinaigrette is nice and I would enjoy just drinking it like a gazpacho. I would add a bit more salt.

• Corn cob stock

  • hbakke on September 30, 2023

    Very corny tasting stock. Perfect for a corn chowder.