Well, folks, this is it. I’m packing up my suitcase to head to Australia for 12 days–a journey I plan to document on the blog as I go (we’ll see how I do!)–and Craig is asking me to make a big pot of something to leave him in the fridge so he can have food to eat when I’m not here. I feel very wife-from-Babe. Coincidentally, friends at a Halloween party recently asked me to write a post on this very subject: things you can make on Sunday night that allow you to eat well on Monday and Tuesday. So here, now, is a list of dishes that meet that very criteria; most will taste better the longer they refrigerate. Also: you can store these dishes in the cooking vessels you cooked them in and put them right back on the stove to heat them up. You can also double the recipes and eat for even longer. (As for what I’m making Craig tonight, it’s Gina DePalma’s lentil soup from my cookbook, as documented by Deb here.)
[Note: this list is in random order. Click the headings for the recipes.]
Warm and comforting and healthy too, this is something I made when we were in New York last year under the constraints of an unfamiliar kitchen. Despite that, this stew really hit the spot and it’s something I would gladly eat throughout the week for dinner.
Come winter, it doesn’t get much heartier than this. And what’s great is that it doesn’t have to be a gut-bomb each night: just heat a little of it up and serve it with some salad and bread. Pair with a robust red wine, and you’ll be eating pretty.
3. Ribollita
(This is also the soup you see at the top of this post.) If you want a healthy hit of vegetables in winter, this is the soup to make. It’s got cabbage and it’s got beans–so, um, you may not want to invite a date over–but that combination makes it extra filling. Drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with cheese, it even feels like a treat. Add broiled bread and you can’t do much better.
You don’t have to make this in summer, but it feels like summer when you eat it, especially if you serve it with the corn bread that’s also part of that post.
5. Spiced Pork Stew with Polenta
Suzanne Goin is a wizard of maximizing flavor and this spiced pork stew is like a nightclub in a Stefon sketch: it has everything. Cumin, coriander, fennel, lemon zest, fennel, garlic…you name it, it has it. And it only gets better the longer it sits.
6. Spicy Tomato and Blue Cheese Soup
This is a tomato soup with pizazz. The blue cheese really punches it up and you can serve it one night with a salad, the next night with grilled cheese. It’s very versatile and will probably even freeze well.
Here’s a more traditional version of the beef stew above. While that one has hits of Cognac and mustard, this one is perfumed with dried mushrooms and bold red wine. Plus, it’s a little prettier.
8. The Best Chili of Your Life
It was rather bold of me to call this “The Best Chili Of Your Life”: I don’t know anything about you OR your life. But all these years later (and that post is from 2010) it still remains the chili recipe by which I judge all other chili recipes. Pork shoulder, slab bacon, smoked paprika and chiles in adobo all combine to create something undeniably special. Make a lot on Sunday night and eat like a king for the rest of the week.
This isn’t the best French Onion Soup I know (that one’s in my book and it requires that you make your own veal stock so you probably won’t be making that any time soon) but this is a great one to make if you want big flavor with minimal work. And who wouldn’t want a big pot of French Onion Soup in their refrigerator to heat up throughout the week? A crazy person, that’s who.
10. Yucatan-Style Slow-Roasted Pork
Tacos for dinner, tacos for lunch, tacos for breakfast…make this pork and you can pretend you’re here in breezy Southern California all throughout the day. Shake the table for an earthquake effect.
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