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Pasta? For Spring? Delicious.

Pasta? For Spring? Delicious.

New York Times19-03-2025
Image Ali Slagle's one-pot tortellini with prosciutto and peas. Credit... Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell.
Tomorrow is the first day of spring, and I can see it in the snowdrops and crocuses finally poking up in green, purple and white profusion all around Prospect Park. I know the days of flowering chives and local asparagus are still many weeks away. But I'll content myself with frozen peas, which feel light and springy and will help bide the time until the fresh sugar snaps start arriving in May.
Perhaps I'll use those tiny orbs in Ali Slagle's one-pot tortellini with prosciutto, where they'll add pops of velvety sweetness next to the bits of salty cured pork in the creamy sauce. Or maybe I'll toss them with Parmesan, lemon and charred scallions to make Hana Asbrink's verdant crème fraîche pasta with peas and scallions, an elegant, 30-minute dish that's both rich and bright. Vegetable-filled pastas seem like the right move now on the cusp of springtime, and Krysten Chambrot, a senior editor, has put together more terrific ideas for you, here.
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I can daydream about spring as much as I want, but that won't make the evenings any warmer or the buds bloom any faster. So to continue to ward off the chill — and to use up those farm box root vegetables that have piled up in my pantry — I'm going to give Cybelle Tondu's baked sweet potatoes with blue cheese and bacon a go. I love the notion of the almost candied, silky potato flesh rubbing elbows with the funky, creamy blue cheese butter, all topped with crisp bacon and chopped walnuts for extra texture. It's like a steakhouse wedge salad, but even more satisfying.
Those loaded potatoes would make a fine meal all by themselves. But if you wanted to round things out, Christian Reynoso's chile crisp chicken cutlets are deeply spiced from a chile crisp marinade spiked with soy sauce and red wine vinegar, and they're coated in a wonderfully crunchy panko crust. Christian's trick for adding even more oomph is to whisk some of the excess marinade into the eggs used for coating the cutlets, which lends a pleasingly sharp kick.
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Lidey Heuck's take , heady with briny olives and slabs of feta, is just one of a larger genre of tomato-cucumber salads popular throughout the world. Lidey Heuck's Greek salad. Yossy Arefi for The New York Times (Photography and Styling) In summer, tomato and cucumber — technically both fruit — are drawn together with an almost magnetic force, an edible antidote to heat. The combination, finished with a pour of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, is found across the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and beyond. In Greece, it's called horiatiki salata, or 'tavern salad,' and topped with a slab of briny feta, a splash of vinegar and a sprinkle of dried oregano. In other nearby countries, the two ingredients are often finely diced and tossed with plenty of tender herbs and citrus juice, ready to serve as a spoonable salad. But one truth is universal: In high summer, it's a sin not to save and slurp the gazpacho-ish juice at the bottom of the bowl. A.S. There is an entire universe that separates Ali Slagle's fruit salad recipe from the tired versions you might encounter on airplanes, in buffets or at supermarkets. Ali Slagle's fruit salad. Nico Schinco for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Fruit salad is both simple and limitless. Technically, you could combine two different sliced fruits and present the results as fruit salad, but you'd be shortchanging yourself on flavor, when it could be intensified with dressing, spices, herbs or vegetables. Ali Slagle spikes her fruit salad with fresh lime zest, lime juice and sugar; the results taste like fruit at its peak, how a salad should make you feel: abundantly alive. A.W. To ensure each element of Melissa Clark's Caprese shines, bring the mozzarella to room temperature, sprinkle the tomato slices generously with salt and top the salad with basil at the last minute. Melissa Clark's Caprese salad. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. The essence of effortless summer cooking, Caprese salad demands little from the cook: Cut up a few ripe tomatoes, tear some fragrant basil and slice some milky mozzarella, and all that's left is to arrange them all on a platter, season and drizzle with olive oil, and admire the sight before you tuck in. The same blueprint applies even if you get restless and swap out the tomatoes for stone fruit, cucumbers or melon, or add more depth with prosciutto, olives or a spicy vinaigrette. A.S.

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