Whole Roasted Snapper with Harissa and Sun Gold Tomatoes by Alison Roman

Rule #1: Don’t forget to ask the seafood counter person to gut and scale your fish for you. 

Rule #2: If you forget to ask, don’t be afraid to take the fish back to the store and ask the seafood counter person to gut and scale your fish for you. 

Rule #3: Gutting a fish is really gross. 

You’ve probably surmised my fish journey by this point. Yes, I assumed the seafood counter person had gutted and scaled my fish. They only scaled it. Turns out seafood counter people agree that gutting a fish is gross and they won’t do it without being asked. Can I blame them? No. But learn from my mistakes. And yes, you can bring your fish back to the store and they’ll gut it if you ask. 

Before Jordan, my dear husband, started his new job last week, he had time on his hands. As I was commuting home from my own new job, I thought to put his free time to good use. Why not have him drive a fish to Whole Foods to be gutted, and have him make Alison’s whole roasted snapper recipe for me? So that’s exactly what he did. 

He tells me the whole preparation and cooking process was easy. “Are all of Alison’s recipes this simple?” All he had to do was combine garlic and harissa with some olive oil, and use that mixture to coat the fish and cherry tomatoes. He stuck them all in the oven, and voila! Meal ready. We served the fish with salad and brown rice. 

We both decided that snapper isn’t our favorite fish. The flavor is too… fishy. The texture, a little too game-y. We far prefer branzino or salmon. Jordan found this especially disappointing because he wants to be able to say “I love eating snapper.” “That’s a cool thing to say, isn’t it?” We’ll have to score our cool points elsewhere. 

139 recipes cooked, 86 to go.

check out those jammy tomatoes

Harissa-Rubbed Pork Shoulder with White Beans and Chard by Alison Roman

You know that feeling when you’re eating a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos and your mouth is on fire but you still can’t wait to eat another one? It’s a scorched craving sensation; the burn you can’t wait to feel. 

This was exactly my experience with this pork shoulder recipe. I hate to love it. It set my mouth on fire and left me wanting more. For Jordan, he just loved it – no fire (I have a low spice tolerance). 

This recipe requires almost no work – dare I say it’s the easiest “main course” recipe of Alison’s thus far? First, the pork is rubbed with a marinade made of harissa paste (a whole half-cup!), tomato paste, brown sugar, distilled vinegar, and salt and pepper. This is the most hands-on part, and it’s over before you know it. The pork and 1.5 cups of water take a shallow dive into a dutch oven to cook, lid on, for 3-3.5 hours at 325. The low-and-slow braising method strikes again! 

Once the meat is close to falling apart and the smell is impossibly good, two cans of rinsed and drained white beans join the fun, lid off, for about 45 minutes at 425. I chose Great Northern instead of Cannelini. Mostly because that’s what I had on hand, but also because Great Northern tend to be stronger and lose their structure more quickly. During their time in the pot, the beans soak up a majority of the liquid. 

Before plating, a bunch of torn swiss chard and sliced preserved lemon get stirred into the beans to wilt. What results is a tender, fall-apart pork bursting with spicy, rich flavor, and softened white beans and chard with briny lemon that do just enough to counterbalance the heat. I still needed a glass of oat milk to calm down my tastebuds, but to Jordan, it was absolutely perfect. And both of us wanted more. 

I left for a quick trip the morning after I made this, but I’m told that the leftovers were just as excellent. 

78 recipes cooked, 147 to go.

Fried Eggplant with Harissa and Dill by Alison Roman

I made seven Alison Roman recipes last week. All of them, except one, were very good. But for whatever reason, this eggplant dish is the one I can’t stop thinking about! 

Through this project, I’ve grown to really like eggplant, which is saying something considering where I started. I used to shutter at the soggy appearance of cooked eggplant in the cafeteria, and wondered how anyone could want to eat it instead of the always-available pizza and salad bar. I now realize that my college cafeteria, as exemplary for the circumstances as it was, did not treat eggplant with the care and flavors that it is due. 

I started to appreciate eggplant for all its creamy and flavor-soaking qualities when I first made Alison’s Long-Roasted Eggplant with Garlic, Labne, and Tiny Chile Croutons. There especially I learned how well eggplant goes with spice. Which is exactly what this fried eggplant recipe does so nicely. 

The eggplant is sliced into ½-inch rounds and fried in a boat load of olive oil (I probably used 1½ cups when all was said and done). The eggplant gets a nice toasted surface and soaks in all the yummy oil. It took about 20 minutes to fry it, since I could only fit so many rounds in my large skillet. Once the frying is complete, the pan is removed from heat and filled with a spicy sauce made of water, harissa paste, red pepper flakes, tomato paste, and vinegar. The sauce immediately bubbles in the pan, inviting the eggplant back into the skillet for tossing. Though 2 tbsp. of harissa and a teaspoon of red pepper flakes are used, the spiciness was quite tolerable and the heat more acidic than dry. The creamy eggplant played well with the tangy spices. Finally, the whole plate is topped with dill and flaky salt. 

I made this dish for dinner on a night when my brother-in-law was coming over. I could see his polite skepticism as soon as I brought out the plate. He reached for only two pieces and began eating the rest of his meal. But after a few bites, I could tell he had changed his mind. He and Jordan both helped to finish off the eggplant, which I count as a real victory. The leftover oily juices also made a lovely dipping spread for sourdough bread. 

70 recipes cooked, 155 to go.

Harissa-Braised Green Beans with Herbs by Alison Roman

Harissa? I hardly know her! 

But really, this was our first time meeting. For all the praise I’d heard about this tomato-chile paste over the years, it took me until now to summon the courage to look her in the eye. To be honest, I was afraid of her being too spicy. Packing heat is harissa’s reputation after all. But when I saw this recipe, I thought that maybe using harissa to add the heat to an otherwise middle-of-the-road vegetable seemed like the right kind of first date. 

(I realize that I frequently talk about food/ingredients as if they’re people. Should I be concerned? Is this a normal progression?)  

To begin, harissa paste and several garlic cloves are sauteed at the bottom of a large pot, until the harissa begins to caramelize. Then a large tomato, quartered, is added and cooked until it begins to break down. I found that this step took longer than outlined in the instructions, which I’m guessing is due to the size of the tomato chunks. Next time I’ll cut the tomato into eighths to speed up this process. 

A bit of white wine comes in next to deglaze the bottom of the pot. I chose a cheap Sauvignon Blanc (Trader Joe’s Coastal brand), and served it with dinner as well. As far as cheap whites go, this one is quite nice! Finally, the green beans are tossed and coated with the spicy tomato mixture and cooked over medium-low with the lid on to steam them. The goal here is to cook the beans until they are “delightfully softened but not yet mushy.” 

In true Alison fashion, the beans are tossed with a cup of fresh herbs, a half cup of chopped chives, and lemon zest. 

After cooking it down, the harissa paste added a nice amount of heat without overpowering the dish. It made me wish that we’d met sooner. I think this dish is a really nice way to eat green beans. I’m used to roasting them with olive oil and lemon juice, so this was a welcomed change. 

32 recipes cooked, 193 to go.

These green beans go really well with Alison’s Slow Roasted Oregano Chicken with Buttered Tomatoes. In fact, almost anything goes well with that chicken.