Celery & Fennel Salad, Cantaloupe & Arugula Salad, and a Baked Potato Bar by Alison Roman

“IT’S THE FI-NAL SAL-LAAAAADS!” (And some baked potatoes!) 

The ones I waited longest to enjoy. Eating these two salads revealed two new discoveries: 1) Hard blue cheese actually isn’t so bad. 2) Black olives are the most inferior kind of olive. Those two ingredients are the sole reasons I waited so long to make these salads. They also confirmed one fact that I already knew by heart: 1) olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper are all you need to dress a fantastic salad. 

I just spent the last few days celebrating a dear college friend who’s getting married soon. A small group of us drove or flew to Sawyer, Michigan where several inches of snow and a cozy cabin by Lake Michigan awaited. Weekends like these remind me just how blessed by community I am. I’ve been gifted friendships with some of the most authentic, kind, goofy, thoughtful women. Perhaps what’s most impressive about them is that they are the same kind of people in friendship as they are in the world every day, towards friends and strangers alike. We don’t see one another more than maybe once a year, which makes our time together all the richer. 

Those who flew, came in through Chicago airports, so they needed a ride to the cabin and back. We had some time to spend before their flights home, so I decided to involve them in making three of my final six recipes for a fancier-than-usual lunch. 

We gathered around my kitchen island and assumed our positions…

Megan: She owns Dining In, and thus has cooked a good number of Alison’s recipes herself. So she took charge of making Alison’s Skillet Chicken with Crushed Olives and Sumac. We’ve both made this several times in the last year because it’s that good. (It’s also the recipe used for the cover of the book). 

Molly: Standing at the corner of the counter, she expertly sliced and seeded a cantaloupe into half-inch thick rounds, then removed the outer skin. Alison says nothing about removing the rind, but we figured it’d be easier to eat that way (duh). Molly also took charge of thinly slicing the celery stalks — like a boss. 

Anne: Standing in the middle, Anne eagerly volunteered to stab the russet potatoes all over with a fork to prep them for the oven. Post-oil, she sprinkled them with salt and pepper. She helped Molly remove the cantaloupe rinds. She coarsely chopped the walnuts and pistachios. She tossed the cantaloupe and arugula together and squeezed a whole lemon all over it. She topped the bowl with the chopped black olives and a handful of chopped chives. 

Caroline: God bless her. At the far end of the counter, she oiled the potatoes by hand. After, she expertly sliced a fennel bulb into thin strips and a shallot into thin rings. She tossed the celery, fennel, lemon juice, shallot, toasted nuts, salt, pepper, and olive oil together. She crumbled the hard blue cheese on top and sprinkled the bowl with celery leaves. Anne and Molly helped with the celery leaves too. She finely chopped the black olives (I used a tiny can of pitted ones from Whole Foods.) 

Yours truly: I played quarterback -- giving each teammate instructions at regular intervals. My few tasks included toasting the nuts in a skillet (I didn’t have enough walnuts to fill half a cup so I added pistachio meats into the mix— a great call), testing each dish and adding salt and pepper to taste, and setting out the baked potato toppings - sour cream, Greek yogurt, butter, flaky salt, pepper, and chopped chives. 

This meal obviously consisted of dishes chosen by necessity. I didn’t consider a cantaloupe and black olive salad to be the first choice pairing for a baked potato bar. But much to my surprise, all four dishes felt surprisingly cohesive as a meal, with the celery and fennel salad as the strongest outlier.

Someone recently asked me what my favorite part has been about this project. My answer? The people I enjoyed the meals with. Every dish created an opportunity to invite people into my home, or bring the food to them, and commune together. Share an experience, talk about what we’re eating, the flavors we’re tasting. A chance to encourage and nourish the people I love. Yes, that is what brings me the most joy. 

221, 222, and 223 recipes cooked, 2 to go.

Roasted Squash with Yogurt and Spiced Buttered Pistachios by Alison Roman

Sometimes my brain works like Michael Scott’s in The Office. It thinks of one thing and, through a series of tiny logic jumps, ends on something completely different (but vaguely related). Like Michael’s name association game in Season 5, Episode “Lecture Circuit.” If you know, you know. Why am I mentioning this? Mostly for my own pleasure. Here’s how my brain thought about writing this essay… 

I need to write about the squash recipe → I used an acorn squash → I’m delighted by the way that acorn squash resembles a real acorn → acorn squash looks like someone pumped air into a real acorn until it was 1,000x its original size → you know who likes acorns, squirrels! → my friend Megan pointed out to me the other day that the only reason people tolerate squirrels is because of their bushy tails, otherwise squirrels would resemble rats and everyone would think they’re gross → I saw a squirrel prepare for winter in Pittsburgh, it gathered walnuts, stripped the walnuts of their protective shells using its front teeth, and stored the nuts underground.

See what I mean? 

Back to the acorn squash. I cut it first down the middle, lengthwise, and then sliced each half into one and a half inch slices. Minus the seeds, they looked like pieces of cantaloupe. Now per Alison’s suggestion, and remembering what I wished I’d done with her Caramelized Winter Squash recipe, I chose to keep the seeds in there for added texture and crunch. A fabulous choice, IMO. Like pumpkin seeds, they’re a little hard to chew - but they taste delightful. 

While the squash roasted in the oven, I sauteed chopped pistachios, turmeric and pepper flakes in browned butter. What makes this recipe so low maintenance is the use of pre-shelled pistachios. Trader Joes sells bags of pistachio meats for an affordable price, and I can’t recommend them enough. Also, the lemony yogurt is an essential part of this recipe. I think the strength of the turmeric flavor needs a slightly acidic mellowing, which the yogurt and lemon juice provide. 

I especially appreciated the addition of flaky salt at the end, making this a triple crunch recipe: pistachios, squash seeds, and flaky salt. This recipe can be made all winter long, but it’s especially perfect for the holidays, adding some flare to an otherwise traditional vegetable. Wow your relatives. Make this acorn squash. Maybe tell them my friend’s theory about squirrels. Or don’t. 

157 recipes cooked, 68 to go.

Pistachio-Plum Crisp by Alison Roman

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I like pistachios, and I really like plums. Sadly, I didn’t care for this dessert. 

The pistachio topping was a little too wet and the pistachio flavor too overpowering. The plums became nice and jammy, but their flavor was too sweet for me. It needed to rely on the natural sugar more, and added sugar less. Normally with a fruity dessert, I’d say layer on the ice cream, but that would have made an already overly sweet dessert even sweeter. 

The assembly is rather simple, like any fruit cobbler. The fruit is tossed with corn starch, sugar, and your acid of choice. The topping consists of butter, flour, sugar, spices, and nuts, then gets scattered on top of the fruit to bake. I love simplicity, but I’d prefer to use my plums differently.

Next plum season, I’ll opt for just making Alison’s Torn Plum Browned Butter Cake like five times in a row. That cake is incredible. Seriously, go make it.

132 recipes cooked, 93 to go.

Sungold Pasta with Lemony Shellfish, Garlic, and Pistachios by Alison Roman

Since starting this project, I tend to think about food in terms “Before Alison” or “After Alison.” Before Alison, seafood pasta wasn’t on my radar at all. After Alison, I crave it all the time. I look for it on restaurant menus. I approached this recipe with great anticipation. And it mostly lived up to my expectations. 

This recipe requires a lot of multitasking, so the more you can prepare ahead of time, the less stressful the cooking process will be. I suggest slicing the garlic and fennel, and scrubbing and soaking the clams ahead of time. If you don’t already have toasted pistachios on hand, toast those first, too. The last thing you’ll want to do is wait for them to toast while your pasta is getting cold. 

In a large skillet, I first sauteed the fennel bulb and garlic, letting them become tender. Then came the spices, toasted briefly, and a pound of tomatoes. No Sungold’s at the grocery store, but I did find Sungold look-alikes which did the job well. (Yes, even vegetables have doppelgangers!) The tomatoes needed time to heat through and break down into a jammy sauce. At around the eight-minute mark, I started gently breaking them down with the back of my wooden spoon. Next, I added white wine and let it simmer and reduce. That’s four different steps, and we’re only halfway through the recipe! 

The clams need to steam in the sauce for a few minutes until they’re only slightly opened before the shrimp can join. The clams continue to open while their shrimpy partners cook and turn opaque. I’m always surprised at how little effort this seafood takes to cook! 

Instead of adding the pasta to the skillet (I used TJ’s GF brown rice spaghetti), Alison recommends coating the noodles with sauce in a giant serving bowl instead. Heed her advice! I chose to dump the pasta into my saucy skillet, only to quickly realize that there was absolutely no room to toss everything together. I quickly poured the meal into a wide serving bowl and proceeded to mix it from there. The final step involves a good sprinkling of toasted, chopped pistachios for a nutty finish. 

I really enjoyed this pasta. Jordan, not as much. He told me afterward that he could take or leave the seafood, and would enjoy the pasta with just the fennel and tomato sauce. I personally liked the added protein, but I see what he means. The seafood didn’t feel instrumental to the dish. More of an afterthought. If push came to shove, I think I’d prefer Alison’s other seafood pasta from Dining In, Clam Pasta with Chorizo and Walnuts. And that’s surprising, given my affinity for tomatoes. 

131 recipes cooked, 94 to go.