Sorbet in Grapefruit Cups by Alison Roman

If there’s one dessert I associate with childhood, it’s orange sherbet with chocolate chips. My mom bought this ice cream more than any other flavor. Not because it was any of our favorite’s, but because it was hers. Which delights me. 

On a recent trip home, my family asked me to make them an Alison Roman meal, which was a true treat. I love cooking for anyone and everyone, but especially my family. They’re a wonderful audience. And I had the especially special pleasure of cooking for an additional family guest, my Oma. In fact, I made the meal at her house. 

Our menu included: 

• Crispy Salmon with Spicy Radishes and Green Romesco

• Baked Summer Squash with Cream and Parmesan Bread Crumbs

• A GF pasta salad with lots of veggies

• Kale salad with lemon and toasted almonds

And for dessert: 

• Sorbet in Grapefruit Cups

I prepared the grapefruit cups first, a few hours before dinnertime. Using a spoon, I gouged out the grapefruit halves, discarding the extra layers of pith but keeping the juices and meat of the fruit in a bowl. (If there’s one food I associate most with going to my Oma’s house, it’s fresh-squeezed orange juice. Very Southern California of her, I know. So I just had to save the grapefruits for her next morning’s breakfast.) 

Next, I divided two pints of Talenti sorbet, one mango and the other raspberry, into the cups. The sorbet softened on the counter for 15 minutes beforehand. Alison gives the option of adding fruit to the cups, like grapes, kumquats, or pomegranate seeds. Having none of these, I left it at sorbet. The cups spent roughly 2.5 hours in the freezer before serving. 

I could taste a very faint hint of grapefruit in each bite of sorbet. If I didn’t pay attention, I would have missed it. Otherwise it was just a bowl of sorbet. But it sure looked fun! And it made my family feel special. They all remarked how fun the idea was and how much they enjoyed it. So while the work to make this recipe outweighed any additional flavors or flairs, it was worth it just to say to my family, “I care about you!” 

So, if you like to go *above and beyond* for presentation, this one’s for you.

135 recipes cooked, 90 to go.

Melon with Crispy Ham and Ricotta Salata by Alison Roman

I’ve felt prompted to write about very few dishes immediately after eating them. This salad is one of those exceptions. Just seconds ago, I consumed a plate of juicy cantaloupe, crispy prosciutto, and thinly sliced iberico cheese. Every bite was a delight to eat and orchestrate. With each visit to my plate, I let my fork find the perfect-sized melon cube, followed by a bit of the cheese and a crackly piece of ham, and dragged the artfully designed stack of ingredients through the pool of lemon juice, olive oil, and flaky salt at the bottom of my plate. I love when food commands my attention, sensorily, mentally, even emotionally. And of all dishes to make such a command, it was a salad with fruit and meat. Call me pleasantly surprised. 

I can’t remember the last time I bought a cantaloupe. I’m not sure I ever have before this weekend? I associate cantaloupe with both my college cafeteria and airport food. The cafeteria salad bar always had a daily bucket of fruit. Which is nice in theory, but when the bucket only contained the same kinds of fruit for the 200+ days you eat it a year, you tend to grow tired of said fruit rather quickly. Like all good cafeteria’s, ours tried to be economical. Thus, the fruit bucket repeatedly contained cubed honey dew, cantaloupe, watermelon, and grapes. By sophomore year, I couldn’t eat another bite of melon. Oh, and airport food? You know what I’m talking about -- every food stop that sells to-go food always stocks a plastic fruit cup with, you guessed it, the same cafeteria combo. 

Needless to say, I put this salad off till the end of prime melon season (September). Today, September 19, 2021, my appreciation for cantaloupe was delightfully rekindled. I used half of the melon for this salad, slicing it into thin strips and removing the rind, and cubed the other half for my lunches this week. 

The prosciutto needed roughly 11 minutes in the oven to sufficiently crisp. It made my apartment smell briefly like another feature of my college cafeteria: bacon. Instead of ricotta salata, which I could not find, even at Whole Foods, I used a mild and firm Spanish cheese called iberico. Without ricotta salata to compare it to, I think it worked perfectly. 

Before topping the melon with ham and cheese, I sprinkled the slices with lemon juice and flaky salt. After the ham and cheese joined, I drizzled everything with olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper. I intend to serve this salad many more times, both for a fun snack on a rainy day, and as a sure-to-be crowd-pleaser when guests come over. 

134 recipes cooked, 91 to go.

Creamy Sesame Turmeric Dip by Alison Roman

The creamiest dip that I ever did eat, in fact. This largely simple spread includes three creamy ingredients: cream cheese, sour cream, and tahini. Not only that, but we’re instructed to combine them in a food processor, which gives a dense whipped cream effect. 

The other step involves heating olive oil and sesame seeds in a skillet until toasted and fragrant. Once removed from heat, add ground turmeric and swirl to combine. Pour the mixture onto the fluffy creamy goodness that awaits in a serving bowl.  

I served the dip alongside almond crackers, pita crackers, and sugar snap peas. Next time I’ll also throw in radishes and carrots. The dip practically begged me for a wider veggie display. (For those of you wondering, TJ’s now sells vegan cream cheese and sour cream. Which means everyone can eat this dip!)

133 recipes cooked, 92 to go.

Pistachio-Plum Crisp by Alison Roman

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.