Weeknight Meals

Any fairly thin cut of beef will work with this marinade; try flank or New York strip.

Bursting with the big, brash flavors of green olives, anchovies, and capers, this herbaceous pasta sauce isn't afraid to bite back.

This recipe is for all of the busy women out there—supermoms, superworkers, superwomen deserve superfoods. Cook the salmon and the quinoa a day ahead, and throw this salad together in minutes on a weeknight. You could make it vegetarian if you prefer by swapping out the salmon for tofu—the marinade will still work perfectly!

These dumplings have a light texture, thanks to the addition of fresh ricotta cheese. Drain the ricotta in a sieve for two hours before starting the recipe.

Kids and grown-ups alike will love this upgrade on classic fish sticks. And with a cornmeal coating, they're naturally gluten-free. The creamy dipping sauce doubles as a dressing for the salad, so you don't have to mix up two different sauces to get dinner on the table.

If you don't feel like making aioli, use prepared mayonnaise and season it with mustard and garlic.

You'll find fresh rice noodles in well-stocked Asian markets (or search for them on amazon.com).

Both guanciale and Pecorino are quite salty; Leonardo Vignoli, the chef at Da Cesare al Casaletto, recommends undersalting the pasta water to give you more control.

Boredom? Never. Try swapping in baby turnips for the radishes and kale or Swiss chard for the mustard greens in this effortless dish.

Quick-cooking squid is perfect for a weeknight dinner. Look for it at a reputable fish monger or in your grocer's freezer section.

This entire dish is right out of Rose and Ruthie's River Café playbook, with just a few tweaks of my own. They taught me how to make fonduta, a silky sauce rich with crème fraîche and egg yolks. It takes less time and just a bit more effort than tomato sauce, and turns a plate of pasta into an elegant and impressive meal. Get yourself some asparagus spears that are as thick as your pointer finger—not those thin or sprouty ones—and you'll enjoy the juicy slivers in each bite.

Puréeing beet greens into pesto and tossing asparagus ribbons with fettuccine is a great way to incorporate healthy vegetables into pasta.

Served warm or at room temperature, a frittata makes for an easy yet impressive dinner. If you are following our $68 Dinner Story, buy 1 bunch asparagus and use 3/4 bunch for the Fettuccine with Asparagus, Beet Green Pesto, and Poached Egg and the remaining 1/4 bunch here. This is the perfect opportunity to use up any leftover beet green pesto from the pasta dish as well.

This is an elegant risotto that's fairly straightforward, though a bit messy if you're using red beets. Yellow or red, the color is spectacular and the taste will have those averse to eating beets rethinking the root. If you are following our $68 Dinner Story, reserve the greens from the beets for the Fettuccine with Asparagus, Beet Green Pesto, and Poached Egg .

Chicken thighs are an inexpensive and delicious alternative to chicken breasts. This one-pan dinner is perfect for a weeknight because it's so simple to put together and cleanup is a breeze.

Shakshuka is Tunisian in origin but has become hugely popular in Jerusalem and all over Israel as substantial breakfast or lunch fare. Tunisian cuisine has a passionate love affair with eggs and this particular version of shakshuka is the seasonal variant for the summer and early autumn. Potatoes are used during the winter and eggplants in spring. Having published recipes for shakshuka once or twice before, we are well aware of the risk of repeating ourselves. Still, we are happy to add another version of this splendid dish, seeing how popular it is and how convenient it is to prepare. This time the focus is on tomato and spice. But we encourage you to play around with different ingredients and adjust the amount of heat to your taste. Serve with good white bread and nothing else.