A few freezer tricks and lots of cooking tips are the ingredients for clever summer cooking, so here’s a collection that includes a stunning no-cook berry dish, the ultimate basil pesto and a vibrant watermelon salad.
Peach Granita
A surprising dessert made with fruit, ice, and sugar, granita is the old jeans of frozen desserts: comfortable, easy to eat, hassle-free, and texture-friendly. This peach incarnation embodies everything good about summer.
Tomatoes stewed with cotija cheese
Warmth is a surprisingly good match for fresh tomatoes. It’s not a tomato sauce, and it’s not a tomato salad either. This dish brings out the essence of the tomatoes with a jug of olive oil, fresh oregano and green olives.
Sardine omelette
If you’re looking for a hot breakfast to fuel you but don’t want to work yourself to death, peel off the lid of a can of sardines. Whisk up some eggs, sauté some shallots (or onions), mix everything together, and take a deep breath before heading out into the sweltering heat.
Grilled zucchini with fresh mozzarella
It’s not really a recipe in name, it’s a combination of ingredients, and it’s exactly what you need in the heat of summer. Grill a plank of zucchini, toss it with vinegar, garlic and parsley, plate it with fresh mozzarella and you have a meal.
Basil paste
It’s good to have a solid pesto recipe ready for summer, and if you’re teaching yourself pesto recipes, a Northern Italian version using basil and pine nuts is a good place to start, although there are endless variations using many herbs and nuts.
Summer Pudding
Berries are one of the vibrant wonders of the warmer months, and one of the best ways to showcase their berry splendor is in summer pudding, a traditional British no-cook dessert made with fruit-soaked bread. It’s a sublime example of how simple alchemy can result in a dish that’s far greater than the sum of its parts.
Egg and okra curry
This is one of Burmese dishes that uses egg and okra, two summer vegetables of choice. Shallots, garlic, turmeric, Thai chillies and tomatoes form the base, balanced by hard-boiled eggs and okra pods.
Dandelion, arugula and grana padano steak
A hearty and exciting salad that everyone craves during the hottest months of the year, bright green vegetables like arugula and dandelion are tossed in the umami flavor of fish sauce (or anchovies) and tossed with lemon juice, slices of seared or grilled steak, and shavings of Grana Padano.
Watermelon salad with habanero pickled onions and lime salt
Watermelon is refreshing straight out of the coldest part of the fridge, but when pickled with onions and salt mixed with the floral notes of habanero and lime zest, it takes on a new life.
