Creative, Delicious Dinners Made Easy!

Dinner: Changing the Game
by Melissa Clark
(Clarkson Potter, 2017)

Melissa Clark is a staff writer at The New York Times, where she writes the food section’s column “A Good Appetite.” The recipient of both IACP and James Beard awards, Clark appears frequently on “Today” and on public radio. With her new cookbook, Clark wants to make a healthy, nutritious dinner easy and accessible for home cooks every night of the week. Each of the more than 200 beautifully photographed recipes in Dinner is a single flavorful dish, easily prepared on a busy weeknight. The book is organized by main ingredient and works well for cooking with seasonal produce. Special ingredients or finishes can make a standard dish really interesting, like charred lemon in pasta; creamy Caesar-style dressing on a bowl of grains; fresh ricotta and demerara sugar in macaroni and cheese; sheet-pan chicken laced with spicy harissa; curried lentils with poached eggs; and burgers made with chorizo. You’ll want to start at the beginning and cook through all the recipes in this practical book with recipes that can be managed by cooks of all levels.

Edible East Bay’s book editor Kristina Sepetys is eager to share her ideas and book recommendations with our readers.