Western

Western Recipes

721 recipes. Page 13 of 31

Pasta, steak, and other Western recipes

Spanish Orange Cod Salad (Spanish Salt Cod Salad)

Salty flakes of cod meet sweet, juicy orange in this Andalusian salad, and that contrast carries the dish. The cod is torn along its grain into light, chewy shreds, while red onion and black olives sharpen the edges. The fish only poaches in barely moving water, because a hard boil turns it tough. Soaking out the salt takes most of a day and has to begin the night before, but on the day itself the salad goes together in minutes and sits well beside a glass of sherry as a tapa.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 20min Cook 8min 2 servings

Western Medium

Chicken Marsala

Marsala wine brings a nutty, slightly sweet depth that, together with browned mushrooms, carries this pan sauce, and a little cream rounds it off. The flour on the pounded chicken does more than coat it: it leaves browned bits in the skillet that the Marsala lifts into the sauce. Once the cream goes in, hard boiling will split it.

Prep 15min Cook 25min 2 servings

Baking Medium

Challah Bread (Jewish Braided Egg Enriched Bread)

Eggs and oil make this braided Jewish bread yellow inside with a soft, tight crumb, and the egg wash gives it a glossy deep-gold crust. Challah is the bread of the Sabbath and holiday table, and day-old leftovers make excellent French toast because the tight crumb soaks up custard evenly.

Prep 120min Cook 35min 8 servings

Pasta Easy

Kimchi Garlic Butter Shrimp Spaghetti

The sauce has no cream, just butter and starchy pasta water tossed hard until they come together, and the sourness of kimchi plus a squeeze of lemon keeps it lighter than most garlic butter pastas. Sliced garlic fries alongside the kimchi so both flavors spread through the fat, and chopped scallion is scattered over after the heat is off.

Prep 12min Cook 18min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Roasted Brussels Sprout Salad

Roasted hard, Brussels sprouts char at the loose outer leaves and turn sweet and brown on the cut face. A crowded pan steams them in their own moisture, and the leaves never crisp. A sharp Dijon and cider vinegar dressing pushes back against that sweetness, while dried cranberries bring tartness and parmesan adds salt. Walnuts carry the same toasty note as the browned sprouts and give the salad more to chew on. After a winter frost, sprouts lose much of their bitterness and turn noticeably sweeter, and the salad is at its best in the cold months.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Western Easy

Chicken Milanese

Thin chicken cutlets in a Parmesan-laced crumb crust are shallow-fried in olive oil and finished with a squeeze of lemon while still hot. An even thickness matters, because a thick spot stays underdone in the middle while the crust overbrowns.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 2 servings

Baking Easy

Chess Pie

Sugar, butter and eggs make up nearly all of the filling in this Southern pie, yet the oven turns them into two textures: a thin, crackly top over a dense, caramel-tasting custard. As it cools the center firms to an almost fudge-like density, and it comes to the table at room temperature with a little unsweetened whipped cream.

Prep 20min Cook 45min 8 servings

Pasta Medium

Kimchi Lentil Ragu Tagliatelle

Lentils simmered for about 30 minutes in tomato and vegetable stock stand in for ground meat, giving the ragu a similar small, chewy grain without any meat at all. Finely chopped onion, carrot and celery are sweated rather than browned, and the kimchi only joins in the final minutes so its sour bite stays distinct. Broad tagliatelle carries the thick sauce.

Prep 20min Cook 35min 4 servings

Salads Easy

Roasted Eggplant Pomegranate Salad

Pomegranate seeds burst with tart juice between soft slices of roasted eggplant. Salted first to draw out surface water, the eggplant browns at the edges in the oven instead of steaming.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 20min Cook 15min 4 servings

Western Medium

Chicken Paprikash (Hungarian Paprika Chicken Stew with Sour Cream)

Almost all of the red color and aroma in this Hungarian stew comes from 2 tbsp of sweet paprika. The spice is stirred in only after the onion has turned soft and sweet and the heat is down low, because paprika scorches fast and turns bitter over strong heat. Tomato adds the acidity that cuts through rich chicken thighs. Sour cream, stirred in a little at a time over very gentle heat so it does not split, turns the sauce a softer orange with a mild tang. It is traditionally ladled over wide egg noodles or spaetzle.

Prep 15min Cook 40min 4 servings

Baking Easy

Chestnut Madeleines

Added in a lump, chestnut paste leaves dense streaks through the crumb, so it is loosened with a little milk first and then mixed evenly through the batter. Any bite of the moist center tastes of chestnut and honey. The batter is chilled before baking, and when it meets a hot oven the middle shoots up into the signature hump.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 4 servings

Pasta Easy

Kimchi Tofu Alfredo Farfalle (Creamy Kimchi Bow-Tie Pasta)

Cubes of firm tofu, browned at the edges, do the job meat usually does, while kimchi squeezed of its juice lends a sour, spicy note to a Parmigiano cream sauce. Left mostly unturned while it fries, the tofu colors at the corners without breaking apart. Bow-tie farfalle holds pockets of sauce in its pinched centers.

Prep 10min Cook 15min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Roasted Pumpkin Feta Salad

Thin wedges of pumpkin come out of the oven browned at the tips and soft through the middle. Cut thicker than about 7 to 8 mm, they dry out on the surface before the center cooks through. Crumbled feta lands salty and tangy on that chestnut-like sweetness, and toasted pumpkin seeds add crunch. Laid on the spinach while still warm, the pumpkin wilts the leaves just slightly and the parts come together instead of sitting separately on the plate. The leaves need to be shaken or blotted very dry, since wet spinach thins the lemon and honey dressing and flattens the taste.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 12min Cook 25min 2 servings

Western Medium

Chicken Parmesan

The crumb coating has to survive a second round of heat, since the crisp cutlet is covered with tomato sauce and mozzarella and returned to the oven. Resting the breaded cutlets for 5 minutes lets the crumbs bond to the meat and keeps them from sliding off under the sauce. Pounding the breast to 1.5 cm or less matters for a similar reason: an even cutlet browns on both sides before either one burns. Cut through it and you get crunch, juicy chicken, tangy sauce, and stretchy cheese in one bite.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Baking Hard

Chestnut Mont Blanc Cupcakes

Chestnut paste folded with whipped cream is piped in thin strands over small butter cupcakes until each one looks like a tiny Mont Blanc. In Japan the Mont Blanc is closely tied to autumn, and the cupcake format makes it easy to serve one per person rather than cutting a whole cake.

Prep 35min Cook 22min 4 servings

Pasta Easy

Kkaennip Mushroom Cream Farfalle

Kkaennip, the Korean perilla leaf, smells nothing like basil or mint, and its grassy herb note is what sets this mushroom cream sauce apart from other cream pastas. Its aroma fades with long simmering, so only part of the shredded leaves cooks in the sauce and the rest is scattered raw on top, layering the scent twice. Thick-sliced button mushrooms are cooked until their water is gone, so their flavor holds up against the cream. Parmesan brings salt to the sauce, and the pinched folds of farfalle trap it. If the sauce tightens, a tablespoon of pasta water at a time loosens it again.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Roasted Vegetable Salad

Bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, and onion lose their surface moisture fast in a hot oven, so their sweetness concentrates and the edges pick up scattered char. Peppery arugula underneath answers that sweetness, and a splash of balsamic adds the acid. Even the preheated tray serves a purpose: vegetables that hit hot metal start roasting at once rather than sweating.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 12min Cook 25min 2 servings

Western Medium

Chicken Piccata

Lemon juice and briny capers cut through a butter pan sauce, giving thin chicken cutlets a bright, sharp finish. The base of that sauce is the browned layer left in the skillet; white wine loosens it so none of that flavor is wasted. The lemon juice is added off the heat, because boiling dulls its fresh aroma. Cold butter swirled in at the very end emulsifies the sauce so it clings to the light flour coating instead of pooling. Mashed potatoes or pasta make good company for the extra sauce.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 2 servings

Baking Easy

Chestnut Sweet Potato Muffins

Two Korean autumn staples go in, each with its own job. The sweet potato is mashed smooth and loosened with milk so it spreads through the whole batter, while the chestnuts are chopped coarsely and folded in last, leaving starchy, nutty pieces to bite into. The sweet potato's moisture keeps the muffins from drying out once cool.

Prep 15min Cook 25min 4 servings

Pasta Easy

Korean Macaroni Salad (Sweet Mayo Pasta from Retro Diners)

Korean diners of the 1970s and 80s served this sweet mayo macaroni next to pork cutlet and hamburg steak. Sugar and sweet corn take the place of mustard or herbs, and the macaroni is cooked softer than al dente so the mayonnaise clings in one creamy mass.

Prep 15min Cook 10min 4 servings

Salads Easy

Salade Niçoise

Tuna, soft-boiled eggs, green beans, tomatoes, olives and anchovies stay in separate sections of the platter rather than being tossed together, the traditional way it is served in Nice. The runny yolks do half the dressing's work: break them just before eating and they flow over everything alongside the lemon and Dijon vinaigrette. Salty anchovy and olive play against the mild tuna. Eggs left warm after boiling keep cooking from residual heat and lose that liquid center.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 25min Cook 10min 2 servings

Western Medium

Chicken Provençal (South French Tomato Olive Herb Chicken)

Cherry tomatoes burst as they cook, and their juice mixes with salty black olives, capers, and thyme into a bright southern French sauce. Skin-on thighs are essential: searing the skin over high heat until deep golden gives both crisp texture and the browned layer in the pan that white wine later dissolves into the sauce. The finished sauce is reduced just enough to coat a spoon thinly and cling to the chicken rather than run off.

Prep 20min Cook 40min 4 servings

Baking Medium

Chewy Honey Wheat Bagel

Honey goes in twice, once in the dough and once in the boiling water for the dip, which keeps the sweetness faint and gives the crust its shine. Whole wheat flour, one part to seven of bread flour, adds a slight nutty edge.

Prep 90min Cook 20min 4 servings

Pasta Easy

Lasagna Soup

Instead of baking layers, this soup puts the flavors of lasagna into a bowl: sausage and tomato broth, broken pasta sheets, and a soft cheese topping. The broth gets its base from raw pork sausage, skinned and crumbled as it browns, with tomato paste cooked in alongside. The noodles are broken into 3 to 4 cm pieces and boiled in a separate pot, then placed in the bowls before the soup is ladled over. That way they never sit in the pot soaking up broth. The ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan mixture warms on top and loosens into the broth as you eat. With salt coming from both sausage and cheese, the soup is seasoned last, a little at a time.

Prep 10min Cook 35min 4 servings