Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast: 250 Easy, Delicious Recipes for Any Time of Day

With 250 tempting recipes to take you from breakfast all the way through dessert, Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast is the indispensable collection that home cooks yearn for. Organized into familiar categories—including sandwiches and pizzas, appetizers, salads, soups and stews, pastas, main courses, and side dishes—this highly anticipated follow-up to the bestselling Everyday Food: Great Food Fast helps you whip up the perfect dish any time of day.  
 
Here is a book for the way we cook and eat now, with an emphasis on stretching meals (for example, leftovers from a roasted chicken are used to make a quick gumbo and roasted vegetables perform a second act as a vibrant pizza topping), turning to economical ingredients that deliver great results (such as flank steak, served with a piquant parsley-garlic sauce), and making healthier versions of comfort foods without skimping on flavor (like a lower-calorie chicken potpie). A section on enticing vegetarian main dishes as well as a roster of irresistible desserts round out this comprehensive collection. Here’s a taste of what’s inside:  
 
Breakfast: Jam-Filled French Toast  
Sandwiches and Pizzas: Eggplant and Mozzarella Melt  
Appetizers: Goat Cheese Crostini  
Salads: BLT Salad with Buttermilk Dressing  
Soups and Stews: Minestrone  
Pastas: Spaghetti Puttanesca  
Main Courses: Meatballs with Rosemary  
Vegetarian: Mushroom and Parmesan Risotto  
Side Dishes: Roasted Sweet Potato Fries  
Desserts: Gingered Blackberry and Plum Shortcakes   
 
Brimming with great time- and budget-saving tips as well as smart kitchen techniques, Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast helps you use what you have on hand to make everyone’s favorite foods. With an easy-to-read format, a photograph of each and every dish, and plenty of ideas to keep you inspired, this is the cookbook you will turn to day after day for wonderfully simple, delicious meals.

Sample Recipe from Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast
Lamb Chops with Parsley Pesto

Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes

Pesto made with parsley and sharp Pecorino Romano cheese (and without nuts) makes a colorful topping for tender lamb chops. It could also be tossed with pasta, spread on sandwiches, or mixed with cream cheese for a dip to serve with crudités.

Lamb Chops
8 lamb loin chops (each 4 ounces and 1 inch thick)
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup Parsley Pesto (recipe below)

Heat a large skillet over medium. Pat dry lamb with paper towels. Season chops on both sides with salt and pepper. Cook (in two batches, if necessary) 4 to 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Serve immediately, topped with pesto.

Parsley Pesto
Makes 1/2 cup
2 cups packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
3/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese (2 ounces)
1 small garlic clove, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for storing (optional)
Freshly ground pepper

In a food processor, finely chop parsley, cheese, and garlic. With the motor running, add oil in a slow, steady stream; season with pepper. Serve immediately, or transfer to an airtight container and cover with a thin layer of oil; refrigerate up to 4 days or freeze up to 3 months.

Freezing Pesto
Pesto keeps very well in the freezer, so it’s worth making extra. Freeze it in small airtight containers, covered with a thin layer of olive oil. Defrost in the refrigerator before using.

Martha Stewart Living was first published in 1990. Since then, more than two dozen books have been published by the magazine’s editors. Martha Stewart is the author of dozens of bestselling books on cooking, entertaining, gardening, weddings, and decorating. She is the host of The Martha Stewart Show, the popular daily syndicated television show.

Recipe:
Farfalle with Arugula and White Beans
 
Serves 4  -  prep time: 10 minutes  -  total time: 25 minutes
 
Quickly wilted arugula, canned beans, and toasted walnuts add heft to this vegetarian main course. Try spinach in place of arugula and pine nuts instead of walnuts.
 
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
12 ounces farfalle
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 pound baby arugula
1 can (15 1/2 ounces) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup walnut pieces, toasted for garnish
 
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil; add a generous amount of salt. Cook pasta until al dente according to package instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; drain pasta.
2. Add 1 tablespoon butter and the garlic to the pot; cook over medium heat, stirring, until garlic is fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add arugula; toss just until wilted.
3. Add beans, pasta, and remaining 3 tablespoons butter; season with salt and pepper. Heat, tossing, until butter is melted and beans and pasta are warmed through, about 1 minute. Add enough reserved pasta water to create a thin sauce to coat pasta.
 
4 To serve, divide among shallow bowls, and garnish with walnuts.