Now We’re (Barely) Cooking

After rhapsodizing about the joys of hosting last week, I walked the walk and threw an elaborate dinner party on Sunday. It was a truly delightful way to spend the weekend, but I’ll say this: After all of the shopping and the prepping and the being on my feet for 12 consecutive hours, I don’t very much want to cook at all right now. I contain multitudes.

So I’m letting the pendulum swing squarely into capital-E easy territory over the next few days, sticking to the kind of cooking that makes you question whether you can even really call it cooking. And as the days continue to ascend in daylight and in warmth, I’m trying to spend even less of my weeknight evenings in the kitchen: I want a quick dinner and a leisurely sunset walk after work.

In practice, that’s looking a lot like Sarah DiGregorio’s 30-minute one-pot miso-mascarpone pasta (above) with Ali Slagle’s 30-minute roasted spring vegetables (scallions! asparagus! green beans!) going in the oven at the same time if I feel like multitasking, or a heaping handful of frozen peas going straight into the pasta pot if I don’t. Neither of those recipes calls for more than six ingredients.

One-Pot Miso-Mascarpone Pasta

View this recipe.

Eric Kim’s been on the supremely easy sheet-pan cooking beat as of late, and I’m eternally grateful for it. I have his 30-minute sheet-pan japchae on standby for the day my body cries out for a tangled heap of vegetables, and his sheet-pan quesadillas at the ready for the day(s) I want little more than a vehicle for crispy, melty cheese.