If you’re using fresh pasta, start your sauce first. Melt the butter over medium heat, then lower when adding the lemon zest and garlic. Stir frequently until it becomes fragrant. Start your pasta and cook until shy of al dente. Reserve a cup (more if you’re using store bought pasta as you can use it when reheating). Add the pasta to the sauce pan and 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Stir until the pasta is glossy and sauce is emulsified. Add the grated Parmesan and lemon juice to taste. Mr. Gritzer suggests starting with 1 tablespoon and adjusting to taste. Season with salt and pepper. My goodness, was this delicious. I’m so glad I made fresh pasta as it complemented the sauce perfectly. The sauce was sublime with a hint of lemon and had a richness from the cheese and butter. If you’re planning on celebrating Mother’s Day at home, this would be a wonderful dish to prepare.
 
I picked up two bone-in pork chops from Perrotti’s Quality Meats, located in Cranford, and was looking for an easy recipe to prepare. I found one by Ali Slagle on The New York Times/NYT Cooking website for Sweet and Spicy Pan Seared Pork Chops. It’s a one pan preparation/30-minute meal requiring bone-in rib pork chops, light brown sugar, salt, whiskey or apple cider vinegar, unsulphured molasses, neutral oil, fresh ginger and butter.
 
The chops are seasoned with brown sugar and salt then cooked in large skillet over medium heat until they reach an internal temperature of no more than 120°. Next, add butter to the pan and top the meat with thinly sliced fresh ginger. With your inner chef skills, baste the meat with the butter until it reaches an internal temperature of 130°; remove pork chops. In the same pan you’ll add a mixture of molasses, water, brown sugar, whiskey or apple cider vinegar and molasses; cook until thicken.
 
What a tasty meal. The pork was tender and juicy with well-balanced flavors. You had a hint of ginger and the brown sugar provided both sweetness and a lovely bronze glaze to the meat.
 
Sometimes I see my nieces’ post on Instagram and she talks about meal prep with three children under 8. It can be a challenge, especially for her as she’s a photographer doing family beach portraits in the early evening on the Outer Banks. This is a great meal for her or any busy family, Crispy Gnocchi with Sausage and Broccoli. Yes, it’s from my favorite source The New York Times/NYT Cooking and its by Ali Slagle. Shelf stable gnocchi is a versatile product that pairs well in any sheet pan meal. The other ingredients needed are fresh broccoli, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh garlic, salt, crushed red pepper, hot or sweet Italian sausage and Parmesan cheese.
 
For this recipe I used spicy chicken sausage from Perrotti’s. You remove the meat from the casing and shape into small meatballs. The gnocchi, broccoli florets, and minced garlic are tossed with extra-virgin olive oil. The meatballs are nestled on top of the mixture and roasts for 20-25 minutes.
 
When done, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a dust of Parmesan cheese is mixed into the ingredients. Dinner is done! This meal takes a total of approximately 45 minutes and was delish! The gnocchi was soft and golden, the broccoli had a nice char as did the meatballs. The squeeze of lemon juice and cheese livened the dish. Perfect as a busy family meal.
 
My last quick meal takes approximately 30 minutes and it’s also from The Times. I prepared Christian Reynosa’s Garlic Chicken and Broccoli with Lemon. This meal utilizes boneless, skinless chicken breasts, along with salt, pepper, olive oil, unsalted butter, broccoli florets, fresh garlic, anchovies, lemon juice and Parmesan cheese for garnish.
 
Using a stovetop skillet, the chicken is seared, but not fully cooked. The florets are added to the pan surrounding the chicken and the dish is covered until the broccoli is almost tender. It’s then removed from the pan and kept warm. To the pan, olive oil is added along with garlic and anchovies. I prefer to use anchovy paste, rather than filets. Once those ingredients are fragrant, water and lemon juice is added to complete the sauce.
 
To serve, the chicken is sliced on a diagonal  with the broccoli mounded alongside. Drizzle the sauce over and garnish everything with Parmesan cheese…yum!
 
Another simple meal with amped up flavors. My husband isn’t a fan of anchovies; however, they add an umami flavor, not a fishy one. The meat was juicy and the broccoli tender enhanced by the sauce. The flourish of cheese just added another level of flavor. 

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​Pasta al Limone
Developed by Daniel Gritzer
From the website “Serious Eats”
 
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 4
 
Ingredients
5 tablespoons (70 g) unsalted butter
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus fresh juice to taste and additional grated zest for serving
1 medium clove garlic, minced
Kosher salt
1 pound (450 g) fresh spaghetti, store-bought or homemade
1 ounce (30 g) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper
 
Directions

1. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat until foaming. Lower heat to low, add lemon zest and garlic, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until just shy of al dente. Reserve about 1 cup (240ml) of the starchy pasta water, then drain pasta.
3. Add pasta to butter mixture, along with 1/2 cup (120ml) reserved pasta water. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring and tossing to coat, until pasta is glazed in a satiny, emulsified sauce.
4. Add grated cheese and toss and stir rapidly until sauce thickens; if it becomes too tight and dry at any time, add more pasta-cooking water to loosen it sufficiently. Add lemon juice to taste, starting with 1 tablespoon (15ml), then adding more until desired tartness is reached. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve spaghetti right away, topping each serving with additional grated lemon zest and cheese.

Sweet and Spicy Pan-Seared Pork Chops
By Ali Slage
The New York Times/NYT Cooking
Published December 13, 2022
 
Prep Time: 30 minutes
 
Servings: 2 to 3
 
Ingredients
2 (1- to 1½-inch-thick) bone-in pork rib chops, patted very dry
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
Salt
¼ cup whiskey or apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons unsulphured molasses (see Tip)
1 tablespoon neutral oil, such as canola or grapeseed
1 (2-inch) piece ginger, thinly sliced and smashed, plus 1 teaspoon peeled and finely grated
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
 
Preparation

1. Coat the pork chops with 1 teaspoon brown sugar, and sprinkle generously with salt. In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, stir together 3 tablespoons water, the remaining 1 tablespoon brown sugar, whiskey and molasses. Season with salt.
2. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium. Add the pork chops and cook, flipping every 2 minutes, until browned on the outside and the internal temperature in the thickest part is 110 to 120 degrees, 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat if sugar is burning. If your chops have a fat cap, using tongs, stack both chops on top of each other, then grab both chops together and hold upright to sear the fat caps until crisp, about 1 minute.
3. Lay the chops back down in a single layer and top with the sliced ginger. Add the butter, tilt the skillet and baste the pork by spooning the melting butter and drippings over the pork until the internal temperature registers 135 degrees, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and transfer the pork and ginger to a plate to rest for at least 5 minutes. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat.
4. Pour the molasses mixture into the skillet. Bring to a simmer over medium, standing back as it might sputter or flame. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the sauce resembles maple syrup and coats a spoon, 3 to 5 minutes. It can be tempting to crank the heat, but don’t, or the sauce risks tightening or burning. If your sauce gets too thick, thin with water. Turn off heat and stir in the grated ginger.
5. Discard the sliced ginger and stir resting juices into the sauce. Serve the pork chops with a spoonful of the sauce.

 
Tip - When shopping, look for unsulphured molasses. For this recipe, light molasses is too mild, and blackstrap is too bitter.​

​Crispy Gnocchi with Sausage with Broccoli
By Ali Slage
The New York Times/NYT Cooking
 
Total Time: 45 minutes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
 
Servings: 4
 
Ingredients
1 (12- to 18-ounce) package shelf-stable potato gnocchi
1  large head broccoli (about 1 pound), florets cut into 1½- to 2-inch pieces, stems thinly sliced
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2garlic cloves, finely grated
Salt
Crushed red pepper (optional)
1 pound hot or sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
¼ cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
½ lemon
 
Preparation
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. On a sheet pan, toss together the gnocchi, broccoli, olive oil and garlic until well coated. Season with salt and crushed red pepper, if using. Spread into an even layer. Pinch off pieces of the sausage that are roughly the size of the gnocchi and place them on top of the gnocchi and vegetables. Roast until the sausage and broccoli are golden and crisp, 20 to 25 minutes.
 
Squeeze the lemon half over the top (about 1½ tablespoons juice) and sprinkle with the Parmesan. Stir until the cheese has melted. Serve topped with more Parmesan and crushed red pepper as you like.

Garlic Chicken and Broccoli with Lemon
By Christian Reynoso, The New York Times/NYT Cooking
Published April 22, 2025
 
Total Time: 30 minutes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
 
Servings: 2
 
Ingredients
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, patted dry
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 small head broccoli (about ¾ pound), cut into bite-sized florets, stem cut into ½-inch slices on the diagonal
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 to 3oil-packed anchovies (to taste), drained and chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Parmesan, for serving
 
Preparation

1. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. In a large (12-inch) skillet with a lid, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and the butter over medium-high. Once the butter is melted and bubbling, add the chicken breasts, smooth side down, partially covering the pan to contain the splatter, and sear until golden, about 3 minutes. Flip the chicken, cover with the lid, turn heat down to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the broccoli to the pan, tucking it in between the chicken. Cover and continue cooking until chicken is cooked through and broccoli is slightly tender, 6 to 9 minutes. Transfer broccoli to a serving plate and chicken to a cutting board.
4. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan, then stir in the garlic and anchovies. Once they start sizzling, after about 1 minute, add ¼ cup water along with the lemon juice and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer, then turn off heat.
5. To serve, slice the chicken on the diagonal and arrange on the plate with the broccoli. Spoon the pan sauce on top and grate or shave Parmesan over everything.