This Week’s Menu: Two at the Table Menu Week of February 28, 2016

This week, we tried to find recipes that are quick and easy but that also make enough leftovers to help us plan our lunches for the week. Tony was especially motivated to take this approach after a week of somewhat repetitive lunches brought from home (spinach and mushroom enchiladas for the fourth time in two weeks) and slightly boring (below-average sushi) and downright horrible (a soggy, bitter, soggy, overly-eggplanty, soggy, under-seasoned (did we mention soggy?) grilled vegetable wrap) lunches purchased at work. Before you feel too bad for him, you should know that Tony cheated on the Lent rules this past Monday by eating a pretty large piece of red velvet cake, though it should be said, at a colleague’s going away party.

On Sunday we’ll start with Ina Garten’s Spinach Gratin, a recipe that is pretty easy to make, but that uses a couple of larger pots/dishes, so it’s ideal for a Sunday. This recipe makes quite a bit: eight servings as a side dish, so we figure we’ll get at least two lunches out of it too. We’ll pair this up with a 2013 Puligny Montrachet from Columbus Wine and Spirits.

We’ll make another Ina Garten recipe on Monday night: Tuna and Hummus Sandwiches. This one couldn’t be much easier: it’s a simple but flavorful tuna salad that is piled up on sourdough bread spread with hummus and then topped with radishes. (We decided to buy hummus rather than make it, though Kim makes excellent hummus.) The tuna will make for some great lunches this week, especially since the flavors of the salad develop over time. We’ll have the sandwiches with a 2010 Lacryma Christi.

On Tuesday night, we’ll make a dish that we tried to make a couples of weeks ago: Real Simple’s Linguine with Broiled Garlic and Clams. We say “tried to make” because this dish counts as one of our very, very few culinary disasters. Let’s just say that Tony learned that when a recipe says “six inches from the broiler,” it’s probably a good idea to listen, especially if you’re cooking things in a Pyrex dish. (In his defense, he did have enough sense to put a baking pan under the dish, so the mess was at least contained.) We managed to salvage a few clams, but lost out on all the tasty wine and garlic broth that they were steamed in. So, we’ll make this dish again and pair it with a 2014 Graci Etna Bianco.

We’ll take break and order in on Wednesday and then make a very simple dish on Thursday: Food & Wine’s Kale Salad with Garlicky Panko. The recipe suggests serving the salad with a fried egg on top, so we’ll give that a try. We’ll also serve some sourdough toast, using the leftover bread from the tuna sandwiches we’ll have Monday night. We’ll have the salad with a 2013 Notre Dame de Cousignac Lirac. We’ll only dress some of the salad so that if we want to bring it for lunch later in the week it won’t be soggy.

We’ll wrap up the week on Friday night with a dish we made once before and thought was both beautiful and delicious: The Newlywed Kitchen’s Red Wine and Mushroom Risotto. As you can see from the post when we first made this dish, it comes out a very interesting purple. We’ll have the risotto with a 2013 Chassange Montrachet. Again, plenty of leftovers!

We have big plans Saturday night – we’ll be attending the New York Junior League’s Winter Ball – so no cooking for us, but we’ll be back next week with more fun, easy, Lent-friendly, recipes!