Gremolata

I made braised short ribs for dinner tonight, something I've been meaning to try at home since I noticed that Trader Joe's offers boneless short ribs. The up side of boneless is that they cook relatively fast - these got about three hours in a slow oven, and were very tasty even without the overnight treatment the recipe calls for. The down side is that, without bones, the braising liquid doesn't get that glossy sheen and doesn't really thicken up without help.

I served the short ribs over egg noodles, topped with gremolata, that fantastic (and practically effortless) combo of parsley, lemon zest and garlic. Gremolata is a standard accessory for osso bucco, but, as Michael Ruhlman points out, it's equally at home on beef. It's also ridiculously simple to make: mix three parts minced parsley, two parts minced lemon zest, one part minced garlic. Done! Sprinkle it over each serving of short ribs or steak or chicken or shrimp or grilled fish. A tip: make twice as much as you think you need. Ruhlman's basic recipe (three tsp parsley, two tsp lemon zest, one tsp garlic) says it'll cover four servings, but it was gone in a heartbeat.

The short ribs were good, and I'll make them again - but almost anything braised in wine all afternoon will be worth eating. The real treat was the gremolata, and I'll be making more of that very soon.

"Stacked Pesto"

I had fresh basil and parsley, but I was in a hurry tonight (and I couldn't face the Cuisinart). So I "deconstructed" a pesto, stacking basil chiffonade and chopped parsley on grilled chicken breasts and asparagus. I spooned on a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, into which I had stirred pressed garlic, black pepper and salt (a pinch of red pepper flakes would have been good, too), then grated a little Reggiano on top.

I covered the dish loosely, then parked it in a warm oven while I picked up Liz and the kids at the park, and grabbed a baguette from Babette's.

There weren't any leftovers. The chicken was juicy and very flavorful (I'd thought ahead and taken it off the grill before it was quite done, so it wouldn't dry out). The "pesto" was fresh and herb-y, without the zing of my regular recipe, but still quite good. The asparagus was crisp-tender (like the chicken, I'd under-cooked it a bit). And the juices in the bottom of the dish, sopped up with baguette, were a real treat.

Best of all? 30 minutes, start to finish, and very few dishes to wash.