Cue the first dinner party menu of fall
Roast chicken with sweet onions, a many-textured fall salad, and my favorite dinner party starter
Hello and welcome to the BEST SEASON OF THE YEAR!!!!
I’m so sorry I’ve been delinquent these last few weeks (but I guess you’re welcome for sparing your inbox of several emails you probably didn’t need?) I promise I’m back with a regular rotation of fall cooking goodness to send your way these next few months because this truly is my season.
I just got back from a whirlwind four days in Milan, where I was very lucky to attend the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition as a guest. It was quite hot the whole time we were there (80° almost every day) but the second I stepped out of JFK I realized we have officially entered 60-degree weather in NYC, with a few sub-50° nights here and there if we’re lucky.
I’ve been swapping out sundresses for sweaters, awakening my sourdough starter for the season of cozy bread baking, and starting to ease into the best part of the second half of the year: dinner parties. Last night my friend Leanne (aka @gan_doodles, who illustrated the Gentle Foods logo) came over for dinner and I was inspired to go into all-out fall feast mode. Here’s what we had:
To start, I put out a platter of Tejal Rao’s crisp-yet-fluffy Crispy Chickpea Pancakes With Roasted Mushroom Salad (gift link) for us to enjoy with a cold glass of wine while I put the final touches on dinner. This is one of my all-time favorite simple yet elegant dishes for a dinner party starter or a comforting solo meal. It’s comforting and unassuming yet luxurious. The pancakes taste rich and eggy from the chickpea flour despite being vegan (the batter is just chickpea flour, water, salt and pepper, and extra-virgin olive oil). The batter cooks briefly in a skillet on the stovetop to set the bottom before the edges crisp and brown in a very hot oven, where torn mushrooms tossed with oil and salt also roast. Once the roasted mushrooms come out of the oven, you throw in a big handful of torn radicchio leaves or other chicories (any bitter and crunchy leaf works), which slightly soften in the residual heat, then you dress it all straight on the sheet pan with sherry vinegar, more olive oil, and salt and pepper. I always add a small drizzle of honey to the veg when I toss everything together—I find it adds a welcome roundness to the vinegar’s sharp edges.