This weekly meal plan is all about the sauces. Your big time-saver comes first in the form of a vibrant green pesto, which you'llmake in a big batchon Sunday night. It'll brighten up an easy frittata mid-week, and appear on a veggie-focused pizza on Friday night. You'll also double down on a rich, umami-packed tomato sauce, which will flavor chicken thighs and then get tossed with noodles for a pasta night. Throw in a shrimp picnic dinner that takes literally 10 minutes to make, and another week of dinners comes off without a hitch.
Let's go shopping.
Pantry
- Extra-virgin olive oil (you'll need a full 1/2 cup for the pesto plus small amounts for cooking throughout the week, so make sure you've got a full bottle)
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- Kosher salt
- 1/3 cup unsalted, roasted pistachios
- Fennel seeds
- 1 tin anchovy fillets
- 2/3 cup Niçoise or Kalamata olives
- Capers
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- Dijon mustard
- 1 pound pasta (the shape of your choice)
Produce
- 6 large bunches basil leaves (about 2.5 ounces)
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 medium zucchini (about 8 ounces)
- 2 small leeks
- 8 ounces asparagus
- 1/2 cup frozen sweet peas
- 3 lemons
- 2 small bunches watercress
- Salad greens of your choice
- 1 medium onion
- 3 pounds plum tomatoes (about 6 cups)
- 1 pound green beans, preferably haricots verts
- 1 small bunch dill (optional)
- 1/2 pound romaine heart leaves
- 1 avocado
Dairy
- 1 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
- 1 1/2 ounces Pecorino
- 1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta
- 1/2 cup shredded low-moisture mozzarella
- 8 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
Meat
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 8 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (about 2 1/2 pounds)
Seafood
- 1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, preferably wild, peeled, deveined (buy frozen or stick them in the freezer; you won't use them until Thursday night)
Bakery
- 16 ounces prepared pizza dough
- Crusty loaf of bread
Sunday Night:Prep-Ahead Pesto
Make the pesto—sans pasta—as perthis recipe. If you're really short on time you can skip the basil-blanching step, although it does make the sauce extra creamy. One batch will yield more than enough pesto for this week's menu plan, but feel free to double (or quadruple!) the recipe andstash individual servings in the freezer for future quick meals.
Monday:Provencal Chicken with Tomatoes, Olives, and Basil
To maketonight's dinner, use a Dutch oven or a heavy pot instead of a skillet, because we're making extra sauce. After browning and setting aside the chicken thighs, make the tomato sauce in the same pot using double the amount of garlic, tomatoes, and wine before adding the chicken back to finish cooking. Once the chicken is cooked through and transferred to a plate, add double the amount of the anchovies, olives, basil, and capers and bring the sauce to a boil as directed. Lower the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens, which might take a few extra minutes as the larger quantity of sauce will take longer to reduce. Serve the chicken with some of the sauce spooned over it, along with crusty bread. Save the rest of the sauce in the fridge for dinner later in the week.
Tuesday:Frittata with Fennel-Spiced Pork and Asparagus
This frittata is dinner-worthy thanks to springy, nutritious asparagus and hearty ground pork. Trim and cut 4 ounces of asparagus (about 4 medium spears) diagonally into one-inch pieces and add them totonight's frittata. Thinly shave the remaining 4 ounces of asparagus into strands using a vegetable peeler; pack them up and set them aside to get ahead on Friday's pizza. (While the frittata's in the oven, feel free to prep the leeks and zucchini forFriday's pizzaas well if you've got the time.) Serve the wedges of frittata drizzled with some of the pesto you made the other day; toss a little extra pesto with some greens and a squeeze of lemon for a quick side salad.
Wednesday: Pasta with Leftover Tomato Sauce and aSide Salad
Make dinner super easy Wednesday night to get over that mid-week slump. Boil a pot of pasta according to the package instructions, reheat that delicious Provençal tomato sauce from Monday night, and toss the two together for what might be the world's quickest dinner. Add a simple side salad using half of the watercress you bought tossed with the mustardy vinaigrette inthis recipe.
Thursday:10-Minute Shrimp with Green Beans and Creamy Lemon-Dill Dip
A quick steam bath for green beans and shrimp makes for adelightful snacky dinner, perfect for a hot, exhausted evening. While everything is steaming, stir together a quick sauce of yogurt, mayo, lemon juice, dill if using, mustard, and salt and pepper and prep the rest of your vegetables. Let everyone dip their shrimp, green beans, romaine hearts, and avocado in the creamy sauce and pretend you're having a Saturday afternoon picnic—the weekend's almost here, after all!
Friday:White Pizza with Shaved Vegetables and Pesto
Friday calls for pizza, obviously, butthis one'stopped with so many springy vegetables it's kind of a cross between pizza and salad—and it comes together easily with the help of store-bought pizza dough. You'll make a sauce for the base by stirring together ricotta, mozzarella, 1/4 cup of the pesto you made Sunday, garlic, and lemon zest. Coat those veggies you prepped earlier in the week—strands of asparagus, zucchini, and leeks—in olive oil; top the pizza with them, and bake. When it's out of the oven, top it with the remaining watercress dressed in a little olive oil, along with pistachios and Pecorino. Pour a glass of wine, and you're on your way to enjoying the weekend.
