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Dinner Therapist is my column dedicated to solving your dilemmas around the most important — but, let’s be honest, sometimes most dreaded — meal of the day. Prepping dinner night after night can be so hard. Here, I deliver practical and hopefully fun advice to make cooking less complicated and more enjoyable. Follow along for all the recipes. Got your own dinner struggles? We want to hear from you! Fill out this super-quick form for your chance to be featured in an upcoming column.
Welcome back to Dinner Therapist! I’ve loved hearing from so many of you about the dinner dilemmas you face, and what you’d love to see in a weeknight recipe. One of the most common responses was not having a lot of time to deal with dinner, and wanting a dinner recipe with minimal prep.
With that in mind, I knew immediately the recipe I wanted to share with you: A one-pan fish dinner with jammy burst tomatoes, briny capers, and a bright sauce. It’s a family favorite that I’ve been making for years. And it’s a totally satisfying one-pan dinner that involves minimal prep and mostly hands-off cooking (you will have to get your chef’s knife out, but I promise that the chopping is kept to a bare minimum).
The beauty of this recipe is that you’ll have this prepped before the oven even heats up. Plus, the oven does all the heavy lifting. While your dinner cooks, use this time to make a pot of orzo or couscous, slice a loaf of bread, toss together a simple green salad, wash the dishes, prep tomorrow’s lunch boxes — or just pour yourself a glass of wine.
This meal is for nights I need to throw dinner in the oven without a lot of fuss, and I don’t have time or energy for prep work (or just really don’t feel like cooking, but still want to eat something really delicious). As a bonus, this recipe has a short ingredient list (seven, to be exact, not counting oil, salt, and pepper because they’re basics we all have) and lots of flexibility for substitutions so you can use what you already have.
Flexibility to Use What You Have
When I’m cooking for my family I often make ingredient swaps to use what I have on hand. That’s why when I develop recipes I do my best to build in flexibility whenever possible. I recognize that making swaps might not always feel obvious or intuitive, so I’m here to help. Here’s where you have flexibility with this recipe.
