my big fat summer dinner party
a celebration of seasonal produce
Hello! It’s been a while— I’ve been busy enjoying the final dregs of summer. To celebrate, Jacques and I threw a dinner party where the only theme was eating seasonally.
notes on the menu
There were a couple of things that inspired this menu:
At the previous week’s farmers market, I bought the biggest bunch of scallions I’ve ever seen, and the sight of them in my fridge was overwhelming
I also went to an artisanal onion stand and bought a couple of weirdly beautiful spring red onions that I didn’t know what to do with
Jacques and I had made the chicken zucchini meatballs from NYT cooking the week before, and I wanted to make them again
I was craving panzanella
We wanted to make an easy grilled protein but still keep it light and summery, so we paired ribeye with a fun herby sauce
I made an olive oil cake for Osman’s birthday the week before and wanted to try it again with the addition of cornmeal
We served the chicken meatballs and everything above first, as soon as folks arrived, and then followed with the second part of the list (pasta to ribeye). I wanted the party to feel relaxed and fun and not have to worry about the food as much, so I prepped as much as possible and front-loaded with heavier snacks so we could all take a little break in the middle to finish cooking dinner.
the snacks
charred shishito peppers — self-explanatory
scallion and labneh dip — recipe from Alison Roman and made with the big ass scallions
caramelized onion focaccia — I love this focaccia recipe. I skipped the garlic butter topping and instead topped it with onions that I had caramelized the night before when the focaccia had about ~10-15 minutes to go in the oven
chicken zucchini meatballs w/ whipped feta — the aforementioned NYT recipe. I skipped the side zucchini and just did the meatballs on a sheet pan. I whipped a block of feta in the blender with shallot, crushed red pepper, s&p, and lemon juice, and put that on the bottom of the serving dish, topped with the meatballs
the mains
sungold tomato pasta never disappoints — I cooked and blended the sungold mixture the night before, then finished it right before dinner
big little gem salad — little gem, thinly sliced radish, roughly chopped snap peas, champagne/dijon vinaigrette
tomato and peach panzanella — I made a red wine vinaigrette with dijon at the bottom of a serving bowl, baked some big chunks of bread until they were very toasted, then added big slices of peaches and heirloom tomato and finished it off with some basil. Timing is everything here — you want the bread to be perfectly soggy when you serve it
ribeye with green herby sauce — Jacques grilled some ribeyes, and I prepped this Italian salsa verde with capers, anchovies, and herbs the night before. It was the sleeper hit of the evening, and people were drinking it out of the bowls
a lil treat
Chloe made homemade corn ice cream and a tahini and fennel pollen whipped cream, and both were incredible. I needed to make an appropriate vessel to be the vehicle for those toppings, so I adapted this olive oil cake recipe and swapped out 1/2 cup of the flour for cornmeal. I’d recommend baking in a springform pan! We put it all together with sliced figs on top.
Special love to Chloe and Maya for the photos from the evening <3
Till next time!