Two Summer Menus to Make for Two (or Just for You, with Leftovers)

When my brother left for college, my parents found themselves alone for the first time in over twenty years, their at-home gang suddenly reduced from four to two. They are excellent empty-nesters and have embarked on a great number of projects together, including, but not limited to, a series of bread-baking classes. Books on baking bread in a home oven have begun to bend the shelves of their cookbook collection—and have been joined by another, slimmer, and well-thumbed volume: The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook. 

Cooking for two has its pluses. There's an intimacy you don't get when you're cooking for and eating with a crowd. You have some freedom to cook exactly what you want, and fewer meals to squeeze into your budget. Meals for two can be simple, decadent in quality, and even a little sexy. And if there's only one of you—well, lucky you. You get to do it all again tomorrow.

Dinner for two? Here's what to make:

If you have about two hours to devote to meal prep:

• Smoky Clams for Two by Summer of Eggplant
• Romaine and Avocado Salad with Anchovy Garlic Vinaigrette by Phyllis Grant
• White Peach and Lemon Thyme Galette by vvvannessa

Round it all out with a glass of wine. Pick something that will pair well with the smokiness of the clams.

  

If you have one hour or less to make dinner:

• Baked Figs with Balsamic and Feta by Phyllis Grant
• Roasted Onion Salad with Arugula and Walnut Salsa by Marian Bull
• Vesper Martini by Food52

Serve the figs piled onto slices of crusty bread—and use any leftover bread for Alice Medrich's Grilled Chocolate Sandwiches.

 

Photos by Mark Weinberg, Phyllis Grant, James Ransom