Three Things
Thanksgiving planning, Brussels sprouts to get excited about, and...join me in Italy!
Greetings eaters and readers! Imagine my delight last week when I opened up the Times to read about Vivek Murthy’s Project Gather, only a few hours after I sent out menu ideas for hosting low-key dinners with the exact same mission in mind. The program is part of a larger campaign to address the loneliness epidemic in our country, with the goal being to “reintroduce Americans to eating together, in whatever form that takes: a shared scone at Starbucks, a family visit to a taco truck, a neighborhood cookout, a Friendsgiving dinner.” I obviously do not need any convincing on the effectiveness of this strategy, but if you do, A) I’m glad you’re here because I plan to make community-building an even bigger part of Dinner: A Love Story going forward and B) you can download the Project Gather playbook, which has lots of sweet ideas for starting points. In other news, I wanted to make sure you saw that my Fall-Winter Recipe Index is now pinned to my home page, so any time you find yourself scratching your head wondering What main should I serve my vegetarian dinner guest? 🤔 OR What should I make for my daughter who is coming home from college on Friday? 🫶🏼 OR WTF do I have for dinner tonight? 😩…well, you know where to go. OK, enough wind-up! Here are Three Things I’m excited to tell you about this week…
1. Thanksgiving Planning
For those of you already halfway down my list of 9 Ways to Get Ahead of the Thanksgiving Chaos: Congrats! For those of you still deciding on table settings and the all-important pie line-up, or whether or not that perennially-late uncle of yours is allowed to bring the starters, I have an excellent resource for you: Substack Reads: Thanksgiving Unstacked. For the special edition, Substack editors rounded up a bunch of food writers (including moi) to create two complete Thanksgiving menus, one turkey-centric and one full-on vegetarian, from cocktails to pies and everything in between.
For those of you who don’t want any part of this mix-and-match decision-making, here is My Family’s Complete Thanksgiving Line-up which I wrote up last year and which you can feel free to cut and paste and pass off as your own. (As my daughter once said: “If our Thanksgiving line-up were an album, it would be called No Skips.”) The only thing that might get an upgrade is the pumpkin pie — and I really emphasize might, given how attached to Libby’s Andy is. I spent the weekend with Jeni (Rosa’s daughter!) who had me enraptured by a description of the Chiffon Pumpkin Pie she made for Thanksgiving last year. The recipe is handwritten on a battered and water-stained card (always a good sign), but Jeni said this recipe is almost exactly the same. How good does that sound? As long as we’re on the subject, what is your Prized Pie recipe? I’d love to know…
2. Brussels sprouts to get excited about
Last Friday night, we ordered take-out from Joe’s Steam Rice Rolls (recommend) and finished watching Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer (sadly, do not recommend) and even though I know this defeats the whole purpose of takeout, I decided I’d scrape together a vegetable side dish to supplement our order while we waited for it to arrive. I had a couple handfuls of Brussels sprouts in the fridge, so I trimmed and quartered them, tossed with olive oil and let them crisp away in a hotter-than-usual oven (if I’m not eating them shredded and raw, I like them charred) while I minced up a small knob of fresh ginger and some scallions. I was picturing a version of that David Chang drizzle sauce that everyone was making in, like, 2012, and now, my only question is: Why did we ever stop? The sauce (more like a dressing) is so freaking good! So punchy and funky with that hit of fish sauce — and it turns pretty much any roasted winter vegetable into a stunner. The next day, I used up the last few drops of it on roasted delicata squash, so this statement is not just conjecture. Here’s the how-to…
Charred Brussels with Ginger-Scallion Sauce
Turn it into dinner: Reminder, when The Vegetable is the Star* you can go simple on the protein: Toss basic roasted tofu (recipe also in The Weekday Vegetarians) into the whole thing for a one-bowl dinner or serve alongside chicken cutlets or butter-fried salmon.
Preheat oven to 450°F. Make ginger-scallion sauce: In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the following: 4-5 finely minced scallions (light green and white parts only), 1 tablespoon finely minced peeled fresh ginger; 2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola or grapeseed; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce, 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar.
Add about 1 pound of halved Brussels sprouts (or quartered if they are particularly large) to a foil- or parchment-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with a little olive oil and toss gently (I use my hands), making sure each sprout is lightly coated. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes until they look golden and crispy, bordering on charred. (See photo for reference.) Remove from the oven and, fashioning the foil or parchment paper into a chute, slide the brussels sprouts into a serving bowl.
Drizzle with the ginger-scallion sauce and top with fresh cilantro or mint.
*fyi” that was the working title for my last book
3. Come with me to Italy!
I’m thrilled to announce that you’re invited to join me next fall for an epic food-centric adventure in beautiful Puglia, on the “heel” of Italy’s boot, a region renowned for its whitewashed seaside villages and, of course, its rich culinary traditions. The tour is curated by Via Rosa, the boutique tour company run by Italian food expert, Elizabeth Minchilli and her two daughters Sophie and Emma. (Elizabeth writes a popular newsletter that you already know I love, and we partnered back in 2023 to host a Dinner: A Love Story trip to Sicily.)
During the six-day tour of Puglia, we’ll be based in the beautiful towns of Lecce and Monopoli and we’ll spend six nights and five days diving deeply into the food culture that defines the region. Local guides will take us to family-run dairy farms and the famously whitewashed hilltop villages that overlook the Itrian valley. We’ll walk through olive-tree-lined roads, some of the oldest in Italy, and attend an olive oil tasting and a fish feast in the heart of Bari. Every day, there will be adventures — carefully curated, hand-picked by locals — but what I love about Via Rosa itineraries is that they always make sure to schedule downtime so you can explore on your own. It’s going to be a good one, everyone!
The dates for the trip are October 12-18, 2025. As always, paying subscribers get first dibs on signing up. If there are still spots available, I’ll open it up to everyone next week. Click the link below to read more about the trip and to register: