Every week, Executive Food Editor Keith Dresser pairs each main dish with a side to give you a complete, satisfying dinner without the guesswork. Look for the game plan section to learn tips on how to streamline your kitchen work so dinner comes together quicker.
Dinner This Week- Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes
Dinner 1: Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Romaine Salad
Game Plan: Start by making the sauce. As the sauce simmers, prepare the salad ingredients. Toss the salad right before serving.
We use fusilli in our Pasta and Fresh Tomato Sauce with Chile Pepper and Basil, but any short tubular or curly pasta shape can be substituted. Any variety of tomato will work here—even a mix—but make sure to use the best quality you can find. Increase or decrease the amount of red pepper flakes to suit your taste. Romaine and Watercress Salad with Asparagus and Prosciutto can be adapted to use what you have on hand. We like the mix of crisp romaine and spicy watercress, but feel free to try different combinations of greens. Crisp bacon can be used instead of prosciutto, and almonds can stand in for the pine nuts.
Printable Shopping Lists: Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Romaine and Watercress Salad
Sign up for the Cook's Insider newsletter
The latest recipes, tips, and tricks, plus behind-the-scenes stories from the Cook's Illustrated team.
Dinner 2: Stir-Fried Beef with Kimchi and Steamed White Rice
Game Plan: Prep all of the ingredients for the stir-fry. Start cooking the rice. Once the rice is covered, cook the stir-fry.
Stir-Fried Beef with Kimchi calls for flank steak, but strip or blade steak can also be used. Kimchi is integral to the dish, but the bean sprouts can be replaced with another crisp vegetable such as thinly sliced celery or strips of bell pepper. For Steamed White Rice that is just sticky enough to be picked up with chopsticks, rinse the rice well and boil it for the first 5 minutes.
Printable Shopping Lists: Stir-Fried Beef with Kimchi and Steamed White Rice
The Best Woks
After years of preferring nonstick skillets to woks for making stir-fries, we decided to take a fresh look at this traditional pan.Dinner 3: Broiled Pork Tenderloin and Steamed Broccolini
Game Plan: Prep all of the ingredients for both dishes. Broil the pork. While the pork rests, steam the broccolini.
The intense heat of the broiler gives our Broiled Pork Tenderloin the well-browned exterior and rosy-pink, juicy center usually produced by roasting, but in a fraction of the time. The pork is great as is, or serve it with our Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Salsa. Pan-Steamed Broccolini with Garlic and Mustard is finished with a little Worcestershire sauce and dry mustard, but you can skip these ingredients and simply serve it with a squeeze of lemon.
Printable Shopping Lists: Broiled Pork Tenderloin with Steamed Broccolini
View more weeknight dinner ideas below, or check out all of the Dinner This Week menus.
- Dinner This Week: Spanish Tortilla
- Dinner This Week: Grilled Beef Kofte
- Dinner This Week: Quick Quesadillas
- Dinner This Week: Gazpacho Andaluz
- Dinner This Week: Lemony Roast Chicken