Go for the gold: The London Deli Salad

April 11, 2022

Chris Simpson for The New York Times

The London Deli Salad

By Sam Sifton

Good morning. Yotam Ottolenghi joined The New York Times Magazine last week as an "Eat" columnist. For his first column, he wrote about the merits of hot and cold foods, and explored the concept of salad as practiced in his London delis. He gave us a recipe to go along with the prose, for a butter-bean salad with peas, herbs and pistachio dukkah (above).

Here's Yotam on its excellence: "With zero technical skills required and very little effort, this dish can be prepared in advance and put together when you need it. It could also sit around for a few hours and stay delicious and fresh. And it's no less complex or enticing or satisfying than any warm dish." True, true! Why don't you give that a try this week?

I'd like to make these crispy gnocchi with burst tomatoes and mozzarella at some point. Also, this marvelous chicken piccata — or, maybe, this chicken with artichokes and lemon instead?

Take a look, too, at these stir-fried green beans with ground pork and chiles, a dish that benefits mightily from a splash of rice wine vinegar at the end. Think about portobello patty melts while you're at it (and this Cheddar-sauerkraut toast if those sandwiches seem too involved). Absolutely consider making this spicy slow-roasted salmon with cucumbers and feta.

Or, you could order dinner from your favorite delivery restaurant, and spend the time saved baking instead: a creamy strawberry Moscato torte, for instance, or a lemon and poppy seed poundcake. Florida lime pie? A Lisbon chocolate cake? Throw yourself a party!

There are tens of thousands more recipes awaiting you on New York Times Cooking — and more inspiration on our TikTok, Instagram and YouTube channels. It's true that you need a subscription to access our site and to take advantage of its features. In return, though, we get to keep bringing you more. So, if you haven't already, would you please subscribe today? Thank you.

We'll be standing by like park rangers if you find our technology to be a bear (get it?). Just reach out to us at cookingcare@nytimes.com. (You can also send a flare to me at foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.)

Now, it's nothing to do with pickled mackerel or mushrooms on toast, but you've gotta read the novelist Rachel Kushner on skiing and nothingness, in Harper's Magazine.

In The Times, I loved Dwight Garner's review of David Hendy's "The BBC: A Century on Air."

There's a cool-looking exhibition up at the British Museum in London, devoted to "The World of Stonehenge." I liked Mike Pitts's explanation of how the site was built, on the museum's blog.

Finally, about a year ago I linked to an article by Annette McGivney in Outside about her grief at the death of her Labrador retriever. Now she's back in the magazine with an essay about bringing a new dog into her life while still grieving the old one. It's a haunting, lovely read. I'll see you back here on Wednesday.