How to Cook Everything: Summer: 20 Fresh, Seasonal Recipes and 32 Variations

By Mark Bittman

Summer cooking, simplified—with a recipe collection from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.
Summer cooking is a breeze with this inspiring collection of easy recipes from Mark Bittman, author of the award-winning How to Cook Everything. This quick reference is the perfect companion for a weekend getaway, a stroll through the farmers' market, a casual outdoor party, and planning simple everyday meals. How to Cook Everything Summer includes 20 of Bittman's favorite seasonal recipes—plus 32 variations—designed to help you eat well on even the laziest days, all with hints for ways to improvise with new foods and flavors.
From garden-fresh salads, chilled soups, and picnic-portable sandwiches to mouthwatering ideas for the grill, quickly prepared fish and shellfish, and luscious fruit desserts, you'll find all you need to enjoy the most delicious summer ever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jul 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9780544186927

Mark Bittman

Mark Bittman is the author of more than thirty books, including the How to Cook Everything series and the #1 New York Times bestseller VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health . . . for Good. Over his long career at The New York Times, Bittman wrote for both the food and opinion pages, and was the lead Magazine food writer before launching his own popular web site, The Bittman Project. Bittman has starred in four television series, including Showtime’s Emmy-winning Years of Living Dangerously. He is a longtime TODAY regular and has made hundreds of television, radio, and podcast appearances, including on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Real Time with Bill Maher, and CBS’s The Dish; and on NPR’s All Things Considered, Fresh Air, and Morning Edition. Together with daughter Kate Bittman, he has hosted their own podcast, Food with Mark Bittman since 2021. Bittman has written for countless publications and spoken at dozens of universities and conferences; his 2007 TED talk “What’s wrong with what we eat?” has over five million views. He was a distinguished fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and a fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He has received six James Beard Awards, four IACP Awards, and numerous other honors. In addition to his role as editor-in-chief for The Bittman Project, Bittman is currently special advisor on food policy at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where he teaches and hosts a lecture series. He is also the editor in chief of Heated. His most recent books beyond the How to Cook Everything Series are How to Eat; Animal, Vegetable, Junk; and Bittman Bread.

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List of Recipes and Sidebars

Summer Meals Are a Breeze

Sauces and Seasonings

Fresh Tomato or Fruit Salsa

Fresh Tomatillo (Green) Salsa

Corn Salsa

Peach or Plum Salsa

Melon Salsa

Traditional Pesto

Mint or Dill Pesto

Arugula Pesto

5 More Summer Flavors

Chili-Lime Mayo

Herb Butter

Herb Vinaigrette

Jerk Seasoning

Thai Chile Sauce

Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches

Gazpacho, Fast and Simple

Chunky Gazpacho

Fruit Gazpacho

Watermelon and Tomato Salad

Cantaloupe and Tomato Salad with Rosemary

Peach, Tomato, and Bacon Salad

Improvising Vegetable Salads

Black Bean and Pan-Roasted Corn Salad

Barley Salad with Cucumber and Yogurt-Dill Dressing

Barley Cucumber Salad with Walnuts

Spicy No-Mayo Coleslaw

4 Summer Meals to Eat with Your Hands

Grilled Fish Sandwiches with Chili-Lime Mayo

Grilled Vegetable Wraps

Grilled Shrimp or Scallop Tacos

BMT: Basil, Mozzarella, and Tomato

Main Dishes

Pasta with Corn, Zucchini, and Tomatoes

Grilled Fish Fillets or Steaks

Grilled Shrimp or Scallops

Lobster (or Other Seafood) Boil

Pan Bagnat with Chicken Breast

Grilled or Broiled Chicken Parts with Provençal Flavors

Grilled or Broiled Chicken Parts with Mustard

Grilled or Broiled Chicken Parts with Lemon and Herbs

Grilled or Broiled Chicken Parts with Cilantro and Lime

Grilled Beef Salad with Mint

Grilled Chicken Salad with Lemongrass

Grilled Shrimp Salad with Chile and Basil

My Favorite Burger

Garlicky Pork Burger

Bean Burgers

Beef (or Other Meat or Seafood) Kebabs

Grilled Vegetables

11 Great Vegetables and Fruits for Grilling

Tomato Cobbler

Tomato Cobbler with Cheesy Topping

Tomato Cobbler with Herb Topping

Tomato Cobbler with Extra Corny Topping

Desserts

Plum-Rosemary Upside-Down Cake

Sweet Green Tomato Upside-Down Cake

Peach (or Other Fruit) Crisp

Other Fruit Crisps

Recipes by Occasion

Recipes by Icon

Buy the Complete Books

Summer Meals Are a Breeze

More than any other season, summer is the time to embrace a casual, flexible approach to cooking and eating. As you gravitate toward fresh produce and outdoor living, many pots and pans never see the light of day. Pantry staples remain virtually untouched. Even entertaining a crowd is no big deal.

Still, the choices for what to buy and prepare can be daunting, especially when you’re busy having fun. That’s where this How to Cook Everything ebook comes in: Here is a portable kitchen reference that celebrates the abundance of delicious seasonal food, and inspires you to eat something for dinner tonight besides an ice cream cone. The idea is to capture my relaxed approach to summer meals in 20 dishes—plus lots of variations, including a global approach to varying flavors, improvising sandwiches from leftovers, and more—provide some guidance for all-purpose grilling, and offer enough basic ingredient and condiment information that everything from a versatile vinaigrette to a lobster boil is a breeze.

Summertime cooking rewards laziness. With so many fruits, vegetables, and herbs at your fingertips, it’s easy to eat well with minimal effort. About a third of the recipes in this ebook involve little more than chopping. Add the heat of a grill, and you’ve got another third. This time of year, I could practically live on ripe peaches, especially when they’re so easy to turn into salsa, salad, or gazpacho; or serve grilled with ice cream and honey. Food tastes so good right now you don’t even need to fuss with seasoning: Olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper and fresh herbs work on everything. Arm yourself with a handful of only slightly more involved options, like a bright pesto or an all-purpose Thai dipping sauce, and you have a simple repertoire to take grilled meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables in bold directions that offset even the hottest weather.

Another pleasure of summer cooking is spontaneity. Since you’re probably taking advantage of whatever looks best at farmstands and outdoor markets—or from your garden—the recipes, variations, and sidebars are designed for improvisation. Most dishes are adaptable enough that you can swap main ingredients easily, and let serendipity decide what’s for dinner. Try new things: whether it’s a yellow cucumber or