Christina Musgrave shares advice for easy, memorable meals

Later this month, Christina Musgrave, founder of the popular culinary platform Tasting with Tina, will release her debut cookbook. In the forthcoming Tasting Every Day: Easy Recipes for the Weeknight Cook (available November 24), Musgrave uses 50 recipes to demonstrate her philosophy on food: You can find small ways to make every meal special.

“I think that weeknight cooking should be simple enough for a Tuesday, but impressive enough that you could serve it to guests on a weekend,” says Musgrave. 

Musgrave understands the challenges that come with weeknight cooking, because she experiences them herself. In fact, making Monday-through-Friday meals is what got her into cooking professionally in the first place. A former engineer and tech consultant, Musgrave had a thriving career but felt unfulfilled; after work, she’d come home to her kitchen and let her creativity flow. “Making dinner is what got me through the day,” she says.

Her work days were long, however, so she could not devote the same time to cooking during the week that she could on the weekends. That holds true now, even as a professional culinarian. With a growing family and thriving work life, she has to balance competing needs that leave less time for cooking than she’d like. Still, she’s found that by following a few simple rules, she’s able to cook memorable meals any day of the week without spending hours in the kitchen. Here, she shares those bits of advice, so you can also make memories around the table every day, not just on special occasions.

“The idea is that you are not striving for perfection, but you are striving to make a memory,” Musgrave says. “If we are only focusing on Saturdays and Sundays, we are losing out on a lot. Why not enjoy every meal, every day of the year?”

Keep things as low stress as possible. Musgrave can’t emphasize this point enough: If you want a weeknight meal to be successful, it has to be stress-free. This means finding ways to make things easy on yourself, whether that is prepping dishes in advance, relying on pantry staples or, most importantly, knowing the kinds of dishes to make. A labor-intensive dish that takes multiple hours may be a showstopper, but it’s not a good choice when you are under weeknight time constraints. Be mindful of prep times and cook times, and save the more complicated dishes for the weekends.

Make sure you’re always stocked with pantry and fridge staples. One of the ways that Musgrave tamps down the stress is by having a well-stocked pantry and a couple of items that are always in her refrigerator. Quality olive oil, pasta, fresh citrus, and parmigiano reggiano cheese are always on hand because they serve as good building blocks for quick meals. She also suggests keeping panko bread crumbs around. “If a dish needs a little something, I will toast panko bread crumbs in butter or olive oil and put them on top of a salad or pasta,” she says. “They add flavor and texture—just a little bit of opulence that you might not realize you are missing.”

Use good olive oil. All olive oil is not created equally, Musgrave says, and using the right stuff can really elevate a dish. “It’s the base of so many dishes, so you really want to start out with the right foundation; it can transform the way a dish tastes,” she says.

Do as much as you can ahead of time, and let your oven work for you. Anything you can do ahead of time will alleviate some mealtime stress, whether that means preparing an entire dish ahead of time or simply chopping vegetables in advance that you will incorporate into a dish at a different time. Musgraves is also a big fan of using the oven as much as possible. This could mean throwing in a pre-made pasta bake or even roasting vegetables rather than sautéeing them, so you can do other things while they cook. 

Find ways to make your favorite dishes easier. One of Musgrave’s fondest culinary memories from when she was growing up is her dad’s eggplant. An admittedly labor-intensive and complicated dish to make, she found a way to get the same flavor and feel of the dish without spending hours in the kitchen by making a baked version, which reduced the cook time from about three hours to 45 minutes. Musgrave has found that with a little research and minor tweaking, many time-consuming favorites can be weeknight-friendly.

In a rut? Get inspiration from restaurant menus. Even a food professional and passionate cook like Musgrave gets in a cooking rut. To get out of it, she goes out to eat with intention. “I’ll order things that I think I can’t cook at home or that I’d never normally order,” she says. If you are on a budget or do not have the ability to go out to eat, even looking at restaurant menus is a good way to get inspired.

Photography courtesy of Christina Musgrave

Photography courtesy of Christina Musgrave

Recipe: Eggplant Parmesan Bowl

Christina Musgrave’s Eggplant Parmesan Bowls

Growing up in a large Italian family, Musgrave and her dinner table were regularly graced with delicious eggplant Parmesan. Musgrave loves her dad’s version of the dish, but she admits that it’s quite labor-intensive—a roughly three-hour endeavor that’s simply not possible to execute for a weeknight meal. With a few tweaks, however, she’s been able to recreate the flavors and comfort of the dish in a much simpler fashion that can be on the table in less than an hour.

INGREDEITNS

Eggplant Parmesan: 

• 1 large eggplant, sliced into ¼-inch rounds
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ cup marinara sauce
• 4 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
• Parmesan cheese, for serving
• Fresh basil, for serving

Baked Orzo

• 1 cup orzo
• 1½ cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
• 1 cup marinara sauce
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• ½ teaspoon Italian 
• Seasoning

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and spray with cooking spray or drizzle with olive oil.
2. Bread the eggplant: In three shallow bowls, place the flour, beaten eggs, and panko (mixed with garlic powder, Italian seasoning, onion powder, salt, and pepper). Dredge each eggplant slice first in flour, then egg, then panko. Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
3. Prepare the orzo: In a deep baking dish, combine orzo, chicken stock, marinara sauce, butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Stir gently. Cover tightly with foil.
4. Place the eggplant and covered orzo in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
5. Remove both dishes from the oven. Let the orzo rest (still covered) for 5 minutes. 
6. Top each eggplant slice with a spoonful of marinara and a piece of fresh mozzarella. Broil on high for 2–3 minutes, until the cheese is melted and golden.
7. Stir the orzo to combine and spoon into shallow bowls. Top with eggplant parmesan, a generous sprinkle of Parmesan, and fresh basil. Serve immediately.

Notes: For extra-crispy eggplant, place the slices on a wire rack set over the baking sheet to allow airflow underneath. To make this recipe vegetarian, simply use vegetable broth in the orzo.

• Yield: 4 servings
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes