Fewer dishes, better flavor
My new one-pot pasta recipe demonstrates how much flavor pasta can gain from this cooking method.
Cooking
January 21, 2026

Good morning! Today we have for you:

Two white bowls of saucy orecchiette pasta sprinkled with dill. A small bowl of chile flakes sits nearby.
Melissa Clark’s one-pot cheesy orecchiette with cabbage and paprika. Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

Why yes, one-pot

There are so many reasons to love a one-pot pasta, but convenience is only a small part of the deal. True, you’ll have fewer dishes to wash at the end of the night. And it is easier to throw your ingredients into just one vessel. But the most important thing is the alchemy that happens when everything bubbles and simmers together, the flavors mingling and intensifying. When pasta cooks in the same pot as aromatics and vegetables, and in broth instead of water, it gains a kind of depth that you can’t achieve by tossing cooked noodles with sauce.

I wrote about this in my column in The New York Times this week, and with it published a recipe for one-pot cheesy orecchiette with cabbage and paprika. At its heart is cabbage, cooked down to a sweet, soft tangle with leeks and garlic, to which I add sour cream, Gruyere and smoked paprika that turn into a velvety sauce for the pasta. It’s adaptable, too. Substitute other cheeses for the Gruyere or leave out the dairy altogether for a leaner dish. Any which way, it’s a warming, soul-satisfying and, yes, convenient meal for cold winter nights.

Featured Recipe

One-Pot Cheesy Orecchiette With Cabbage and Paprika

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More (one-pot and otherwise) food for thought

One-pot salmon and dill rice with peas: Here’s a colorful one-pot meal for seafood lovers. The mix of herb- and pea-flecked rice, coriander-coated salmon and a tangy cucumber yogurt sauce makes this 30-minute meal from Kay Chun both bright and rich.

One-pot beans, greens and grains: Ali Slagle’s easy one-pot meal is a choose-your-own-adventure delight. You can use any beans (chickpeas, cannellini, kidney, whatever is in the pantry), any greens (kale, collards, spinach, mustard, broccoli rabe — pick your favorite) and either rice or quinoa (or both) to make it. The key is in adding enough lemon, olive oil and salt at the end to season the dish and bring everything together.

Sheet-pan chicken and carrots with yogurt sauce: One-pot magic can happen on a sheet pan, too. Yasmin Fahr marinates boneless, skinless chicken thighs in yogurt, honey and brine from a jar of pickled jalapeños, which add acid, heat and a mild sweetness while tenderizing the meat. The chicken is then roasted with carrots until everything turns golden brown and thoroughly irresistible.

Sheet-pan döner kebab: It’s far afield from the usual one-pan playbook, but I’m a little obsessed with Michael Wilkes’s viral TikTok recipe, which he learned from his fiancée’s mother, Nefise Kansu (and which was adapted for us by Korsha Wilson). To emulate the crispy meat usually cooked on the vertical spit of a doner kebab, Ms. Kansu spreads a mix of spiced ground lamb and onions on pieces of parchment paper, rolls them into logs and then roasts them on a sheet pan. The deeply browned, fragrant meat is then stuffed into pitas with yogurt, tomatoes and onions, making for a brilliant restaurant-dish hack.

One-bowl lemon and olive oil cake: The dessert version of a one-pot meal is a one-bowl cake, and Brian Levy’s tender torte is imbued with the heady aromas of citrus, almond and nutmeg. He also adds melted white chocolate to the batter to make the cake especially rich. A perfect stand-alone dessert, it needs no fancy toppings or glazes to shine.

That’s all for now. If you encounter any kind of technical issue, reach out to the folks at cookingcare@nytimes.com for help. And I’m at hellomelissa@nytimes.com if you want to say hi.

I’ll see you on Monday.

Article Image

Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.

One-Pot Salmon and Dill Rice With Peas

By Kay Chun

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarUnfilled Star

97

30 minutes

Makes 4 servings

A large white Dutch oven is filled with quinoa, white beans, kale and lemon wedges.

Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Judy Kim.

One-Pot Beans, Greens and Grains

By Ali Slagle

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

4,492

40 minutes

Makes 2 to 4 servings

Article Image

Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.

Sheet-Pan Chicken and Carrots With Yogurt Sauce

By Yasmin Fahr

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

20

40 minutes

Makes 4 servings

Article Image

Rachel Vanni for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards.

Sheet-Pan Döner Kebab

Recipe from Michael Wilkes and Nefise Kansu

Adapted by Korsha Wilson

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

191

50 minutes

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Article Image

Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Judy Kim.

One-Bowl Lemon and Olive Oil Cake

By Brian Levy

Filled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled StarFilled Star

2,092

2 hours, including cooling

Makes Makes 8 to 10 servings

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