Five weeknight dishes that feel weekend fancy

By Margaux Laskey, The New York Times

I’m writing this from the passenger seat of a minivan that’s barreling down the highway to pick up my kids from summer camp. While I cannot wait to squeeze them and hear all about their adventures (Dramatic thunderstorms! Wildfire smoke! Tween breakouts!) I won’t lie: I’ve enjoyed the break. My husband was gone for part of the time, too, so I’ve been cooking and eating according to my whimsy and absolutely no one else’s.

It was dreamy. The recipes below are just the sort I enjoyed. Low effort — I had “Ted Lasso” episodes to binge-watch — easy enough to scale down for one, big on flavor and fun to eat.

1. Puttanesca Chickpea-Tomato Salad

This recipe turns tomato salad into a meal by marrying creamy beans with some of the briny, salty ingredients found in pasta puttanesca, including tomatoes, capers, olives and garlic. While Parmesan isn’t traditional to puttanesca, coarsely chopped pebble...