Sara’s Weeknight Meals

Season 13

Season 13 finds me savoring the local food culture of Barcelona, cooking over an open fire in a Mallorcan olive grove, sampling Shakshuka and learning about Tunisia’s favorite spice, harissa, and mastering delicious but simple Greek food on the island of Santorini and in Athens. Along the way, I learn the secrets from these local chefs to recreate family-friendly recipes for the everyday home cook.

Season 12

Americans love Italian food so this season on Sara’s Weeknight Meals we go right to the source with a tour of the best food towns in Italy. In Rome, I explore the local street food scene with an American Ex-Pat, then we make three of the essential pastas of the city, each perfect for a quick weeknight meal. Another day I join a Michelin starred Roman chef shopping local markets to make a totally unique take on pizza.  In Naples, I follow my nose to find the best pizza in this pie loving city, and in Parma I meet a local chef to cook on a farm with the legendary local food products – Prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano- Reggiano and, delicious tomatoes.    In Sorrento, it’s the famous lemons of the Amalfi coast that brings us into the kitchen of an Italian grandmother for homemade lemon pasta.  And because we can’t get enough of Italian grandmothers and their cooking secrets, a visit with the ‘Pasta Grannies’.   Back in the US, I join locals from Arkansas to Key West to make cozy home-cooked meals from the region.   Of course, there’s more tasty adventures back in my kitchen, with two notable cookbook authors. As always easy weeknight meals are the focus.  Home is where you are and this season, we are in the best food destination in the world – Italy.  Buon Appetito!

Season 11

Me and Todd Antioquia

America is ready to travel and so am I.  This season I meet home cooks where they live, this time in the very Northwest.   In Vancouver Canada, I go to Chinatown to learn the secrets of cooking with tea, then make delicious Chinese dumplings.   Spot prawns are a Vancouver delicacy that star in a rich risotto I prepare with a friend. In Juneau, Alaska wild salmon is on the menu, a family recipe I learn from a Native Tlingit home cook.   Of course, I share my own quick and tasty recipes, trademark tips and tricks, and share recipes I learned in my global travels while discovering regional ways to prepare fresh, local food.  It’s a new season loaded with content on Sara’s Weeknight Meals.

Season 10

One of the pleasant discoveries of our homebound year was that cooking is a great hobby, a stress reliever, a fun family activity as well as a weeknight necessity.  Fortunately, that’s what Sara’s Weeknight Meals has always been about – ways to get good food on the table every night while enjoying the process.  Season 10 will have more of my trademark tips and tricks, easy family meals and guests from every corner of the world. I will be making Jambalaya with New Orleans native, Chef Airis Johnson, Chinese Barbecue Pork with Stir Fry guru Grace Young, , as well as Tuscan ravioli, Turkish mushroom string cheese dip, new 5 ingredient recipes (including dried fruit potstickers), Ming Tsai’s duck cassoulet and for the holidays – a make ahead skillet apple pie with a shortbread crust. In addition, on “Ask Sara” I will show viewers how to make perfect poached eggs, which thickener to use, and how to buy, store and get the best out of spices. That’s all coming up on this season of Sara’s Weeknight Meals.

Season 9

The ninth season of Sara’s Weeknight Meals kicks off with a trip to Florida to dive into the best local home cooking in the Sunshine State. First up, Miami and its delicious Cuban food. I go on a culinary tour of Little Havana before joining a Cuban Abuela (grandmother) to make a traditional dish with fresh Florida shrimp. Then I learn how to prepare Vaca Frita, crispy fried onions and shredded chicken with a spicy mango salsa, with another Cuban American. Finally, it’s off to Key West with the king of that island’s cooking, Norman Van Aken. We make a Fish Stew layered with spicy flavors, and assemble a Key West version of pot luck, a salad composed of fruit picked from everyone’s backyard trees. With trips to Charleston, the Louisiana Bayou and Savannah, plus easy weeknight favorites from my own kitchen, it’s another season of discovery with me and America’s best weeknight cooks.

Season 8

Welcome to season 8 of Sara’s Weeknight Meals. This season I travel to Europe. In Tuscany I will learn how to make tortelli, turned pink by the addition of chianti at an old villa. And then it is on to a lemon farm on the Amalfi coast to make homemade lemon cheese and lemon pasta (with a classic lemon cocktail along the way). In Spain, I visit the fairy tale village of Madremanya, north of Barcelona to prepare 3 different tapas with a local innkeeper followed by a trip to Valencia to learn everything there is to know about paella from a seasoned paella chef. Back in the states a young Californian rice farmer with his own video blog schools me about rice farming and I learn how to make sushi from a local sushi chef. In Napa I connect with a cookbook club to prepare several dishes and dine in the middle of a vineyard. Back at home a viewer joins me to make her beloved family dishes – arroz con gandules and tostones from Puerto Rico. I prepare Asian and middle eastern dinners with two special guests. And finally, I head out to the garden to forage with a professional forager and turn our “weed” harvest into a meal.

Season 7

Sara with Arkansas farmer, Eric Vaught

Welcome to season seven of Sara’s Weeknight meals where I will address as always, the things that matter most the world over– quick, tasty home cooked meals, eaten with family, cooked with love. I hit the road to discover how America cooks learning secrets for cooking locally caught catfish in Arkansas, and the recipe for the best fried chicken in Charleston, South Carolina. I go behind the scenes with a professional forager who literally finds treasures in the woods to bring to New York’s top chefs, and with several culinary historians to learn about the hidden history of Southern favorites we all love that were developed by African American cooks. And, back in my kitchen I’ll answer more viewers’ questions about culinary conundrums on Ask Sara.

Season 6

Welcome to season six of Sara’s Weeknight Meals. As always, I’ll share  quick and easy dinners and tips to get them on the table but I’ll also introduce you to special recipes for the holidays. Then I’ll hit the road and travel to Georgia and South Carolina and meet cooks old and new, find the secret to Charleston’s best fried chicken, visit the church ‘Tea Rooms’ serving time honored recipes from Junior League cookbooks.  I’ll cook with a rising star chef at a Greyhound bus station turned into a restaurant in Savannah and I’ll discover the mystery of bees and beekeeping, with some sweet honey infused recipes to try for your next weeknight meal.

Season 5

Welcome to season five of Sara’s Weeknight Meals, featuring 20 new episodes. I’ll be cooking with 3 new guest chefs, Top Chef winner Hung Huynh, Israeli/Mediterranean chef/owner Einat Admony and vegetarian chef extraordinaire, Amanda Cohen. I’ll also be taking a trip to Louisiana’s bayou country to learn how to make the traditional crawfish boil. And as always, I’ll be teaching you new recipes and strategies for getting tasty dinners on the table during the work week.

Season 4

Welcome to the companion site for the fourth season of Sara’s Weeknight Meals. I have 20 new episodes lined up for you, all focused on getting tasty food on the dinner table during the work week. As always, Sara’s Weeknight Meals will be packed with tips and strategies like recipes featuring only five ingredients, cook-ahead meals and clever use of leftovers in an entirely new way.

I’ll share the kitchen with guest chefs from around the culinary globe, including stir fry expert, Chinese cookbook author, Grace Young, vegan food truck genius Adam Sobel, Mediterranean slow cooker author, Michele Scicolone and one of New York’s hottest chefs, Joey Campanaro.

Season 3

Welcome to the companion site for the third season of Sara’s Weeknight Meals. The third season of “Sara’s Weeknight Meals” is animated by the same spirit that drove the first two seasons:  the desire to help the home cook put dinner on the table during the work week.  As in our second season, we do some traveling to track down wonderful and necessary ingredients, visiting Chinatown in New York, the Italian market in Philadelphia, the Brazilian community in Danbury, Connecticut, the model sustainable farm called Stone Barns in Tarrytown, New York, and – the cherry on top — the dazzling spice market in Istanbul, Turkey.  Six of this season’s ten shows feature yours truly alone at the stove.  Four of them boast guest chefs with beguiling specialties.  And every episode is bristling with the kinds of tips and tricks that simplify and speed up the preparation of the evening meal.

Season 2

For this season we move to the country (my producer partner Natalie Gustafson’s house) and took time sourcing local ingredients with trips to neighboring markets. The focus, as it was in season one, is to help home cooks get dinner on the table during the work week. The recipes, which are quick and easy, come mostly from my recent cookbook, “Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners.”

We taped 20 shows. I cook alone in 13 of the shows and have guests, with unique specialties on with me for the remaining 7. Below are summaries of all the episodes.

Season 1

Welcome to the companion site to my public television series, Sara’s Weeknight Meals, which started airing in April 2008. This show is based on my last cookbook, Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals, and it’s all about getting quick tasty meals on the table during the work week. The series is made up of 20 shows. I’m flying solo in 14 of them. The other six feature great guests, including Madhur Jaffrey, Jasper White, Andrew Carmelini, Roberto Santibanez, Corinne Trang, and Michael Psilakis. The show was produced by my dream team – the folks I most enjoyed working with during my years at the Food Network.