My ideas for what to cook this weekend include recipes for Calabrian eggs in purgatory with the spicy spreadable sausage ’nduja, crunchy Cambodian cucumber salad, hearty chorizo cabbage and three bean stew, breakfast tostadas with fried eggs on spiced refried beans, Japanese fried chicken karaage, and classic chicken cacciatore, an Italian chicken stew with luscious tomato sauce.
They say that you shouldn’t shop on an empty stomach because you’ll buy everything in sight. I think the converse of that for a food writer is that you shouldn’t write about food having just eaten! I’ve just demolished a plate of Terence’s delicious tacos al pastor, and while I’m very sated that’s all I can think about.
It’s much better to write about food when you’re hungry and want to eat everything, so I’m going to pretend that I haven’t eaten so I can dream up a delectable menu for you for our latest edition of What to Cook this Weekend.
And remember, if you don’t find anything that takes your fancy, below, there’s lots more inspiration in the Grantourismo recipe archives. Click top right of the page to do a search or browse recent recipes under Latest Recipes on the home page.
But before I share my ideas for what to cook this weekend, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is partly funded by its readers. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee.
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Now let me share my ideas for what to cook this weekend.
What to Cook this Weekend – Eggs in Purgatory, Cucumber Salad, Tostadas, Cacciatore
Here are our What to Cook this Weekend suggestions for meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner for Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday Breakfast – Calabrian Eggs in Purgatory Recipe
My top suggestion for you for what to cook this weekend is this Calabrian eggs in purgatory recipe. We’re updating our Calabria stories right now, as Calabria is a hot destination for the coming summer – which is fantastic to see at last, as we’ve been encouraging you all to explore Calabria since we wrote the first English language guidebook to Calabria.
So with Calabria on my mind, I’ll be making this Calabrian eggs in purgatory recipe on Saturday morning for uova al purgatorio, a Southern Italian breakfast eggs specialty. The centuries-old dish of eggs poached in a rich tomato sauce originated in Naples.
Our recipe for the Calabrian rendition of eggs in purgatory makes a fantastic version of this dish of soft poached eggs in a rich tomato sauce with ’nduja, the spicy spreadable sausage from Spilinga in Italy’s southernmost province.
In Calabria it’s also known as uova fra diavolo (eggs between the devil) and uova ca ’nduja (eggs with spicy Calabrian sausage). This Southern Italian eggs in purgatory recipe was the first recipe in our revitalised Weekend Eggs series which we re-launched at the start of the pandemic.
Eggs in Purgatory Recipe from Southern Italy – The Calabrian Rendition of Eggs with Spicy Nduja
Saturday Lunch – Cambodian Cucumber Salad Recipe
This Cambodian cucumber salad recipe for nhoam trasak – also spelt gnoam trasak or gnoam tra-sakk – is another of my picks for what to make this weekend. It will make you a fantastic year-round salad if you’re lucky to live in a sultry tropical climate, such as that of Cambodia, where you can source cucumbers from one state or another throughout the year.
I’ll never forget a conversation with a Khmer-American friend on social media just before we first published this recipe. She said it was a shame there weren’t many Cambodian salads. There are countless Cambodian salads, which explains why we’ve got so many Cambodian salad recipes here – everything from a classic banana flower chicken salad to the pork and jicama salad.
I remember at the time that I went to look at the recipe list for our epic Cambodian cookbook and Cambodian culinary history and realised how many Cambodian salads I’d identified – it was a very long list! – some of which we’ve already shared here, from a Cambodian pork larb to a green papaya salad, and yet there are still so many more we have left to document and recipe-test.
Cambodian Cucumber Salad Recipe for Nhoam Trasak, a Fantastic Year Round Salad
Saturday Dinner – Chorizo Cabbage and Three Bean Stew Recipe
The weather may be warm here right now, but it’s not so hot that I can’t let go of my favourite soups and stews yet. Plus Southeast Asians happily slurp a hot soup or tuck into a spicy curry all year round, no matter what the weather is like, as they believe hot dishes keep you cool because they make you perspire. Makes sense, right?
So this hearty chorizo cabbage and three bean stew recipe is another of my top picks for what to cook this weekend. It makes my spicy take on a traditional Eastern European stew my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother cooked that’s called kapustniak, kapustnyak or kapusniak in Russia, Ukraine and Poland.
Like all good Eastern European grandmas, my baboushka had an impressive repertoire of hearty soups and stews. In autumn and winter, there seemed to always be a big pot of something bubbling on the stove, steaming up the windows in a kitchen that was always cold, and filling the house with mouthwatering aromas.
I think half the time I cook my family recipes – and any cabbage recipes, as baboushka was always cooking cabbage! – I do it as much for a taste of the past and to provoke those memories of simpler times, as I do for a chance to savour baba’s delicious food, or something that resembles it. I’d give anything to be in that house again with my family tucking into bowls of baba’s stews and soups.
While my grandmother made it with kielbasa and sauerkraut, I use chorizo to add warmth and deep flavours, and three types of beans to add texture. Like baboushka, I serve it with dishes of homemade dill pickles and pickled cabbage, and sour cream, along with salt and pepper, and slices of rye bread or sourdough. A Russian garden salad is nice on the side and shots of vodka will warm you right up in no time.
Chorizo Cabbage and Three Bean Stew Recipe for a Spicy Take on a Traditional Eastern European Stew
Sunday Breakfast – Easy Breakfast Tostadas Recipe with Fried Eggs
My Sunday breakfast idea for this week’s edition of What to Cook this Weekend is this easy breakfast tostadas recipe with fried eggs for a crispy Mexican tostada topped with spiced refried beans, enriched with a soft fried egg with a runny yolk, garnished with homemade pickles, salsa, chillies or jalapeños, Mexican cotija, and sprigs of fresh coriander or cilantro to our American readers.
Fried eggs make everything better and there are few better recipes that testify to this than these tostadas. If you need convincing, see our post on nine types of dishes that are better with a fried egg on top, from rice porridges or congees and steamed rice and stir-fries to fried rice and fried noodles, and chilaquiles, nachos, tacos and tostadas, to banh mi and potatoes.
A fried egg, especially a fried egg with a runny yolk, adds richness, creaminess and texture to any dish. It also transforms a lunch or dinner dish into breakfast or brunch, whether its tostadas, tacos or nachos, and it can even make a dish such as a salad seem comforting. This breakfast salad is a fantastic example of that.
If you’re not a lover of fried eggs, do browse these compilations of best boiled eggs recipes and best scrambled eggs recipes, all of which were created for our Weekend Eggs series of quintessential breakfast eggs from around the world.
Easy Breakfast Tostadas Recipe with Fried Eggs, Refried Beans and Pickles
Sunday Lunch – Japanese Fried Chicken Recipe for Karaage Chicken
I’m thinking fried chicken and potato salad for Sunday lunch for What to Cook this Weekend. Seeing I’m making dinner on Sunday night, I’m going to persuade Terence to make this Japanese fried chicken recipe for karaage chicken.
Karaage is a technique that calls for marinating the chicken, before giving it a light coating with flour, then twice frying the chicken pieces. It makes incredibly juicy chicken pieces with a super crispy skin.
One of karaage chicken’s biggest fans was Anthony Bourdain who confessed he was addicted to karaage chicken. Bourdain said whenever he passed through Narita airport, he’d make a beeline for a Lawson convenience store and that he “never got on the plane without loading up on these bad boys”.
We love to tuck into this chicken with a side of korokke or deep-fried panko-coated mashed potato croquettes (recipe coming soon, honest; I know I’ve been saying that for a while). A Japanese potato salad is perfect – although our Japanese style cucumber and cabbage salad is also a great match.
Japanese Fried Chicken Recipe for Crispy Juicy Karaage Chicken Pieces
If you’re not in the mood for Japanese fried chicken, browse this collection of our best fried chicken recipes, which include recipes for Korean fried chicken, Southern fried chicken, Japanese fried chicken karaage, Burmese fried chicken, and more.
Best Fried Chicken Recipes for Korean Fried Chicken, Southern Fried Chicken and More
Sunday Dinner – Chicken Cacciatore Recipe
This classic chicken cacciatore recipe is my last suggestion for what to cook this weekend because we can never eat enough chicken. It makes a traditional Italian chicken stew with a luscious tomato sauce.
Called pollo alla cacciatora in Italian, which translates to ‘hunter’s chicken’ – ‘pollo’ is ‘chicken’ and ‘cacciatore’ means ‘hunter’ – it’s a rustic old Italian dish typically eaten alone as a main course with crusty bread to mop up the rich sauce. We serve it with thick slices of sourdough bread.
In different parts of Italy, hunter’s stew has long been made with various types of game, such as wild pheasant (fagiano alla cacciatore), wild boar (cinghiale alla cacciatore) and wild rabbit (coniglio alla cacciatore), while in Calabria it’s made with the addition of spicy Calabrian sausage and red peppers (salsiccia Calabrese al cacciatore).
In the Italian diaspora, where the first Italian-American chicken cacciatore recipe was published in the USA in the 1920s, chicken cacciatore was typically served with pasta, as it has long been in Australia. If you have leftovers, then see our Italian-Australian spaghetti cacciatore recipe for what to do with them.
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for a Traditional Italian Chicken Stew with Luscious Tomato Sauce
Please do let us know in the comments section below if you make any of our recipes for what to cook this weekend as we always love to hear how our recipes turn out for you.
