Recipe developer and writer Thea Baumann's recipes

The latest installment in our series of weeknight meals uses lots of Italian flavors for simple, quick cooking.

By Ben MimsCooking Columnist

Sept. 30, 2021 6 AM PT

This is the seventh installment in our Week of Meals series, which gives you five weeknight dinner recipes with all the planning and strategizing built in. Each meal makes four servings, comes together — start to finish — in less than 60 minutes, and requires 10 or fewer ingredients (not counting cooking oil, salt and pepper or water). The groceries for all five meals can be bought from a single grocery store in a single shopping trip and will cost less than $100.

This round of weeknight recipes comes from Thea Baumann, a writer and recipe developer who lives in the Frogtown neighborhood. Her recipes maximize Italian flavors in the shortest amount of time possible and with the least amount of work, relying on consistent seasoning, healthy doses of lemon juice to perk up everything, and plenty of olive oil to maximize crunchy, rich and bold flavors.