The Dinner Party Project: A No-Stress Guide to Food with Friends by Natasha Feldman

Overview

As a cookbook, as a coffee table gem, Natasha Feldman’s The Dinner Party Project is a showstopper. This is real food! Flipping through, the recipes offer enough food for a crowd without taking all day on prep – or making your house stink! I found things versatile enough to survive both an evening with families + kids, or a game night with girlfriends. Time to test it out.

I love making pizza dough because it’s so easy. We do family-style pizza nights pretty regularly, monthly at the least. In winter, when I have time, I’ll whip up Peter Reinhart’s pizza crust, which stands in the fridge for up to four days before use + develops an amazing flavor during that time. That recipe makes enough to either freeze or to make calzones for another day. Normally, though, I’ll use a quicker recipe. We like Heidi Swanson’s Best Easy Pizza Dough, Deb Perelman’s the Angry Grandma, + Joe Bedia’s “Dough” recipe from his wonderful book, Pizza Camp. Sometimes I’ll grill the dough, sometimes I’m piling flatbread under the broiler, flipping it, topping it. Feldman’s Same Day Dough (page 147) falls right into our archives because (1) it’s easy, (2) it develops more flavor during its 3-4 hours resting time, + (3) it cooks well. We’ll use this one again as a medium choice between the Reinhart + the Angry Grandma. If I double it + use the pizza steel, I can make calzones with this one too!

Salads are THE BEST, so of course I flipped directly there. Many of the offerings here seem geared toward winter, when salad-making feels hard but tastes extra… everything. Now it’s summer + there’s kale growing everywhere. I did the Andy-Approved Kale Salad because Andy sounded like my partner: unexcited about kale.This salad kinda fixed it. Really.

If you’re looking for simple recipes that won’t take long, this cookbook is hit-or-miss for that. There’s definitely some super-easy food, yes. But this is more of a shareable, foodie cookbook; food with an outgoing vibe. This is the type of homestyle food I enjoy making to share + wouldn’t be afraid to test out on a crowd of buddies who came over on the fly. Maybe you’re of similar stock? If so, don’t be shy. This one’s for us!

What i tried:

Same-Day Dough, page 147
Andy-Approved Kale Salad, page 104
Brown Rice That Doesn’t Suck, page 114
A Frittata for All Seasons, page 177

On the upcoming list:

Fish-Fry Tacos with Smoky Mayo, page 156
Rainbow Cookie Icebox Cake, page 215