One-Pan Meals: Sheet Pan and Skillet Dinners for the Whole Family

Swedish chef Taylor offers recipes for single-pan meals in this well-intentioned but peculiar outing, which has been haphazardly translated for American audiences. There are plenty of solid recipes, but they call for bizarre oven temperatures (e.g., 356 degrees for stuffed portobello mushrooms with cheese, and 392 degrees for his cod with creamy anchovy and herb casserole) and are conveyed in confusing instructions (many recipes call for using the “bottom grill”; others call for “top heat,” i.e. a broiler), and some dishes specifically call for a convection oven. There are certainly some keepers here, such as a potato gratin with goat cheese, and roasted giant shrimp in spicy chili sauce, but too many others may not appeal to American tastes: an uncooked tomato sauce is served at room temperature over roasted chicken breasts, leeks, and mushrooms; a cabbage pudding with lingonberries (“a staple in Sweden”); and a chicken chili that calls for a whole chicken, spices, peppers, and onions as well as a packet of mixed beans, topped with a spicy tomato sauce that’s baked on a sheet pan in the oven. Homecooks looking for the ease and comfort of single-pan dishes would do better elsewhere. (Nov.)