The Costco Connection - December 2016

BY MOLLY GILBERT

WITH THE HOLIDAYS in full swing, to-do lists are notoriously long (Deck the halls! Clean the house! Wrap the presents!), time is precious and it seems like everyone is always hungry. Under these conditions, dinnertime can be stressful—how are we supposed to get it all done and put a warm, wholesome meal on the table? Enter sheet pan suppers!

Sheet pan suppers are just what they sound like: full meals, cooked on a sheet pan in your oven, without much fuss or fanfare. Hearty ingredients (vegetables and fruit, meat, poultry, ;sh and even tofu) are prepped simply; spread and layered on the pan; and then roasted, broiled or baked to crisp and juicy perfection. A relative of one-pot meals, though arguably more elegant and even easier to pull o;, the sheet pan method is short on prep time—some chopping and tossing, in most cases—and relies heavily on the oven doing most of the work while you’re free to tidy up, spend time with guests or watch your favorite holiday movie.

Sound too good to be true? I promise, it’s not. Here’s how to do it.

First, make sure you have a good, sturdy
sheet pan on hand—it should measure 18 x 13
inches and have a
1-inch rim around
the edge to help catch
any saucy drips. I like
to line the pan with alu-
minum foil sprayed with
a bit of olive oil spray,
which ensures both a nice
nonstick surface and easy
cleanup: when dinner is over, just peel the foil
o; the pan and—voilà!—you’re done. Parch-
ment paper also works well, especially when
making meals or treats that don’t generate
much liquid and don’t use the broiler (hello,
;re hazard).
Next, think about timing. For most meals,
you can just toss all of the ingredients together
on the sheet pan, slide the pan in the oven and
walk away until dinner is ready. Using a food
thermometer can help you determine done-
ness. For meals that use ingredients that cook
at di;erent rates, however, you’ll want to layer
strategically. For example, to cook hearty
potatoes and delicate ;sh ;llets together, slice
the potatoes and roast them, alone on the pan,
until they are halfway done, then layer the ;sh
;llets on top and ;nish cooking until both ;sh
and potatoes are tender.
A well-greased metal cooling rack can be
helpful when layering ingredients. Placed over
buttery carrots, say, the wire rack doubles the
surface area of the sheet pan and provides a
well-ventilated base for cooking a meaty rack
of lamb to crisp and juicy perfection.
Whether you’re craving roasted ;sh and
potatoes, pizza, rack of lamb or even baked
eggs, you can
do it all on a sheet
pan with minimal mess
or fuss. Sheet pan cooking is a
simple, elegant and delicious way
to get dinner (or lunch, brunch or des-
sert) on the table during the busy holiday
season and beyond. C

Seattle writer Molly Gilbert is the author of Sheet Pan Suppers (Workman Publishing, 2014; not available at Costco), a podcast host ( andeatittoopodcast.com) and food blogger ( dunkandcrumble.com).