In this article: A second helping of advice from Chef Mario Extra tidbits from Chef Mario Recipes this week: The Big and Bigger Frittata Mixed Greens With Pickled Beets and Eggs Seared Salmon Fillets With Orange-Dijon Pan Sauce Very Simplest Mashed Potatoes Steam-Sautéed Asparagus Strawberry-Almond Tarts Linguine con le Vongole Sauces for Salmon Fillets Tomato Tarragon Sauce for Seared Salmon Fillets Also: Twelve steps to cooking every day Cooking like Mom

My Secret Ingredients

Forget recipes. Take control. You need only two things for success in the kitchen: confidence and improvisation. They'll get dinner on the table tonight -- and tomorrow night.

Despite our souped-up kitchens and sagging cookbook shelves, many Americans have trouble getting dinner on the table. I think I know why.

Not too many years ago, I was food editor of a national magazine for chefs and restaurateurs. By day, I'd write inspiring copy telling food professionals what they should serve guests. I'd get home from work at 6:30 p.m. to two hungry young daughters and a husband en route. Frantic, I'd open the refrigerator door and stare. Food was in there, but I didn't know how to turn it into a quick meal.

Sometimes, I'd remember to tell the woman who took care of our kids to stick a chicken in the oven. Usually, my first thought of dinner was when I walked in the door. More frequently than we could afford, we'd grab the kids and go out to eat.

I was frustrated! It wasn't that I couldn't cook. My aunts, grandmother and mother -- fine Southern cooks -- had taught me how to fry chicken, make pot roast, whip up potato salad and bake biscuits without ever cracking a book.

But that didn't work for me. Unlike my mother, I didn't have all day to simmer pot roast or an hour to fry chicken. I had 30 minutes, max -- 20 minutes was better -- to get a delicious, nutritious dinner on the table. I realized I needed a new way to cook.

I set out to identify techniques I could internalize and formulas I could memorize. I focused on what would work best in limited time, using the new ingredients of the past two decades.

Along the way, I found "recipes" actually were a hindrance to weeknight cooking. The last thing I felt like doing at 6:30 p.m. was to start a recipe, only to discover I was missing several ingredients. But if I learned the cooking technique, I could create my own "recipes" with whatever ingredients were on hand.

Over time, my repertoire grew. I quickly learned that a little olive oil, garlic and canned crushed tomatoes became a flavorful tomato sauce (far superior to and cheaper than the jarred stuff) faster than it took to bring pasta water to a boil. By remembering the core ingredients and method ("Heat garlic and oil, cook for two; add canned tomatoes, simmer for a few"), I was free to change the sauce dramatically by adding olives, capers, canned tuna or clams, peppers, herbs, chicken, mushrooms or whatever else I had.

By learning to sauté and pan-sear, I discovered that there was not a single-portion size cut of meat, fish or poultry I couldn't cook. If it was on sale, no problem: I could cook it. I developed a series of two-minute pan sauces; if we felt like eating chicken breasts for a week, I could easily vary looks and flavors.

I could make a dinner omelet or frittata as long as I had a carton of eggs. With a pound each of meat and vegetables, and a few other staples, there was hardly a soup or stir-fry I couldn't make in 30 minutes.

In 2000, I turned my discoveries into a cookbook that ditches recipes, How to Cook Without a Book. Now I teach this simple style of cooking around the country, and it's fun to see how quickly students catch on. Some confide they don't have the confidence to cook without a recipe, but I assure them they know more than they think. Cooking by heart is like putting together a salad at the deli bar. Do you question how many tomatoes you want, or whether pickled beets and boiled eggs would taste good? Have you ever doubted your ability to build a salad you would enjoy? Of course not. Learn a few principles, and you can trust your sense of how much chicken you want in your soup and how many olives you want in your spaghetti sauce. Chances are, you'll like it. If not, it's just a meal -- and you've learned!

I cook daily because it's smart. Groceries are a bargain compared with the $50 or $60 our family of four spends at a moderately priced restaurant.

And I cook daily because eating a healthful, well-balanced meal is important -- and so is what happens while we prepare dinner, eat and clean up. When else are you supposed to hear about the day, plan the next vacation, or get word of a bad test score or great business deal? And if that's not enough, a recent YMCA study indicates that kids of families who regularly eat dinner together are less prone to drug and alcohol abuse.

Cooking daily is not just for traditional families. Not long ago, I got a call from my financial adviser. Newly divorced, he wanted to learn to cook. I asked what he liked to eat, and we rehearsed a few simple techniques to make dinner. In a few days, he was cooking quicker than he could get takeout. And he discovered that women like men who cook. But that's another story.

I'll bet you're finally ready to cook daily, too. Start with the ideas on the following pages.

2 books by Pam Anderson: "The Perfect Recipe" and "How to Cook Without a Book" (To view a book at amazon.com, click its image above

Contributing Editor Pam Anderson is a finalist for a prestigious James Beard Award for How to Cook Without a Book (Broadway, $25). She's also the author of The Perfect Recipe (Houghton Mifflin, $27) and former executive editor of Cook's Illustrated.

A second helping of advice
Food Network chef Mario Batali on quick cooking

Mario Batali is host of "Mario Eats Italy" and "Molto Mario" on cable's popular Food Network. On a recent Saturday afternoon, he baked chocolate chip cookies with his sons, then talked with USA WEEKEND Magazine's Pam Anderson before another hot night at his Manhattan restaurant, Babbo.

What's your advice to people who want to cook but say they don't have time?
I think it's more of a cleaning issue than a cooking issue. Clean up as you go. A pan is easier to clean when it's warm, anyway. It doesn't take any time at all to do a good spaghetti dish. You don't even have to shop. For spaghetti with aglio olio pepperocini, always have cheese, bread crumbs and chilis in the house. I despise boneless chicken breast. But they have boneless chicken thighs now. It takes five minutes to marinate them, 10 minutes to cook, and they are excellent. I love to make a warm salad. Take chicken whatever, throw them in with a little teriyaki, cook them till just moist, slice them and throw them on top of the salad. You got a one-plate meal.

What's your fastest supper dish?
I can make about anything in 25 minutes. One of my favorites is to go to the fancy grocery store and pick up the prepared ingredients for choucroute. Although it's not anything like the Alsatian classic, you get some bratwurst, you get some smoked pork chops, duck confit and sauerkraut, put it all in the oven for a half-hour with a bottle of beer, and it's good eating.

If you could teach the world to make one dish, what would it be?
Probably linguine with clams. (See his recipe)

Fresh clams or canned clams?
Only with fresh clams! Even if you are as far away from the ocean as you can be, in the middle of Missouri, clams ship well. One of the things Americans need to learn is that there are suppliers and retailers who respond to them. Tell them what you want. They will get it. It makes it more interesting for them. They wanna see people want new stuff.

Women shop for, and cook, 80% of all meals. Do you have any get-cooking advice for men?
Saturday is a day where you go, you shop, you take it home. As a family even, not just as Dad, you make something. If the men want to cook, all the tools are easy to access right now: the Food Network, food magazines, food talk -- it's all out there.

What do your two sons beg you to make?
You know what? They're 4 and 2 1/2. The older one is going through a sweet phase. I asked him what his most favorite food was yesterday. He said, "Sugar." I fix something, he says, "Does that have sugar in it?"

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To view a book at amazon.com, click its image above

Mario's Tidbits

When should a cook not use extra-virgin olive oil?
I can't think of one moment. I even deep-fry in extra-virgin oil!

Your favorite pasta shape?
This week, bucatini [a hollow spaghetti].

Your favorite junk food?
Chips and salsa. And chips keep getting better: "Cool ranch double scallion." They say all the words you wanna hear.

Summer's coming. Is it safe to eat oysters in months that don't have an "R"?
It is! Get aquaculture oysters from the far north Pacific or Atlantic. Washington state is putting up great oysters.

Mad cow disease: Should we worry?
I don't know answers to all the questions [about safety and bioengineered food]. But I'm not willing to bet my grandkids' legs on them. I'm very worried about it, and I hope the USDA will do the right thing. They'd better.

What meal really satisfies you?
A can of tuna, some thin-sliced red onions, tomatoes and arugula with some kind of kidney beans. That kind of a salad is always incredibly satisfying to me. It just feels right.

Illustration by MICHAEL DINGES for USA WEEKEND