Salt-Crispy Chicken Vesuvio, a Chicago Classic

Credit…David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Good morning. Chicken Vesuvio (above) is a Chicago dish, a taste of broad-shouldered Italian America, salt-crispy with a zing of lemon, meltingly tender, with wine-kissed peas and roasted potato wedges gone soft in the sauce. You can knock it out in an hour and should do so this evening, to welcome the weekend in true Midwestern style.

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Chicken Vesuvio

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But don’t let it be your only project for the weekend. Summer’s coming. You’ll be avoiding the stove soon, sticking to cold zucchini salads, sliced tomatoes, grilled corn. Embrace the oven for a few more weeks, and thrill to its possibilities.

For instance, pizza. I’ve been freestyling on this recipe for a while now, taking it in the direction of a no-recipe recipe: a clam pie of distinction, as far from the New Haven original as it’s possible for a kid from Brooklyn to take it.

Use whatever dough recipe you like — here’s mine. Steam open some clams and chop them roughly. Make a sauce: leeks sautéed in butter or bacon fat, deglazed with wine, deglazed again with the liquid left over from your clams, left to reduce to a glaze and then thickened with cream. Shred some mozzarella. Stretch out a round of dough, spread some of that clam sauce over it and then top with the cheese and chopped clams. Bake until golden, then sprinkle some red pepper flakes over the top, add a spray of lemon juice and serve. Oh, wow.