Relaxed Summer Entertaining With Mélanie Masarin
Make-ahead recipes for low-key hosting, inspired by the coast of France and Italy.
Mélanie Masarin, the author of Riviera and founder of Ghia, thinks there’s too much fanfare around hosting in the US.
“My friends know that I have an open door policy,” she says on this week’s podcast episode. The rule is: “If I’m home, you can come over…This is what life is all about to me.”
She’ll pull anchovies and potato chips and olives from the pantry for a spur-of-the-moment aperitivo, but given the option, she’ll always prep snacks in advance. “I want to be able to enjoy being with my friends or my family, and so I always try to set a little menu based on making some things ahead.”
Ratatouille is her height-of-the-season favorite, the vegetables luxurious in their olive oil bath. She’ll serve it room temperature: the sweet-and-salty sun-soaked vegetables, she tells me, just “taste like summer…There’s just no better thing ever than the ratatouille when the produce is in peak.”
“And then I love also having like a beautiful, bountiful basket of crudités,” she says. “Maybe with an anchoiade, which is an anchovy dip, or an aioli. And that can totally be made ahead.”
You’ll get both the aioli and ratatouille recipes below, but it’s worth listening to the episode for Mélanie’s tips, plus more of the simple but flavorful dishes that she turns to when she’s having people over.
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Melanie mentioned:
For butter: Les Prés Sales or Beurre Bordier
Alison Roman’s Shallot & Anchovy Pasta
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Courgette, chickpea and herb pancakes
Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (Bookshop)
Alice Waters: Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook (Bookshop)
Kitchen Projects by Nicola Lamb
From the ad break:
Row 7: Get 10% off Row 7’s chef-prepared tinned vegetables using code DINNERPLAN10.
Find Lido: Recipes and Stories from Italy’s Beach Clubs wherever you buy books.
Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
Listen to Bitefully with Claudia Sandoval on your favorite podcast app.
Maggie mentioned:
Alexandra Stacey on The Dinner Plan (Listen to the full conversation here)
Ottolenghi’s Simple Too (out Oct 6)
Ratatouille
Recipe excerpted from Riviera: Recipes from the Coast of France and Italy by Mélanie Masarin. Copyright © 2026 by Mélanie Masarin. Used with permission by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
SERVES 6 • PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES • COOK TIME: 1 HOUR
This isn’t the fussy, layered version from restaurants—it’s the way I learned to make it in Cannes, where each vegetable is cooked separately until properly tender and then married at the end. If you don’t have enough pans, cook the water-heavy zucchini with the thirsty eggplant. The result should be silky but still structured, with each vegetable tasting of itself.
NOTE: For special occasions, confit each vegetable separately in olive oil in a low oven (275°F) for 3 to 4 hours. Worth every extra minute.
INGREDIENTS:
2 medium eggplants, trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more as needed
3 zucchini
2 red bell peppers
1 large yellow onion
Leaves from a few thyme sprigs
4 large ripe tomatoes
¾ cup (180 ml) olive oil, plus more as needed
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 bay leaves
1 small bunch basil
DIRECTIONS:
Set the eggplant halves in a colander and sprinkle the cut surfaces with salt. Set the colander over the drain in the sink or over a bowl while you cut up the rest of the vegetables: Trim the zucchini and cut it into ½-inch chunks; cut the bell peppers into ½-inch strips, and roughly chop the onion and dice and seed the tomatoes.
You’ll start cooking with the eggplant first, as it takes the longest. In a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot with a lid, heat ¼ cup of the olive oil over medium-low heat. Rinse and pat the eggplant dry, dice into 1-inch chunks, and add to the pot. Cook until golden and tender, about 25 minutes. Cover the pot if the eggplant starts to dry out.
Ideally, you will cook each ingredient separately at the same time. Cook all the vegetables over medium-low heat and stir occasionally to prevent burning, refreshing the olive oil in the pans as needed. (If needed, you can use a single pan and cook the ingredients separately, one after the other.)
In a medium saucepan, cook the onion and thyme in ¼ cup of the olive oil until the onion is very soft, about 15 minutes. In a second pan, cook the peppers in the remaining ¼ cup oil until tender, about 12 minutes. In a third pan, cook the zucchini in a thin layer of olive oil until soft, 8 to 10 minutes.
Combine all the vegetables in the Dutch oven, add the tomatoes and garlic, and season well with salt and pepper. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.
Let cool to room temperature, tear in the basil, and adjust the seasoning as desired. Serve immediately or let cool completely, then refrigerate overnight; like most stewed dishes, this one is even better the day after.
Le Grand Aioli
Recipe excerpted from Riviera: Recipes from the Coast of France and Italy by Mélanie Masarin. Copyright © 2026 by Mélanie Masarin. Used with permission by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
SERVES 6 • PREP TIME: 20 MINUTES • COOK TIME: 45 MINUTES
This is the most effortless and luxurious meal all at once—a generous platter of seasonal vegetables and seafood, arranged around a bowl of golden aioli. While traditionally served with salt cod, I love it with gently poached fish and prawns or even just many crudités straight on butcher paper as a large-format grazing table. Everything can be prepared ahead, making this perfect for lazy weekend lunches or standing cocktail parties.
NOTE: All the components can be cooked up to 4 hours ahead and kept at room temperature, except for the fish, prawns, and aioli, which should stay chilled until ready to serve.
INGREDIENTS
Kosher salt
1 pound (450 g) small waxy potatoes
6 large prawns, shell on
4 carrots, peeled
½ pound (227 g) green beans, trimmed
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed
1 pound (450 g) whitefish fillet, such as cod or haddock, cut into 12 pieces
6 eggs
Aioli Sauce (see recipe below)
1 bunch radishes, trimmed and halved
Dill or fennel fronds, for garnish
1 lemon, cut into wedges, for garnish
DIRECTIONS
Line a sheet pan with a clean kitchen towel. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and season aggressively with salt—salty like the sea. Taste it! Lower the heat so that the water is at an energetic simmer. Add the potatoes and cook until tender when pierced with a skewer, 12 to 15 minutes.
Remove the potatoes from the water with a slotted spoon and transfer them to the prepared sheet pan to cool. Keep the water at a simmer.
Add the prawns to the simmering water and cook until just pink, 3 to 4 minutes. Scoop them out and transfer them to the same sheet pan with the potatoes to cool.
In the same simmering water, cook the vegetables, one at a time: the carrots for 8 to 10 minutes, the green beans for 4 to 5 minutes, the asparagus for 3 minutes. You want each to be tender but still have some bite.
Gently poach the fish portions in the simmering water until they flake easily, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to the sheet pan and let cool to room temperature.
Bring the water back to a strong boil. Meanwhile, in a large bowl prepare an ice water bath. Add the eggs to the water and cook for exactly 7 minutes (for jammy centers), then use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the ice water bath to stop the cooking. Peel when cool.
Cut the potatoes in half and the carrots in chunks. Set a bowl of the aioli on a large serving platter and surround it with all the components. Garnish with herbs and wedges of lemon.
Aioli Sauce
NOTE: If your aioli breaks, don’t panic. Start with a fresh egg yolk in a clean bowl, add a few drops of water, and slowly whisk in the broken aioli. It will come back together. Making aioli is easy, but like most sauces whipped by hand, it can be intimidating. It’s part of my language of love—when I get home to my family, I make a batch for everyone to enjoy. I’m always hoping it’ll last the week to revive the previous night’s leftovers and add spark to simply grilled vegetables, but it never, ever lasts more than a meal.
MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP • PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES
INGREDIENTS
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, plus more as needed
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, plus more as needed
1 cup (240 ml) your best olive oil
DIRECTIONS
Using a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic with the salt into a smooth paste. If you don’t have a mortar, mince the garlic very finely, then use the back of a fork to mash it with the salt until it becomes a paste.
Transfer the garlic paste to a medium bowl. Add the egg yolks and lemon juice and whisk until well combined. I love using a mini whisk for this, but a fork works just as well. Add 2 or 3 drops of room-temperature water and whisk— this helps the emulsion get started and makes the aioli light and fluffy.
Add the olive oil drop by drop, whisking constantly. When the mixture starts to thicken (after about ¼ cup oil), you can add the oil in a thin, steady stream while continuing to whisk vigorously.
When all the oil is incorporated, you will have a thick, golden mayonnaise. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt or lemon juice as needed. The aioli will keep in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Creating an apertivo section in my pantry immeadiately
ooof that ratatouille looks so good!