Good morning. “Some idiotic things are well worth doing,” Richard Ford wrote in “Independence Day,” and I hold the quotation close to my heart every time I make another batch of kombucha or feed the sourdough starter I keep in the fridge against the dream that I’ll make a huge batch of pizza dough soon, if not next weekend then the one after that.

Another example: Weeknight soups, like this Susan Spungen recipe for French onion soup with porcini mushrooms (above). I might make that tonight after work and eat dinner a lot later than usual because it takes a while. Which means I’ll get to sleep late, screw up the start of the week’s circadian rhythm, wake up flustered, in a rush, 30 minutes past the usual time. I’ll smile all the same, in memory of the dinner just past, how sweet-savory and rich it was, how perfect.

Alternatively, there’s this tarte flambée that Melissa Clark wrote up for her amazing deep-dive recipe collection for The Times, “The New Essentials of French Cooking.”

Or you could make caramelized scallions deep into the evening, in advance of using them on a big bowl of noodles as if you lived in the house of Francis Lam.

Later this week, you might give this no-recipe recipe for pasta amatriciana a shot. You could stop by a farmers’ market for some early asparagus, then cook it some way that gives you joy.

I love Jacques Pepin’s recipe for chicken in mustard sauce — though I make it with thighs, not breasts — served over egg noodles, with a lot of chopped parsley. Likewise Kim Severson’s Southern-accented take on shrimp scampi, which pairs best with a sauvignon blanc and a big heel of bread.

Or if you really just can’t be bothered, it’s Monday, you’re looking at packaged noodles and water from the tap? Try Julia Moskin’s ramen carbonara. What a hack! So great.

Many, many thousands more recipes to cook this week are waiting to meet you on NYT Cooking. (You need a subscription to access them, yes, just as you’ll need one to watch “Game of Thrones.”) Go plan your Easter menu. Get ready for Passover.

And check us out on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, for yet more cooking ideas. You can write us directly if anything goes wrong with your cooking or our technology: [email protected]. We’ll get back to you. Or you can write me: [email protected]. I’ll try.

Now, it has absolutely nothing to do with groceries or copper pots, but you have got to read Caitlin Flanagan in The Atlantic, writing about “the horrible, horrible private-school parents of Los Angeles.”

Meet Anna, 65 feet, a really big daysailer.

Here’s Lois Beckett on racism and the culture of romance fiction, in The Guardian. It’s an amazing read.

Finally, here’s a new one from Beck and Cage the Elephant, “Night Running.” Play loud and have a great week.

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