Five-Ingredient Peanut Butter Noodles, a Weeknight (or Midnight) Win

Less is more: These are words to live by in the kitchen, especially midweek between 5 and 8 p.m. There are no trophies for the most time spent toiling on dinner after work, no awards for the most elaborate dishes sailing off your stove on a Tuesday evening.

I love a particularly ingenious less-is-more recipe, which is why I’m excited about Eric Kim’s new five-ingredient recipe for peanut butter noodles — a Parmesan-tossed classic in the making. (If the phrase “five ingredients or fewer” thrills you, we have a whole collection of recipes that meet that description over here.)

Eric’s noodles, and four other stunningly simple recipes, are below. What are you cooking this week? What’s your favorite brilliant and easy dinner? I’m at [email protected]. Tell me everything.

I’m also making. …

Beans and greens alla vodka, pizza from scratch, M&M cookies with my kid and a classic hot fudge sundae for dinner with friends (always a hit, and it’s fine to use jarred hot fudge sauce).

Credit…Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Sue Li. Prop Stylist: Sophia Eleni Pappas

1. Peanut Butter Noodles

Come for Eric’s excellent weeknight (or midnight) noodles, stay for his crystalline essay about living with a romantic partner for the first time. This is easy cooking — a satisfying dish assembled from just a few brilliant pieces, and you can use either instant ramen or spaghetti for the noodles.