A fresh, healthful weeknight dinner

We’re all spending more time in our homes and cooking most or all of our own meals. But that doesn’t mean we want to spend more time doing dishes.

That’s where one-pan meals come in. For a sheetpan dinner that cooks quickly, has a short ingredient list and uses alwayspopular Mediterranean flavors, we started with shrimp.

The beauty of using shrimp for a speedy supper is that they cook through quickly when exposed to any sort of heat. And unlike other proteins that need direct contact with a hot surface or flame to achieve an appetizing sear, shrimp taste great without it.

But this is also the danger of shrimp — it’s far too easy to overcook them. If they spend too long in the oven, their delicate flesh turns tough and rubbery. After a few initial tests, we discovered that 6 to 8 minutes in a 450-degree oven was perfect.

As for the vegetable accompaniments, we couldn’t find any that shared the same short cooking time as the shrimp. So we chose ingredients we could give a good head start in the oven and then add the shrimp for the final few minutes. Potatoes were easy to incorporate using this method and bulked up the dish, but we wanted something green too. We tried spinach and broccolini, but they turned slimy or swampy on the baking sheet.

The solution was fennel. Though its pale color makes it appear less vibrant than other green vegetables, the slightly sweet, licorice-like flavor of roasted fennel pairs beautiful with the briny shrimp.

To liven things up and give the dish a Mediterranean-flavor profile, we tossed the shrimp with oregano and lemon zest before adding them to the pan with crumbled feta and sliding it back into the oven. When the shrimp were cooked through, we scattered a handful of chopped kalamata olives over the top.

A sprinkling of parsley and a squeeze of lemon put the final fresh touches on this satisfying supper.

AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN Shrimp are perfect for a speedy supper because they cook through quickly when exposed to any sort of heat.