Yotam Ottolenghi is a European icon of cooking, particularly of vegetarian cooking. His restaurants, his cookbooks, his television shows are known for his use of flavor, texture, and vibrancy to bring his dishes to life. I think Americans are less familiar with his work, and that’s why Essential Ottolenghi is the perfect way to get to know him.
Essential Ottolenghi is a two-volume set of his cookbooks, Plenty More and Ottolenghi Simple, in paperback versions of their beautifully uncluttered original UK covers. These are two of his most inventive cookbooks, and as the box says, they are truly essential.
Plenty More is the continuation of his second cookbook, Plenty. Both are iconic masterpieces of a vegetarian kitchen, and while Plenty elevated him to a worldwide food celebrity, Ottolenghi wrote Plenty More at a time in his career when he’d had the opportunity to do a lot more traveling and a lot more tasting, meaning that the recipes that he was creating when he wrote this had more flavor, more depth, and more beauty. As he grew deeper as a chef, as he’d had more time to experiment, his recipes could only get better, and those of us who read and cook from Plenty More get all the benefits of that experience.
After a short introduction, where you get to meet Chef Ottolenghi and discover his point of view, the chapters are laid out in a progression that takes you through 12 different ways to prepare vegetables: tossed, steamed, blanched, simmered, braised, grilled, roasted, fried, mashed, cracked, baked, and sweetened. Filled with gorgeous photos and tempting combinations, you can be introduced to recipes like Tomato and Pomegranate Salad (tossed), Rice Salad with Nuts and Sour Cherries (steamed), Candy Beets with Lentils and Yuzu (simmered), Pea and Mint Croquettes (fried), and Eggplant Cheesecake (cracked). And there is so much more!
And then, if you’re looking for something more than vegetables, try Simple. In this incredibly clever cookbook, Ottolenghi studied the way people really cook and adjusted his recipes accordingly. Maybe you like to just grab things out of your pantry and start cooking, or you want to put something on to braise for hours while you do other things. Maybe you don’t like a lot of ingredients or like to keep the freezer stocked. No matter how you like to cook, Simple has recipes for you.
The chapters are divided into dishes or meals: Brunch; Raw Veg; Cooked Veg; Rice, Grains, and Pulses; Noodles and Pasta; Meat; Seafood; and Dessert. But the beauty of this cookbook lies in the code he’s used throughout to mark each recipe. They are all given one to six letters: S for short on time, I for 10 ingredients or less, M for make ahead, P for pantry, L for lazy, and E for easier than you think. Get it? He wrote these recipes so that they could be SIMPLE for home cooks. You just have to decide what kind of cook you want to be and pick a recipe that sounds good and fits your parameters.
Looking for a make-ahead brunch item that doesn’t take too many ingredients? Try the Zucchini and Ciabatta Frittata (it’s also just fun to say). Need a pasta dish that you can pull from your pantry and not have to bother too much? You can go with the Fettuccine with Spiced Cherry Tomato Sauce. Short on time? Tackle the Lamb and Feta Meatballs or Seeded Chicken Schnitzel. Looking for a seafood dish that’s easier than you think? There’s the Bridget Jones’s Pan-Fried Salmon with Pine Nut Salsa (as a book nerd, I love the story behind this one!). Need a make-ahead dessert to help clean out your pantry? That Mint and Pistachio Chocolate Fridge Cake is calling your name.
Essential Ottolenghi is a beautiful introduction to the universe of Yotam Ottolenghi. It offers you some of the best of his fundamental vegetable recipes along with a chance to cook simply and cleanly with the flair and finesse of a world-class chef. For me, the only thing that could make this boxed set better is the addition of his dessert book Sweet. Other than that, it’s pretty perfect. Gorgeous, varied, honest, flavorful, and with recipes for cooks of all skill level, Essential Ottolenghi is ideal for those who love the chef, those who want to get to know him, or as a gift for your favorite home cook.
I’ve received a free copy of Essential Ottolenghi from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review.
