• melba on June 25, 2022

  This book is the one I've used most in my library

• aargle on October 12, 2011

  love love love this book. I have tried many of the recipes and they are all great.

• RosieB on April 17, 2011

  This is one of the best cook books in my libarary for simple stylish food for everyday or for entertaining. I can recommend all her books.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Baked layered potato and Jerusalem artichoke with cream and parmesan

  • e_ballad on June 25, 2017

    A great side dish, though the flavour of the Jerusalem artichokes was fairly understated. The recipe would feed 10 people with generous servings.

• Basic pizza dough

  • Hellyloves2cook on May 06, 2012

    Easy dough to make- I often use this recipe. Good to double up on quantities also and any left I freeze in portions.

  • e_ballad on July 16, 2019

    Best pizza dough recipe I’ve made to date.

  • KarinaFrancis on April 18, 2021

    Super easy, especially with stand mixer. One quantity of dough would make 4 dinner plate size pizzas

• Black mussels with chorizo, chilli, tomato and pearl pasta

  • RosieB on April 17, 2011

    Really tasy dish wish belies its simplicity.

  • aargle on May 04, 2013

    Made this for the family and they absolutely loved it. Used two 1kg packets and risoni pasta

• Cinnamon and vanilla pannacotta with warm spiced pears

  • RosieB on August 02, 2015

    Delicious, spicy and creamy. I used 5 gold gelation leaves gor a double quantity of the recipe. It had just the right amount of wobble. The wine poached pears went beautifully with the pannacotta. I did not include the raspberries.

  • KarinaFrancis on May 21, 2017

    This will be my go-to base pannacotta recipe. Luscious, creamy and the perfect amount of wobble. I didn't get the cinnamon flavour coming through but compensated by adding it to the accompanying apples (a different recipe).

• Eggplant involtini with ricotta, mozzarella and tomato

  • RosieB on April 11, 2015

    This is one of my go to recipes. It is a bit of work but delicious and worth the effort. It can be made in advance which is a bonus.

• Lamb shanks with pearl barley and lentils

  • aargle on January 21, 2014

    I make this soup at least once every Winter. It is great. I usually don't bother with the celeriac only because it is so expensive and I add a whole tin of chickpeas. Herbs are essential

• Linguine with chopped black mussels and fennel

  • e_ballad on November 12, 2016

    This was vile, though I should note that this was tasting good up until adding the mussel cooking liquor as instructed. I should have thought it through. Not only did the sauce turn to soup, it was so incredibly salty it was barely edible.

• Melon salad with lime, vailla and mint

  • treay on January 21, 2026

    After a quite heavy meal, we needed a light dessert and the melon salad was perfect. Loved the flavour of the lime syrup.

• Michael's baked cannellini beans with chorizo, egg and fetta

  • aargle on April 17, 2013

    This is a family favourite. I usually have to cook in over a little longer

• Pizza no. 9 at mr wolf

  • Dishyrishie on February 17, 2017

    Great pizza dough recipe. Be careful not to roll out too thin.

• Poached blue-eye with white zucchini, basil, chilli and mint salad

  • CarltonCaz on April 21, 2016

    This was very simple, delicate flavour but absolutely delicious. It's in the book as a starter, but I just upped the quantities and added some crispy lemon roasted potatoes.

• Roasted vegetable and Gruyère pasties

  • e_ballad on July 29, 2018

    Too little pastry for the amount of filling - increase by at least 50%. Speaking of the filling: it was a bit meh & needed something to boost the flavour as the root vegetables were all a bit same-same. While I’m not usually a fan of recipes that have ingredients listing weights of vegetables, it was quite difficult to interpret how much was required, which might have lead to the above issues.

  • melba on July 31, 2020

    I love making these. The gruyere cheese adds a lot of flavour and the vegetables all meld together beautifully.

• Roman pork sausage ragu

  • aargle on January 21, 2014

    This is a great pasta dish to have on a cold night but I like to add more sausage.

  • e_ballad on August 12, 2018

    The success of this dish is VERY dependent on how great your sausages are. We bought ours from a local farmers market & we were unfortunately underwhelmed. Comparatively to the rest of the ingredients, there’s only a small proportion of sausage, so it really has to be top-notch to be worth making this recipe.

• Sautéed potato and chorizo

  • Juleslovesgoldies on January 29, 2026

    Yum! Really tasty and spicy! I did turn up the heat at the end and added some extra virgin olive oil to caramelise the potatoes and chorizo.

• Smoky eggplant salad with walnuts and borlotti beans

  • KarinaFrancis on January 31, 2024

    I ended up with this recipe as a way to use up a tin of borlotti beans and I’m so glad I did! It’s a lighter, crunchier babaganouch. I’d definitely make it again because the eggplant adverse Silver Fox gave it the thumbs up.

• Tarragon green bean salad

  • Melanie on March 08, 2015

    This is a warm salad and is full of flavour. I made this for guests - it worked well as the dressing can easily be made in advance and mixed through the beans when they are ready.

• Traditional osso buco with saffron risotto

  • e_ballad on October 23, 2017

    No chance that this would be ‘fall-off-the-bone’ with a 45 min cooking time! I gave it 2 hours & it was perfectly cooked, though we prefer another osso buco recipe from a flavour perspective.

• Warm potato, dill, caper and mustard salad

  • Melanie on March 08, 2015

    This is a great potato salad. The mustard and capers really amp up the flavour.

• Winter tabbouleh

  • aargle on April 15, 2020

    Made this again after making it the first time about seven years ago and it was just as delicious as I remember. Very easy to put together and served it as an accompaniment to crumbed steak for a simple dinner. Karen Martini never lets me down.