For the three million home cooks around the world who loved Ottolenghi SIMPLE, Yotam and his co-author, test kitchen colleague Verena Lochmuller, set themselves the task to further pair down processes and ingredient lists, whilst keeping the vibrant, multilayered, surprising signature flavours loved throughout the world. Many of the dishes, such as Braised halloumi with tomatoes and beans, or Smoky tomato and feta prawns, are made in one baking tray, with no preparation at all, ready to put on the table in about 30 minutes. They’re for feeding family and friends or just yourselves; classics reimagined the Ottolenghi way using flavour-enhancing ingredients such as za’atar, tahini, harissa and garlic.
Whatever your barriers to cooking, this book brings you into the kitchen with a promise that even the simplest of mealscan be full of flavour and joy. So stop, take a minute or two,listen to the soup bubble or the egg crackle…and discover the pleasure of keeping things.
“SIMPLE TOO is an extension of SIMPLE, but the two years I spent working on it also felt like a response to where our lives are right now, in this noisy and bustling world; a world full of options that can sometimes feel distracting or numbing. We wanted to carve out a space that allows people to relax a little more in the kitchen, to use the pantry they’ve already built and the knowledge they already have.”
Yotam Ottolenghi
Yotam Ottolenghi is the chef-patron of the Ottolenghi restaurant group, encompassing eight UK-based delis, as well as the NOPI, ROVI and Ottolenghi Geneva restaurants. He is the author and co-author of eleven bestselling cookery books which have garnered many awards, including the National Book Award for Ottolenghi SIMPLE and James Beard Awards for both Jerusalem and NOPI. Yotam has been a columnist for the Guardian since 2006 and is a regular contributor to the New York Times. His commitment to the championing of vegetables, as well as ingredients once seen as ‘exotic’ has led to what some call ‘The Ottolenghi effect’. This is shorthand for the creation of a meal which is full of colour, flavour, bounty and sunshine. Yotam lives in London with his family.
www.youtube.com/c/ottolenghitestkitchen
Verena Lochmuller is a recipe and product developer. She was born in Germany,grew up in Scotland and studied pastry and baking arts in New York City.
She has been working with Ottolenghi since 2015 and is now the Head of Product Development at the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen. Day-to-day, she curates dessert menus for the group’s restaurants, creates sweet and savoury bakery products for the Ottolenghi delis, and is the lead developer on the hugely successful Ottolenghi Grocery range. Verena has contributed her recipes to Ottolenghi publications in The Guardian, New York Times, and Substack, as well as two Ottolenghi Test Kitchen books: Shelf Love and Extra Good Things. She is also co-author of Ottolenghi Comfort. Verena brings a playful touch to familiar, comforting recipes by using unexpected ingredients and techniques. She firmly believes that a good pastry recipe is a secret weapon in every kitchen.
