It’s not even Valentine’s Day, but already I’m dreaming of the easy-peasy cooking days of summer, when dinner can be a smoke-kissed protein or veggie from the grill on a paper plate with a handful of potato chips.
It’s not that I don’t like to cook — I do! — but there’s something about gray skies and cold weather that makes me feel inexplicably lazy when I could be instantly energized, and comforted, by a slow-simmered roast, hearty pan of lasagna or big pot of homemade chicken soup.
That’s why I feel like we have a friend in Jamie Oliver, whose latest cookbook, “One: Simple One-Pan Wonders” (Flatiron Books $35) hit bookshelves on Jan. 10. Its 312 pages are a lifesaver for the cook on the hunt for no-fuss, no-mess meals that still deliver big on taste, with (mostly) everyday recipes built around eight or fewer ingredients.
Better still, all can be made in a single pan, which means after some minimal prep, your stovetop or oven does all the heavy lifting. Another plus: super-easy cleanup!
“Cooking is many things to many people and the most wonderful pursuit,” the British chef writes in the foreword, “but when it comes down to everyday pressures it seems that, time and again, convenience rules.”