This is a variation of a recipe from the Ottolenghi team with a few of my own refinements and tweaks. There comes a certain point in the summer when, even when you manage to find great tomatoes, you’ve had enough of them raw and want something different....
This was a great discovery from Jessica Filby of Canteen, in London. It’s a lighter but still incredibly flavorful ragù that’s perfect for summer, including a cook low and slow in the oven....
I started noodling with pizza made with a levain after trying Oobatz, a pizza place in Paris. They use a levain-based dough, and it adds a nice tang. I feed my levain with a relatively less refined flour (versus white all-purpose flour), which also adds a bit of extra flavor....
This is another great cake that I’ve had many times at the River Cafe. Among the tweaks I’ve made to the recipe over the years, it’s a lot easier to start by whipping up the egg whites and then setting them aside....
Colatura di alici (“anchovy drippings”) is a fish sauce, much like the Thai-style fish sauce that I was more familiar with. That said, colatura is very different from Thai fish sauce....
This is pretty easy to get creative with. Just about any reasonable hard herb works really well. Think thyme, rosemary, or sage. Delicate herbs like basil will work, but they’ll be a little bit destroyed by the high heat of the oven....
While you can of course use whatever pasta shape you like, I think the traditionalists have a good case that orecchiette works well here. I do think that mixing this up a bit with broccoli rabe — leafier and more bitter than regular broccoli — is a good idea....
Neapolitan pizza will probably always be my favorite, but if I’m honest, it’s a bit of a pain to make at home. The dough really does need to be rested for at least a day, ideally more....
This is one of my go-to desserts. I’ve adapted it from something I’ve had at the wonderful River Cafe in London. The original version has more drama: it’s much larger and made in a very wide cake tin....
I had this at one of those great restaurants that reinvents its menu every day. They usually have one or two house cocktails on, and this one was particularly great....