Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love

Product Information

What I thought:I have memories of my mum cooking up a chicken Kyiv in the oven for a quick weeknight dinner so I thought I would take a trip down memory lane with an Ottolenghified version…and I must say, this recipe takes the humble kyiv to a whole new level. This is a spin on the – very retro – salad olivieh, a mayonnaise-based potato salad with many different variations, depending on whose household you’re in. Eight volumes have followed: the all-vegetable cookery books Plenty (2010), Plenty More (2014) and Ottolenghi Flavour (2020); Jerusalem (2012); NOPI (2015); the dessert cookery book Sweet (2017); Ottolenghi Simple (2018); and most recently a series of Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (OTK) books: OTK: Shelf Love (2021) and OTK: Extra Good Things (2022). Ottolenghi's test kitchen under a railway arch, where he and his team conjure up new recipes, has always felt like my version of Dahl's chocolate factory, and its spirit inhabits Ottolenghi's Instagram account. I love it but, much as it pains me to say, I know not everyone does like the slightly bitter taste of this sesame paste.

With us, we hope you will learn a bit of shelf love – that is, the art of transforming simple ingredients into the equivalent of a great loaf of sourdough: objects of wonder, delight and pure deliciousness. He explained that his mission is to "celebrat[e] vegetables or pulses without making them taste like meat, or as complements to meat, but to be what they are.

He started as an assistant pastry chef at the Capital and then worked at Kensington Place and Launceston Place, where he ran the pastry section. A collaborative effort from the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen team (lead by Noor Murad), Shelf Love was partly inspired by the restrictions and limitations of 2020. Perfect book for: If you loved Ottolenghi SIMPLE and Shelf Love, Extra Good Things is a must-add to your collection.

Make sure to poke a few holes in them first – this will help them soften and release their flavour into the liquid they’re cooked in.Crunchier in texture than butter beans, the jarred lupini beans tasted lovely after being left to marinate in the oil. If using cavatappi, you might need to add the extra 100ml of milk at this stage, depending on how saucy you like your mac’n’cheese.

but also appreciate a good kitchen shortcut as much as the next person, Extra Good Things is your gateway into Ottolenghi’s cookbooks. Transfer the mac’n’cheese to a large platter with a lip or a shallow bowl, dot all over with the pesto, and top with the crispy onions. There are not many recipes that can be made in under an hour and truthfully I didn't find any when I realized that the under an hour times only accounted for cook time and not prep, stopping to read and reread the recipe, or anything additional.I found that it's not about the ingredients that I'm missing or don't have but it's about what I do have to cook with. Top with the charred lemon slices, spreading them out so they cover the entire base and overlap in places.