New cookbook elevates simple steps for a less-is-more approach to mealtime

Planning dinner over the past 18 months has been an uneven journey as the home kitchen has adapted to the many changes dictated by unpredictable forces including price spikes, specific food shortages and our own evolving relationship with mealtime.

The pandemic brought out a new level of discovery for home cooks. Every trend out there has been part of the daily dinnertime goal: breadmaking, bulk meal preparation, crockpot and instant pot cooking, sheet-pan meals and doctored-up basics. Nothing was normal; everything up for reinterpretation.

One constant, however, remained: simple meals requiring minimal ingredients, especially now as kids head back to school. It’s perfect timing for America’s Test Kitchen’s “FiveIngredient Dinners,” a new cookbook with simple recipes for getting dinner on the table with a short shopping list. The title is direct and so are its many recipes: five ingredients not including salt, pepper, oil and butter.

Though the concept may seem a no-brainer — busy cooks have always tried to streamline meal prep — “Five-Ingredient Dinners” reminds us of the less-is-more possibilities. The book underscores the importance of technique (blooming spices, taking advantage of the fond, assiduous salting) and building flavor (using citrus, vinegars, stocks, herbs and spices, pickles and prepared sauces, pastes and condiments). The result is a new look at a more streamlined approach to dinner at a time we need it most.