In latest cookbook, Ottolenghi goes ‘Simple’

It probably won’t come as much of a surprise when I confess that, like a lot of food-minded folks, I own every single one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s six cookbooks. And now there’s another to add to the pile: The British Israeli chef’s seventh book, “Ottolenghi Simple,” comes out this month from Ten Speed Press.

This latest cookbook, which Ottolenghi wrote with Tara Wigley and Esme Howarth, with photographs by Jonathan Lovekin, presents 130 recipes that are focused on simplicity. Ottolenghi’s cooking has always been more accessible than aspirational, but some of his cookbooks (“Nopi,” “Sweet”) do require a fair bit of technical expertise, so it’s comforting to have an undemanding volume to add to the stack.

To help simplify, so to speak, just what Ottolenghi means by “simple,” there’s a helpful color-coded outline in the introduction of the book. The six letters of the word “simple” stand for, in order: “short on time,” “10 ingredients or less,” “make ahead,” “pantry,” “lazy” and “easier than you think.”

There are many recipes that are fairly quickly assembled, often in one dish or pot; lots of soups and stews and salads; and a happy surfeit of dishes that are composed of things roasted on sheet pans.

It’s a useful and engaging book, filled with the kind of dishes that have made Ottolenghi’s broad and well-deserved reputation.