Ottolenghi’s Comfort is a carb-laden, cosy read

It’s no surprise that Yotam Ottolenghi, chef-patron of seven Ottolenghi delis as well as his Nopi and Rovi restaurants, had a little help in pulling this book together. He turned to colleagues Helen Goh and Verena Lochmuller, who have both worked with Ottolenghi for many years, alongside his long-term writing collaborator Tara Wigley.

The “four hungries”, as they are known, explore the key elements of comfort in the introduction of the book: ‘Who we eat with’; ‘Why we eat’; ‘What we eat’ and ‘How we eat’ – which they suggest is as important as what we are eating in the first place. Some interesting food for thought for restaurateurs devising menus at a new site, perhaps?

The quartet’s international footprint expands across the likes of Italy, Germany, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, London, China, Malaysia, Melbourne, Scotland and New York – with the resulting cookbook offering recipes with nods to all over the world.

Comfort is Ottolenghi’s first global hardback cookbook release since his Simple and Flavour books, which defined a generation of cooking and introduced readers to the wonders of flavours including harissa and za’atar – as well as an eye-wateringly long list of ingredients for his recipes.

But this 319-page book, in tune with its name, takes a less serious approach to cooking. Ingredient lists are distinctly shorter and nearly every recipe is accompanied by a photograph (some more than one, including a series on how to roll out cheese and onion butteries. And yes, you heard that right, ‘butteries’ are on page 242, should you wish to investigate immediately).

Most importantly, the dishes don’t require a schlep to a specialist food shop to pick up an obscure dried herb that will simply gather dust at the back of the cupboard after a single use – clearly Ottolenghi is practising what he and his team preached in the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen series.

Chapters are also more fluid: ‘fritters and other fried things’ and ‘comfort veg’ catches my eye, while a number of chapters dedicated to carbs makes complete sense in a book about comfort food. From the pasta, polenta and potatoes section, there’s a Bavarian broth-based potato salad, crispy roast potatoes with rosemary and za’atar (hello, old friend), and caramelised onion orecchiette with hazelnuts and crispy sage. There’s even a ‘double carb’ winning combination of a Ligurian dish of pesto pasta with charred beans and potatoes.