There’s plenty to be said for a cookbook that makes dinner feel less like hard work. In Made Simple, Danielle Alvarez brings her restaurant experience into the home kitchen, with more than 80 recipes designed to deliver plenty of flavour without unnecessary fuss.

The Sydney-based chef and Good Weekend columnist focuses on what makes a dish work, stripping away extra steps so home cooks can feel confident about what they’re putting on the table. Her love of seasonal ingredients runs throughout, with an emphasis on achievable cooking that still feels worth sitting down to enjoy. For anyone who wants to freshen up their dinner routine without making it more complicated, this has plenty of appeal.

Note from Danielle:

This salad is inspired by my food queen, Ina Garten. I can still remember her early episodes of Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network in the early 2000s. She was grilling whole lamb legs and serving them with cucumber yoghurt, making ahi tuna and avocado salads, whipping up coeur à la crème with strawberries, and shaking up cocktails.

At a time when everything on food TV was 15-minute meals and pigs in blankets, this was wildy different. It was shot beautifully and like nothing American audiences had seen before. She and her husband Jeffrey, whom she was mostly cooking for, live in one of those gorgeous weather – worn, wood-shingled, hydrangea-lined Hamptons homes, and
everything in their home looks like it came out of a Williams Sonoma catalogue.

To say she has been one of my greatest influences in my home cooking would be an understatement. I often ask myself, ‘What would Ina do?’ – and the answers have never led me astray. This yummy salad is a riff on one of her recipes. A lovely light main course in summer, and delicious alongside barbecued meats or fish, it’s also a great dish when travelling or cooking in a kitchen that is not your own as it involves only simple preparation and easy to find ingredients, with no fancy equipment required. Plus, leftovers hold really well and make excellent picnic food to take to the park or beach.

Ingredients

1 small purple Italian eggplant
1 red capsicum
1 yellow capsicum
1 red onion
250 g cherry tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, minced
1⁄2 cup (125 ml) extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
250 g risoni
1⁄2 cup basil leaves, cut into thin strips
2 cups chopped rocket
250 g feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing

1⁄3 cup (80 ml) lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)
1⁄4 cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1⁄2 teaspoon fine sea salt
A good pinch of black pepper

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C conventional, or 180° for fan-forced.
2. Line a large wide baking tray with baking paper.
3. Dice the eggplant, capsicums and onion into 2–2.5 cm chunks, discarding any stems and seeds.
4. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
5. Add all the vegetables to a large mixing bowl and toss together with the garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and black pepper.
6. Spread the vegetables on the lined baking tray in one flat even layer, using a second lined baking tray if needed.
7. Roast for 30–40 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and browned, flipping them over halfway through using a spatula.
8. If you are using two trays, swap them top to bottom and bottom to top halfway through roasting.
9. Remove from the oven and allow the vegetables to cool a bit.
10. Meanwhile, cook the risoni in boiling salted water until just tender, which is usually about one minute less than the timing suggested by the packet instructions.
11. Drain and set aside to cool.
12. Once cooled, combine the roasted vegetables and cooked risoni in a large salad bowl.
13. Mix the dressing ingredients in a small jar or bowl until combined and drizzle all over the salad.
14. Add the basil, rocket and feta and toss to combine.
15. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Images and text from Made Simple by Danielle Alvarez. Murdoch Books RRP $49.99