What’s quite clever about Rosie Ramsden’s debut cookbook is that really – beyond the jazzy rainbow coloured wheels and charts – it’s really about the way most of us cook. The Recipe Wheel takes a classic dish – for example a basic risotto – and then after running through the core recipe, expands on it with off-shoots (this is where the wheel comes into play) which encompass most of the scenarios that you would cook for – no frills, a night in, recipes to impress or ones to use up leftovers. So that basic white risotto gets tarted up into a fresh spring broad bean, parmesan and mint risotto or into another variation using a more summery mix of fennel, artichoke hearts and ricotta. While the leftovers are recycled into seriously moreish deep fried risotto balls.
Each chapter kicks off with one of these core recipes – braised beef, poached fish, potato gratin, custard, sponge cake, roast chicken – they are all very simple and straight-forward staples but it’s the spin-off ideas that will most likely inspire you to diversify; adding cherry tomatoes and crushed potatoes to your roasted chicken for an unctuous supper or creating a pot roast with your chicken by throwing cannellini beans and chorizo into the mix and a dollop of romesco sauce to finish.
