One Good Dish: The Pleasures of a Simple Meal

Tanis’s two previous books, A Platter of Figs and Heart of the Artichoke, are top-flight menu cookbooks composed of full sit-down meals anyone would be happy to serve to company. Here he relaxes into a more informal mode. Many of these good dishes need only a green salad to accompany them for lunch or dinner; others are the sort of small plates one might prepare two or three of to serve tapas style. All of them are intelligent, fresh, and simple to prepare: south Indian cabbage with black mustard seeds; ham and Gruyère bread pudding; warm lentil salad with potatoes and bacon. This is the kind of food that, in our imaginations, we’re always smart enough to throw together on a week night. Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.