Do you know what it means to ‘ottolenghify’ a dish? It means adding something crunchy, funky, saucy, herby or oily to give your meal that extra sparkle that Ottolenghi is famous for. Ottolenghi’s Test Kitchen second cookbook ‘Extra Good Things’ focusses on just that: the ‘toppings’ that make the dish.
What is the focus of the Extra Good Things cookbook?
Ottolenghi is adored all over the world for the way he marries well known basic ingredients such as an eggplant or a carrot, with surprising new toppings and flavours. It all started with tahini and sumac, which were not common ingredients ten years ago.
This cookbook goes one step further, by putting the toppings themselves in the spotlight. It’s like a peek behind the Ottolenghi curtain. Yotam and Noor Murad share their knowledge on how they marry flavours: something rich with acidity, or something fresh with creamy oils. But Extra Good Things offers more than just amazing recipes for condiments. It provides loads of wonderful recipes for complete meals, to use those ‘extra’s’ on / in / with.
What are those ‘extra good things’?
This cookbook provides recipes for different kinds of ‘toppings’ in five categories:
- pickled and fermented condiments, like burnt aubergine pickle, ginger pickle and blue cheese cream
- a chapter on sauces, like tahini-parmesan dressing, coconut chutney and anchovy aioli
- a section on all things nutty and crunchy, like coriander furikake, burnt lemon and cinnamon almonds
- a chapter on all things ‘fresh and herby’, like tarragon gremolata, spring onion pesto and caramel and clementine dressing
- and different kinds of oils, like ginger-garlic oil, smoky chipotle oil and jammy onions
Each chapter starts with an overview photograph of the ‘extra good things’. After which you’ll find vegetable forward recipes that combine a specific condiment with a particular dish. Such as the ‘Oven fries with smokey sweet nuts’ or ‘Butternut crunch pie with pickled chilies’.
The book closes with a dessert chapter which combines classic techniques (like merengue, or mousse, or praliné) with new flavour combinations.
What I cooked so far
Creamed spinach with paprika pine nuts and cured yolks
Soooo, I cheated a little bit on this one, because I made the dish without the ‘extra good thing’ (the cured yolk). This was just because I was short on time and the eggs take 2 days to cure. But even with the eggs, this was a wonderful – I would say – dip. This is a classic Ottolenghi dish.
Anchovy butter crostini with pink mooli
What a gorgeous appetizer this was! The mooli were dead easy to make. And the creamy salty anchovy butter with tangy lime zest blew me away! I could eat that on a piece of bread any day! Forgot to sprinkle with parsley before I took the photograph. We loved these and they were gone in no time.
Root vegetable and harissa chickpeas with dukkah
So so good! We immediately made it again the next week. I used butternut squash and potatoes. The combination of the warm spicy vegetables with the fresh lemon dill topping and the creamy tahini yoghurt is another Ottolenghi winner for us. Make sure you make plenty of dukkah, because it keeps long and this nutty crumble is also great to scoop up with a piece of bread dipped in olive oil.
Potato slab pie with salsa verde
This recipe was a bit of a project, but my favourite from the book so far. (Because I really adore potatoes). You just slice them on a mandoline and combine them with the cheesy and herby cream. The cookbook provides step by step photographs on how to assemble this dish. I was really happy with how the top layer of pastry came out: so beautifully golden with the sesame seeds. The tangy salsa verde was a brilliant combination with the rich pie.
Charred green pepper and bulgur pilaf with parsley oil
A lovely way of preparing bulgur. It felt like a variation on a recipe from Simple (the bulgur with tomato, eggplant and lemon yoghurt). This was equally delicious. Had to go to my Turkish grocer for these pale green and slightly bitter peppers. I did have to grill them much longer than the recipe calls for, to get them fully cooked.
Coffee mousse with tahini fudge
It’s coffee, it’s tahini, it’s chocolate… Need I say more? This extremely delicious dessert is another absolute winner. The coffee mousse is yummy in itself. But the tahini fudge is truly a revelation and ready in 2 minutes! Make. This. Dessert! That’s all I have to say about it.😄
How does it compare to other Ottolenghi cookbooks
Extra Good Things is mostly different in the way that it’s structured, because it all starts with the condiments and toppings. The recipe style is not very different from – or more complex than – what we know from OTK Shelf love or from previous cookbooks like Simple or Plenty. Extra good things contains mostly vegetarian recipes, but some anchovies and chicken are used.
Who will enjoy Extra Good Things?
Toppings truly are the stars of this cookbook and they are amazing! Making the toppings obviously is an extra bit of work and you will have leftovers in your fridge. But if you want to expand your repertoire of ‘extra good things’ to dress up your meals – then this is a wonderful cookbook for you! You can try some pickling, experiment with making oils – or just even enjoy a brand new batch of delicious Ottolenghi recipes.
Other sources of information
- This book was accompanied by a recipe video series on YouTube
- Here you’ll find a review of Ottolenghi’s OTK Shelf Love
