Another cookbook recommendation for you. I mentioned Nigel Slater’s Eat in my Christmas book post a few weeks ago, (find that post here), and since then I’ve been able to give it quite a good read through. It’s a funny little collection of recipes, really, because the main focus is on tastes and ingredients and the way in which they work together and complement one another. There’s very little emphasis on methodology and technique – in fact, many of the recipe ideas don’t even include weights and measurements, just a list of ingredients to be thrown together.

And I think that it’s this “throwing together” element that I like about Eat – every other page gives you a flash of inspiration, it gets you thinking as to how various flavours can be put on the same plate or tossed in the same frying pan. It keeps things very simple (one recipe is for “Gorgonzola, pasta, a little olive oil”, and is literally just that!) but everything sounds delicious and it really gets you thinking about what you have in your fridge and the possible culinary outcomes.

I have to say that the above meal wasn’t taken from Nigel Slater’s Eat, but it was made with the same kind of  “chuck it all in the pan” attitude. It was a meal for one, made with leftovers from the fridge. Half a tin of chopped tomatoes added to a finely sliced red chilli and a fat clove of garlic, both sizzling away in a pan. Tomatoes cooked down, dash of balsamic vinegar, pinch of salt, a small cooked chicken breast shredded into the sauce and some freshly torn basil leaves scattered over the top. 80g of linguine tossed in and I dined quite heartily, thank you very much!

There are plenty of quick pasta ideas in Eat as well as inspiration for various things “on toast”, brilliant one-pan suppers and fresh, delicious salads. On the downside, the images in Eat could be bigger and more plentiful and it would help if the book would stay open on its own (quite hard to cook whilst using one hand to push the pages down) but I do think that this is a stylish little addition to the cookbook shelf. I like to flick through it as I eat breakfast and stir up an appetite for my future meals!

Eat is £9.99 from Amazon.co.uk