The Ottolenghi Test Kitchen team takes you on a journey through your kitchen cupboards, creating inspired recipes using humble ingredients. Through them, my food, rooted in Jerusalem and the Middle East, has become our food, having been on all kinds of journeys, borrowing harissa from north Africa and chaat masala from India, using newly discovered chilli pastes from south-east Asia or Mexico, and adopting some cheffy techniques from our London restaurants. Ottolenghi is an Italian name, an Italianised form of Ettlingen, a town in Baden-Württemberg from which Jews were expelled in the 15th and 16th centuries; many settled in Northern Italy.

Ottolenghi and his team of recipe developers have taken this challenge on in their latest book, Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love. The ginger and garlic give a kick to the oats, while the roundness of soy butter brings all the ingredients together.This version combines tahini with herbaceous za’atar and sour sumac, our ever familiar but much treasured test kitchen staples. The Ottolenghi brand has since expanded to three more delis (in Islington, Marylebone and Chelsea), a formal restaurant in Spitalfields, a brasserie named NOPI in Soho, and a vegetable-centric restaurant named ROVI which opened in Fitzrovia in June 2018. I love it but, much as it pains me to say, I know not everyone does like the slightly bitter taste of this sesame paste.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag, snipping off the base, and pipe evenly on top of the lemons in the baking dish (piping ensures the lemons don’t move around too much). It’s a real use-up-what-you-have type of dish, suitable to take on picnics or to serve as a barbecue side. Madeleine has lived half her life in South Africa and the other in London which has widened her experiences of multiple cultures, languages and cuisines. Well, if we look at 2020, it was the situation that brought people back into their kitchens to bake and make, fostering their starters along the way. Led by Noor Murad, a contributor to many of Ottolenghi’s previous cookbooks, the OTK team spend their days testing, experimenting and tasting an endless number of dishes.Put the potatoes into a medium saucepan for which you have a lid, and pour over enough water to cover by about 4cm.

She has since developed recipes for the books Falastin and Ottolenghi FLAVOUR, as well as for Ottolenghi's Masterclass series and other online Ottolenghi publications. Make it your own Play with different cheeses and spices; use alternative pasta shapes such as macaroni, adjusting liquid levels as necessary. The book is every bit as approachable and accessible as SIMPLE, and is destined to become just as popular.Place a large, non-stick frying pan on a high heat and, once very hot, char a third of the lemon slices on both sides – about one to two minutes per side. It was not difficult to make, was a great crowd-pleaser at home, and then made a great lunch packed up the next day. I normally make my oatmeal using a bit of milk and a pinch of salt so these roasted bananas with their sweet/tangy/salty/umami-rich flavour totally added to the oatmeal. Once you’ve got all your components ready, it’s a matter of pressing it into the pan and letting it crisp up before the ultimate cake flip. It doubles up as both a simple midweek meal, or a fancy dinner party dish if you dress it up with some gorgeous sides – I went for some fragrant Jasmine rice, and fresh greens sprinkled with dessiccated coconut.