Everyday heroes: the ready and reliable recipes I reach for all week long

Some days ago, my sister asked me for a few week-in, week-out meal suggestions. We were talking on the phone as she made her way to work in London and I waited for a bus in Rome. As Rosie asked me the question, the bus numbers and estimated times on the electric indicator scrambled before going blank. Despite being a full-time food writer working on a book that involves the repeated testing of 120 recipes, I couldn’t, at that moment, think of a single helpful recipe. I started rambling about chicken thighs, at which my sister, wisely, ended the call with a breezy: “Well, if anything comes to mind, let me know.” A minute later, the indicator flashed back on and the 792 arrived.

In late September, still limping into a routine after the summer and interminable Italian school holidays, I also need my indicator resetting. As the bus took me home, I started making a list of week-in, week-out recipes to live by at this time of year, good and good-value recipes that are flexible and accommodating for just a few or many. I wrote it out for my sister, and it struck me that it might be useful for you, too.

First up, a hero recipe and real crowd-pleaser: lentils braised with onion, celery, carrot and herbs – lentil ragu, if you like. Make a double quantity so you have enough for several meals. It can be mixed with pasta or rice; fish, or small rounds of baked goat’s cheese can be substituted for sausage; or you can make it a vegetarian bake topped with mashed potato. Thomasina Miers’s chilli con carne can be approached in much the same way as the lentils, or turned into a moussaka-type bake by topping it with bechamel (Honey & Co have a vegetarian version). Sausage ragu is also a friendly recipe, with pasta, naturally, or dolloped on polenta.

Rachel Roddy’s baked chicken thighs with tomatoes, served with a green bean, lettuce and parmesan salad. Photograph: Rachel Roddy/The Guardian

Another great panful is minestrone, which can be fortified with pasta or rice, or topped with croutons. Make a double quantity, but also spin it out by adding another tin or two of white beans, or reheating with ripped bread – minestrone, of course, is better the next day. Carrot and lentil soup, served with bread and cheese, is another crowd favourite and such good value – it feeds eight people for about three quid. Also good value is a massive pan of tomato sauce, which will last several days and can be used for pasta, poached fish, poached meatballs or simply paired with sausage meat.

Turning to the oven, Neapolitan mashed potato cake (gattò di patate) is a brilliant weekly dish. Essentially an enriched mashed potato sandwich, it can have a filling of mozzarella and salami or peas, a mix of peas and bechamel, or anything you fancy. Do make a large one as it reheats beautifully, and serve it alongside a big green salad or chopped vegetable coleslaw.

And the produce of summer is still on hand to enjoy. Roman-style tomatoes stuffed with rice and herbs go down well with almost everyone, as do fantastically quick chickpea pancakes – make the batter in the morning so you are ready to go. Chicken thighs with tomatoes has to be one of the fastest preps ever – 30 seconds to put in a tray with a bit of olive oil and salt, then bake, week in, week out.

My week in food

Captain crunch … crisps of many flavours. Photograph: Carol Yepes/Getty Images

Salt of the earth | Scallop, black vinegar, saffron, seaweed, French salad and fried crab are just a few of the crisp flavours Ruth Alexander encounters in a recent episode of The Food Chain tracing the story of our favourite snack. During her salted journey, Alexander is joined by the journalist and crisp historian Natalie Whittle, and Makoto Ehara, the boss of Calbee, one of Japan’s biggest potato chip makers, who explains the challenge that the climate crisis poses to the industry and reveals his favourite flavour.

Character study | It was Hilary Mantel’s endorsement of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s The Long View that caught my eye. She describes Howard as a novelist who reminds us what the novel is for – opening eyes and hearts. I did doubt Mantel’s assessment for a couple of pages, wondering if I could bear to hang out with such privileged, claustrophobic, apparently miserable people. But, before I knew it, I was pulled in deep by Howard’s exquisite, witty, astutely observant writing, the cold orange souffle and the very characters I thought I hated. It is also a story told brilliantly, backwards.

TV dinner | My son and TikTok had introduced me to the joy of cornflakes as a coating for chicken fillets – flour first, then beaten egg and then the cereal. He likes them crushed quite finely, while I like to have the odd whole flake alongside a rough rubble. While you can fry or bake, deep-frying is best, of course, as is wolfing it down in front of Severance.

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