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Louise Thomas
Editor
In the world of food, there are chefs who challenge your taste buds and chefs who soothe your soul. Yotam Ottolenghi belongs firmly in the latter camp – though don’t mistake comfort for complacency.
With Ottolenghi COMFORT, he reimagines what it means to be nourished, blending the nostalgic warmth of familiar dishes with the sophistication that has become his hallmark. This isn’t a retreat into tired clichés of mac’n’cheese or bland mashed potatoes, but a leap forward into a world where a simple traybake becomes an event; where a humble bowl of soup is an art form.
For example, recipes include creamy butter beans swathed in the velvety sweetness of roasted cherry tomatoes, or cheesy lemon rice glistening under a drizzle of fiery chilli butter.
From ramen to schnitzel, from dhal to dumplings, Ottolenghi reminds us that comfort doesn’t have to be predictable; it just has to feel like home – no matter what that looks like for you. This is food with stories to tell, recipes designed to embrace you like an old friend, while still having something new to say.
And, let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to be comforted by someone as bold, brilliant and buttery as Ottolenghi?
Butter beans with roasted cherry tomatoes
Source the larger butter beans, or judiones, for this, if you can. They’re softer, more buttery and much creamier than the smaller ones (which come in a tin). This dish works well as part of a mezze spread, or can be eaten as it is, with something like crumbled feta or olives on top.
Keeping notes: Once made, the beans keep for up to 3 days in the fridge: just bring them back to room temperature before serving. The crispy tomato skins are a great thing to have around as well, to add to salads and pasta dishes. The recipe comes from a restaurant called Bar Rochford in Canberra, Australia, where they’re served with fresh green beans. They keep for a week in a sealed jar.
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
500g cherry tomatoes
85ml olive oil
1 onion, finely diced (150g)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp thyme leaves, roughly chopped, plus a few whole thyme leaves to garnish
1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
1 fresh bay leaf
80ml dry white wine
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 x 700g jar of good-quality butter bean, drained and rinsed
Salt and black pepper
To serve:
75g thick Greek-style yoghurt thick slices of sourdough (or any crusty) bread, toasted (optional)
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 210C fan.
2. Toss the tomatoes with 2 teaspoons of the oil and spread them on a parchment-lined baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes, until the skins have loosened and the tomatoes are soft and have shrunk a little. Remove from the oven and transfer the tomatoes, along with all their juices, to a shallow bowl to cool.
3. Re-line the baking tray with a fresh sheet of baking parchment and reduce the oven temperature to 100C fan.
4. Once cool enough to handle, pinch the skins off the tomatoes and place the skins on the lined baking tray. Return the tray to the oven for about 45 minutes, until the skins are dry and crisp, giving them a good stir a couple of times during baking. Set the skinless tomatoes aside.
5. Put the remaining 75ml of oil into a medium saucepan and place on a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, fennel seeds and bay leaf and cook for 10–12 minutes, until the onion has softened but has not taken on too much colour. Add the wine, simmer for 2 minutes to reduce, then add the paprika. Cook for another minute, then add the reserved tomato flesh, along with 1 teaspoon of salt. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes, stirring often so that the tomatoes break down. Add the beans and a good grind of pepper and stir to combine. Cook for a couple of minutes, just to warm through, then remove from the heat. Spread the yoghurt over a serving plate and then pile the beans on top. Crumble over the dried tomato skins, finish with a sprinkling of thyme leaves and serve.
Cheeseball lemon rice with chilli butter
There’s something really reassuring about a rice traybake. Add the right amount of water, seal the dish well, pop it into the oven, and forget about it. This is as comforting and delicious as you’d expect cheesy, briny, chilli-butter-doused rice to be. It’s the perfect side to something simple like a roast chicken, or else can be eaten as a main, with some wilted greens.
Getting ahead: The rice wants to be eaten fresh out of the oven but can be taken up to the point just before the hot water and aromatics are added, if you want to get ahead.
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
8 cloves
6 cardamom pods, bashed
1 lemon: shave the skin into strips, then juice to get 2 tbsp
125g ricotta
150g feta, crumbled
125g hard mozzarella, grated
25g Parmesan, grated
1 egg, beaten
400g basmati rice, rinsed and drained well
75g pitted green olives, cut in half 100g unsalted butter
½ tsp chilli flakes
¾ tsp Aleppo chilli flakes
½ tsp sumac
5 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal into 1cm pieces (50g)
Salt
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C fan.
2. Pour 750ml of water into a medium saucepan and add the cloves, cardamom pods, lemon strips and 1½ teaspoons of salt. Place on a medium-high heat, bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat.
3. Meanwhile, put the four cheeses and the egg into a medium bowl and mix well. Using your hands, divide the mixture into 12 portions and roll them roughly into balls, approximately 40g each. They don’t need to be perfect, as they will spread once in the rice.
4. Scatter the rice on the bottom of a high-sided baking tray or dish, 24cm x 32cm (or a 28cm ovenproof sauté pan, for which you have a lid), and scatter over the olives. Pour over the hot water and aromatics. Shake the tray gently to spread the rice evenly, then deposit the cheese balls in the rice. Cover the tray tightly with foil (or lid), to keep the steam in, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to settle, covered, for 10 minutes.
5. While the rice is resting, melt the butter in a medium saucepan on a medium heat. Add the chilli flakes, Aleppo flakes and sumac and cook for 2–3 minutes. Add the spring onions and cook for a further 20 seconds. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and set aside.
6. Uncover the rice and spoon the chilli butter all over just before serving.
Green tea noodles
Cold noodles on a warm day are as comforting as warm noodles on a cold day. It’s the way they are eaten – holding the bowl with one hand, chopsticks or fork in the other, head slightly lowered; it’s their texture – slippery and substantial; it’s their receptiveness to all the other textures and flavours going on in the same bowl.
Getting ahead: All the components can be made in advance here – the noodles and radishes up to 2 days ahead, the dressing up to 3 days – kept separate, in the fridge, ready for the dish to be assembled in just a minute.
Ingredients note: Wakame has an interestingly oceanic flavour, which works so well against the avocado. The texture is also great: slippery, crunchy and chewy at once. It’s widely available but, as an alternative, packs of sea vegetable salad also work well.
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
25g dried wakame seaweed (or a pack of sea vegetable salad)
200g green tea (or soba) noodles
2 tsp sesame oil
1 ripe avocado, peeled and sliced
3 spring onions, thinly sliced (45g)
10g basil leaves
1 tbsp sesame seeds (a mix of black and white looks great), toasted
Sake-pickled radishes
80g radishes, thinly sliced
2 tbsp rice (or white) wine vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp sake (or Shaoxing) wine salt
Lemon soy dressing
50ml lemon juice
50ml rice (or white) wine vinegar
75ml light soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
15g ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 garlic clove, crushed
Method:
1. Pickle the radishes up to 2 days (or at least 30 minutes) ahead of eating. Place them in a medium bowl and add ¾ teaspoon of salt. Using your hands, gently massage for a minute or two, then add the remaining pickle ingredients. Transfer to a small bowl or jar and keep in the fridge until ready to use.
2. Rehydrate the seaweed: this takes 30 minutes in cold water (which is the best option) or 10 minutes in hot water. Once rehydrated, drain and roughly tear any very large pieces and set aside in the fridge.
3. Place all the ingredients for the lemon soy dressing in a large screw-top jar and shake to combine. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.
4. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the noodles, stir, then cook for 3 minutes. Add enough cold water to stop the boiling process and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. Drain in a sieve and rinse under cold running water. Drain well again, then transfer to a large bowl and add the sesame oil, mixing it through with your hands. Cover and keep in the fridge until cold.
5. When ready to serve, use your hands to loosen and separate the noodles and add all the dressing, the drained radishes, wakame, avocado, spring onions and basil. Toss gently to mix through, then transfer to a rimmed serving platter or shallow bowl. Scatter over the toasted sesame seeds and serve.
Recipes from ‘Ottolenghi COMFORT’ by Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley (Ebury Press, £30).
