There’s something to be said for simplicity, but two new cookbooks take the plunge toward myriad flavors by exploiting intriguing food combinations. There’s probably no better time to pursue this theme than in the coming months, as summer and fall harvests roll in.
“Pamela Morgan’s Flavors” (Viking, $29.95), by Pamela Morgan and Michael McLaughlin, offers dozens of mouthwatering recipes, many from Morgan’s catering firm in Manhattan. If some of the dishes require lots of ingredients (and the requisite chopping), they are quite approachable, such as the smoked turkey and avocado sandwiches with tangy corn relish. The relish, a medley of grilled sweet corn, sweet and hot peppers, green onion, cilantro, garlic and lime juice, brings new life and lovely colors to an otherwise ordinary sandwich. There’s not a hint of mayo on it, either, but no one who tasted it noticed or cared.
Other recipes include carrot salad with Thai flavors, noodles with browned caraway butter, and banana bread with ginger and macadamia nuts.
The authors don’t shy away from unusual ingredients but always take care to include comprehensive information about them on the pages where they appear. Cooking techniques, history notes and shopping information also find their way into the pages. A bevy of color photographs offers additional support.
The approach is more direct in “Layers of Flavors” (Longstreet, $18.95), by Ray Overton. More than 90 recipes, many with Mediterranean and Pacific Rim influences, are presented with useful introductions and
straightforward directionsevidence of Overton’s experience as chef-instructor at Le Creuset Cooking School in Atlanta.
Zucchini ripienistuffed boats of squash mixed with Gruyere cheese, basil, eggplant and tomatoeswere a big hit in the test kitchen. Other recipes that sound wonderful and doable: blue cornmeal catfish fillets with toasted pecan butter, lime cumin Parmesan wafers, and a pear, black pepper and walnut tart.
The book includes a few color photos and many black-and-white shots of Overton and his staff, offered more for design than assistance.
Lazy pasta lovers will find it hard to resist “Joie Warner’s No-Cook Pasta Sauces” (Chronicle, $17.95), which offers 75 variations. True, you’ve got to cook the pasta. But the tomato-ricotta sauce we tried took 15 minutes to prepare, with delicious results. Other sauces include cherry tomato sauce with mint, luscious lemon and mascarpone sauce, and meat sauces that take advantage of the deliGenoa salami sauce and shrimp and black olive sauce among them. Concise but conversational directions help get dinner on the table in a snap.
