Cooking for Real Life

Cooking for real life is not about fiddly menus and impossible-to-find ingredients. It is about getting something delicious on the table, having fun and feeding the people you love. It is also about recognising that different situations in life call for different kinds of cooking. Although sometimes you may have hours to while away by a steaming pot, sometimes you really need a fast turnaround.

Joanna Weinberg has an inventive, generous approach to cooking that is realistic as well as delicious. She shows how a well-stocked cupboard, freezer and fridge can make all the difference, transforming a quick family meal into an impromptu gathering without either stress or the need to rush out to the shops. Her recipes offer new flavour combinations using familiar ingredients and they include dishes like smoky butternut soup; pasta with ricotta, aubergine and pine nuts; twice-baked cottage pie; slow-roast shoulder of lamb; and molten chocolate puds. There are suggestions for when you are in a hurry, for when you feel like making an impression and for those times when you are tired out and just want to curl up with something comforting.

This kind of cooking is adaptable and personal, it shows that with a pinch of this and a dash of that, we can all eat well all of the time - regardless of what life throws at us.

Joanna Weinberg writes a weekly cookery column for The Times, and about food in general for Red. She lives in London with her husband, two children and two cats. She is the author of How to Feed Your Friends with Relish.