Nothing Fancy — By Alison Roman

[Roman] could offer a master’s program in Approachable Recipe. . . . [Nothing Fancy is] a manual not just for dinner, but for life.

— The Washington Post

Nothing Fancy is like an all-access pass to [Roman’s] stunning-yet-relaxed recipes.”

— HuffPost, “Best Cookbooks to Give as Gifts”

The recipes will provide well for friendly dinner parties, while still being straightforward enough to cook quickly on a midweek evening after work.

— Vogue

Roman’s recipes are elegant but straightforward, impressive but actionable, with an emphasis on easy vegetables (like peppers with yuzu), homespun desserts (like blackberry and cornmeal cake), and show-stopping entrees (like lamb chops for the table).

— Esquire

Alison Roman's latest cookbook, Nothing Fancy is such a versatile and delish guide to having unfussy Good Times with Good Food whenever with your significant other, your family or a large gathering of friends.

Whether it's for a dining-in Date Night, where you want something special that still leaves you the time and energy to really enjoy the evening. 

Or, whether it's for adding some magic to the weekly menu for a family meal.

And when you want to get together with others, Nothing Fancy is not about entertaining, but about having people over. An unexpected weeknight meal with a neighbor or a weekend dinner party with fifteen of your closest friends—either way and everywhere in between, it’s unfussy food paired with unstuffy vibes.

Nothing Fancy is an abundant collection of all-new recipes — heavy on the easy-to-execute vegetables and versatile grains, paying lots of close attention to crunchy, salty snacks, and with love for all the meats. It is for intimate dinners for two, families gathered around the table or for big gatherings of friends and family.

Alison Roman gives you the food your people want, plus the tips, sass, and confidence to pull it all off.

With Nothing Fancy, any night of the week is worth celebrating.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION AND ALISON:

“This follow-up to Dining In answers the perennial question of what to serve when people are coming over as only Alison can: with legit fun ideas—Pizza Night! Baked Potato Bar!—and unfussy recipes. (I’ve already bookmarked ‘A Very Good Lasagna’ and ‘Casual Apple Tart.’)”—Julia Kramer, deputy editor, Bon Appétit

This is not a book about entertaining.

“Roasting a nice chicken for people is such a good way to say, ‘I love you.’” I recently found this note to myself scrawled on the back of an electrical bill I had probably forgotten to pay, written one night after a dinner party. There was likely a lot of wine that night (the best ideas always come from a lot of wine), which explains my poor penmanship and well-intentioned (but fragmented) deep chicken thought.

Not exactly poetry, but I realized after reading it that it was the first time I articulated exactly what I wanted this book to be about it and what I want you to get out of it: Using your time and resources to feed people you care about is the ultimate expression of love. And love is about expressing joy, not producing anxiety, so the other thing I want you to get out of it is: You can do this.

I have always been allergic to the word “entertaining,” which to me implies there’s a show, something performative at best and inauthentic at worst. But having people over? Well, that’s just making dinner, but you know, with more people. Unfussy food, unfussy vibes and the permission to be imperfect, no occasion necessary (other than to eat, of course).

For anyone looking for tips on how to fold linen napkins or create floral arrangements, I am not your girl. I don’t have any clever hosting tips, and I will not teach you the secrets to mood lighting. (I told you, this is not an entertaining book, but also: candles!) But I will give you low-stress and high-impact recipes and ideas designed to make your life easier when cooking for others. Colorful platters of vegetables doused in crispy crunchy bits, casually roasted meat scattered with herbs, one-bowl just-sweet-enough desserts.

This book is organized by how I like to put together most meals, broken up by what I think are the five most important parts: snacks, salads, sides, mains, and sweet things. Not to say all categories must be represented to have a complete experience, but using that framework is a good place to start.

Most of the recipes serve 4 to 6 people and are designed to be doubled easily. If you’re cooking for fewer than four, well then consider the bounty a gift to your future self in the form of leftovers. There are carefully considered do-aheads (my favorite phrase) and ideas for what goes with what, although I will say most things in this book would be so happy served next to one another (I find the concept of menus to be both inspiring and creatively stifling, so consider this my compromise). It’s a book with a true choose-your-own-adventure spirit, encouraging you to make as many or as few of the dishes as you wish.

This is not about living an aspirational life; it’s about living an attainable one. You know, the one that comes with not really having enough time to braise a whole pot of short ribs before people arrive (but you try anyway), accidentally burnt cakes (just cut those parts off), and not enough chairs to seat everyone at once (sit on the floor?). It’s the life we live, it’s messy as hell, it’s nothing fancy—I’m sure you wouldn’t want it any other way.

Three Helpful Things

1. Ask for help
“Asking for help is not a weakness, it’s a strength.” —me to myself every time I cook for others If you’re a control freak like me, delegating does not come easily. But come to think of your guests as contributors and collaborators and you’ll notice everyone loosen up, things happen more quickly, and the whole vibe gets significantly more fun. Asking guests to participate by picking the stems from herbs, mixing a yogurt sauce, or slicing vegetables is a small but significant way to ease the load.

2. Pick your battles
One of the most common questions I get is “How do I make sure everything is hot when I serve dinner?” My answer is always: You don’t. Trying to make sure everything is pipinghot is a fool’s errand, and one I refuse to participate in. Unless you’re living an exclusively soup-and-stew lifestyle, there is no reason every dish on your table needs to be hot. If you are serving a pasta that should be, then guess what, you’re getting a side of blanched and room-temp broccoli. If that stewed pork with kimchi needs to be piping-hot, then everything else has been made hours ago and stored in the fridge, probably. Pick your battles. Serving different foods that all need to be hot at the same time should not be one of them.

3. Never apologize
Having people over means never having to say you’re sorry. Not for your mismatched plates or the fact that you don’t own any “real” wineglasses or the fact that dinner is actually being served closer to 9:30 than the hoped-for 7:30 (just make sure there are snacks). Embrace the quirky imperfections that make dinner at your house special and different. It’s not a restaurant—you shouldn’t feel pressure to make it feel like one.

ABOUT ALISON ROMAN

Alison is a cook writer and author. She is a bi-weekly columnist for the New York Times Cooking section, as well as a monthly contributor to Bon Appétit Magazine.

Her first cookbook, Dining In, was a best-seller and was published in 2017.

Originally from Los Angeles, Alison lives in Brooklyn until she decides to move upstate like everyone else.

THE DETAILS 

Condition: New, Hardback

Publisher: - Clarkson Potter

Published: October 22, 2019

ISBN-13: 9780451497017

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 10.10" W x 8.20"H x 1" D