Michael Ruhlman is a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction, mostly about food. He’s one of the more literary and thoughtful of chefs, and his writing – the recipes and his essay-like chapter intros – is a pleasure. This is a cleverly planned book. By choosing to focus on just a handful of crowd-pleasing yet flexible recipes, then giving them a variety of themes and variations and some extremely helpful how-to-get-it-right pointers, he’s produced something engrossing, highly readable – and exceptionally useful.

An indispensable new cookbook from James Beard Award-winning food writer Michael Ruhlman. From Scratch considers 10 favorite meals, including roast chicken, the perfect omelet, and paella—and then, through 175 recipes, explores myriad alternate pathways that the kitchen invites. A delicious lasagna can be ready in about an hour, or you could turn it into a project: try making and adding some homemade sausage. Explore the limits of from-scratch cooking: make your own pasta, grow your own tomatoes, and make your own homemade mozzarella and ricotta. Ruhlman tells you how.
There are easy and more complex versions for most dishes, vegetarian options, side dishes, sub-dishes, and strategies for leftovers. Ruhlman reflects on the ways that cooking from scratch brings people together, how it can calm the nerves and focus the mind, and how it nourishes us, body and soul.

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