Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That?: Fabulous Recipes and Easy Tips

The focus is on creating simpler yet appetizing dishes that save time and minimize stress in the kitchen in bestselling author (Barefoot Contessa Cookbook) and Food Network guru Garten’s latest. She showcases recipes that utilize fewer ingredients, limited to those easily found in supermarkets or specialty food stores. She also stays away from time-consuming cooking techniques, instead making unusually good use of her oven for everything from easy parmesan “risotto” and French toast bread pudding to spicy turkey meatballs. Despite the relative simplicity of these dishes, they are still elegant enough to be served at dinner parties, especially the roasted figs and prosciutto, fresh salmon tartare, and the mouthwatering, easy Provençal lamb. Garten’s vegetable dishes are particularly appealing and varied, including scalloped tomatoes, garlic-roasted cauliflower, and potato basil purée, and her desserts are equally strong, with easy cranberry and apple cake and fleur de sel caramels. Full-color photos accompany each recipe and are enough to send any hungry soul immediately into the kitchen. True to her trademark style, Garten once again shows that delicious food can be prepared with a minimum of fuss, even with guests on the way. (Oct.)