I am learning a new way to cook. Since having my little boy, it’s been hard to find time. No more long evenings in the kitchen: for now, my cooking is sandwiched into a neat window of time before baths and stories. I’ve rediscovered the joy of one pan or one-pot meals – dinners laid thoughtfully into a tray and left to roast and burnish. Cooking this way takes a quick, but careful, bit of preparation and can then be almost left alone for edges to crisp and golden hues to appear.
It requires being practical and organised. Although I am neither, I do find this kind of cooking weirdly satisfying. While I love the feeling of a pan over a flame, there is something very pleasing about knowing your dinner is cooking while you sit down with a glass of something, fold up the washing, catch up on emails, or whatever it may be.
Though the method may be simple, I still want flavours and textures that excite me, as well as bringing some balance – after all, I want everything I’m going to eat to be in that tray – vegetables, herbs, pulses, even baked cheeses. I’ve been playing around with one this week that reflects the season, and it’s become my quick weeknight take on a faded classic.
This principle of a roasting tray dinner works well with almost anything. I work on a basic formula of one or two vegetables, a herb, an accent flavour, such as chilli or lemon, and then something hearty – a pulse or some torn-up bread. Bear in mind that you need a vegetable that softens when it cooks – such as sweet potato or courgette – to add a little stickiness and to stop things burning. If you are roasting something (such as potatoes) that won’t do that, you might want to add a little stock or wine to make sure everything cooks evenly and so the flavours mingle in the best way possible.
Quick courgette ratatouille with crispy haricot beans
I’m not sure if it’s just me, but it seems that ratatouille got left behind in the 90s – but it’s a great dish that deserves reviving. This is my quick version – the ideal thing to make on a weeknight. I use the grill to get things working quickly and to impart some crispy edges and charred flavour.
Serves 4
4 medium courgettes, grated
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper
1 red onion, thinly sliced
½ bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked
1 red pepper, finely chopped
230g jar of roasted red peppers, finely chopped
550g cherry tomatoes, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
400g tin chickpeas, drained
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 Preheat your grill to high. Scatter the grated courgettes evenly over a baking tray, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little oil. Put the tray under the grill to cook and char the courgettes for about 20 minutes, turning every couple of minutes.
2 Meanwhile, put a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the red onion to the pan with a splash of olive oil and the thyme leaves. Cook for 5 minutes, or until soft and sweet.
3 When the onions are nicely browned, add them to the tray of courgettes along with all of the chopped peppers, as well as the tomatoes and garlic, then continue to cook and brown, turning every 5 minutes, for a further 10–15 minutes.
4 Put the frying pan back on a high heat and add a little more olive oil. Add the chickpeas, a good pinch of salt and pepper, and the zest of the lemon. Cook until the chickpeas have become crisp around the edges. This will take about 10 minutes, and you’ll need to keep tossing them around the pan.
5 Once the courgette mixture has turned soft and sweet, and become charred in places, scatter over the chickpeas. Serve with some green leaves dressed with lemon juice.
Figs, butterbeans, ricotta, radicchio, almonds (main picture)
If you can, use good Italian or strained ricotta here; if you can’t find any, you can improve a particularly soggy ricotta by straining your own, but it takes a few hours. Jarred beans are harder to find, but I think they taste better than the tinned type.
Serves 4
200g ricotta
400g tin or jar of butterbeans
4 figs, tough stems removed, quartered
1 lemon
Small bunch of thyme or oregano, leaves picked
A pinch of dried red chilli flakes
Salt and black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
1 red chilli, finely chopped
100g almonds, skin on
1-2 heads of radicchio, shredded
1 If your ricotta is very wet, put it in a small sieve lined with muslin over a bowl in the fridge for a few hours. You will probably get a couple of tablespoons of liquid in the bowl, which you can discard.
2 Set the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 and get a large, lipped roasting tray. Scatter the beans into the tray, making a little space in the middle for the ricotta, then turn out the cheese into it.
3 Scatter the quartered figs on top of the beans. Grate the zest of the lemon all over the tray, focusing particularly on the ricotta. Sprinkle over some of the thyme leaves and red chilli flakes along with some salt and pepper. Drizzle a little olive oil over the figs and beans. Put in the hot oven for 45 minutes, or until the ricotta has shrunk a little and is beginning to brown, and the beans have softened and their skins crisped.
4 Meanwhile, make your herb oil: bash the rest of the thyme tips in a pestle and mortar until you have a deep green paste, add 4 tbsp olive oil, the chopped fresh chilli and a good sprinkle of salt and pepper.
5 When your traybake has had 35 minutes, put the almonds on to a separate tray with a good pinch of salt and pepper, then roast for the last 10 minutes of the cooking time.
6 Remove both the traybake and the almonds from the oven, roughly chop the almonds and sprinkle them over the bake with the shredded radicchio. Drizzle over the herb oil and serve in the middle of the table for everyone to dig in. A side of some sauteed spinach or green beans might be nice.
Six steps to making roasting tray dinners
Pick 1 item from each section, throw them together in a deep, A4-sized baking tray. Bake for 30-55 minutes at 200C/400F/gas mark 4 until the vegetables are soft and golden.
1 Main vegetable
4 courgettes, cut into thick coins
1 roughly chopped butternut squash
800g winter roots, chopped into about 1cm pieces
2 Soft vegetable
200g Spinach
1⁄2 a jar of roasted red peppers, roughly chopped
2 leeks, shredded
3 Hearty add-on
400g tin of butterbeans, drained
400g tin of chickpeas,drained
2 slices of good bread, torn
4 Liquid
100ml veg stock
100ml white wine
5 Herb
A small bunch of basil
A small bunch of thyme
A bunch of sage, thyme or rosemary
6 Flavour boost
The zest of one lemon
A teaspoon of hot smoked paprika
The zest of one orange
- Anna Jones is a chef, writer and author of A Modern Way to Eat and A Modern Way to Cook (Fourth Estate); annajones.co.uk;@we_are_food
