My second cookbook Tonight is here because of you. I am so grateful for all your feedback on my first cookbook, Dinner; I listened, I absorbed, I thought and went into the kitchen and I cooked.

My new book is designed to be your go-to answer whenever your family, partner, flatmates or friends ask, “What should we have for dinner?”

It’s a book filled with recipes for maximum flavour that you can cook tonight – recipes that make clever use of pantry staples, are easy to put together and are highly versatile, so you can make something delicious for dinner using whatever you’ve got in the fridge.

From a fun dish that’s equal parts pizza and pasta to a fragrant biryani that will be a hit on meat-free Mondays, here’s a sneak peek inside my second cookbook.

One-pot pizza mac

Is it crustless pizza with macaroni? Or macaroni topped with a pizza? I don’t even know, but I do know you’re going to love it! I’ve taken the flavours of classic pizza sauce to make a rich tomato sauce for macaroni. The crowning glory (literally!) is stretchy melted mozzarella blanketing the top, dotted with sliced salami. Plonk that pot in the middle of the table, spoon out big, stringy helpings and watch eyes and smiles grow wide!

PS: Don’t shortcut sauteing the salami properly at the beginning – it will ooze tasty red oil that flavours the whole dish.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 125g salami slices, chopped into 1cm squares (see note)
• 1 brown onion, finely chopped
• 1 red capsicum, deseeded and chopped into 1cm squares
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 2 cups (500ml) low-salt beef stock
• 800g can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tsp cooking salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 2½ cups (250g) elbow macaroni (or other small pasta)

Pizza topping

• 2 tightly packed cups (200g) grated mozzarella
• 50g pepperoni slices (or more chopped salami)
• 12 kalamata olives, pitted (or olive slices)

Method

1. Preheat the oven grill to high with the shelf 25cm from the heat source.
2. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof pot over high heat. Cook the salami for 3 minutes or until the edges are tinged with light gold. Add the onion, capsicum, garlic, oregano and basil. Stir for 2 minutes or until the onion is translucent.
3. Add the stock, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Stir, bring to a simmer, then add the pasta. Give it another stir and once it comes back up to a simmer, lower the heat slightly to medium-high so it’s bubbling energetically but not boiling rapidly. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring every minute, so the base doesn’t catch, until the macaroni is almost cooked. The mixture should still be quite liquid at this stage.
4. Turn the stove off and wait for the bubbles to subside. Smooth the surface. Sprinkle with the cheese, then top with the pepperoni and olives.
5. Place under the oven grill for 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the pepperoni is sizzling. Serve immediately.

Note: For the sauce, I like to use the pre-sliced large salami sold at supermarket deli counters.

Serves 4

Arabic chicken and potatoes

My trick for packing as much spice and flavour as possible into baked chicken? Coat it with something wet first. Here I’m using the technique for an Arab-inspired chicken and vegetable tray bake. My spice mix is loosely based on zaatar – I just love the earthy, herbal flavours of this Middle Eastern spice blend.

Ingredients

• 5 x 250g bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• 1 extra virgin olive oil spray, or 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Vegetables

• 1 kg potatoes, scrubbed clean, cut into 7mm thick slices (see note)
• 1 bunch Dutch carrots, scrubbed clean (10–12 carrots) (see note)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp sumac powder (see note)
• 1 tsp cooking salt
• ½ tsp black pepper

Chicken spice paste

• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 large garlic clove, crushed using a garlic crusher
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp sumac powder
• ½ tsp white sesame seeds
• 1 tsp cooking salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 3 tbsp plain yoghurt (or use sour cream)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

To serve

• handful of coriander leaves or parsley (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to (180C fan-forced) 200C conventional. Line a large baking tray with foil, then baking paper.
2. Place the potato and carrots in a large bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil, then sprinkle with the sumac, salt and pepper. Toss well, separating the potato slices to coat the surface of each piece. Pile onto the tray, overlapping the potato slices slightly, leaving space for the chicken.
3. In the same bowl, add all the chicken spice paste ingredients. Mix to combine, then add the chicken and use your hands to rub the mixture into all the cracks and crevices. Nestle the chicken among the vegetables on the tray. Scrape out all the remaining paste in the bowl and dab it onto the chicken skin. Spray with the extra virgin olive oil spray.
4. Bake for 45–50 minutes, rotating the tray at the halfway mark, until the chicken is deep golden.
5. Rest for 5 minutes on the tray, then divide the chicken, carrots and potato among plates. Use the tray juices as the sauce – don’t waste a drop! Sprinkle with coriander or parsley (if using). Dig in!

Serves 5

Notes

• Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs are best as they will stay juicy with the bake time required to cook the potato and carrots. Drumsticks work well, too – use 6-8. However, to use boneless, skinless breast and thighs, roast the vegetables alone for 20 minutes, then add the chicken breast or thighs and roast for a further 20 minutes. Finish with a 5-minute blast under the oven grill to get some colour on the chicken.
• Any potatoes will work for this recipe, whether large or small, waxy or floury. Just be sure to cut them fairly thinly so they cook through. My default are all-rounders such as sebago potatoes – the dirty, brushed ones you see almost everywhere.
• You can use regular carrots, peeled, then cut into 10cm long batons about 1.5cm wide.
• Sumac is a wonderful Middle Eastern spice with a lemony flavour and vibrant red colour. Find it in large grocery stores. It’s a key ingredient in this recipe so it’s worth getting! But if you can’t find it, use paprika instead and finish the dish with a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice before serving.

Vegetable cashew biryani

To most people, biryani is a dish of alternating layers of perfumed white rice and curried meat with patches of bright yellow saffron rice. But there are other kinds (1.4 billion people live in India, remember!).

This home-style biryani is just as delicious, but dispenses with the fiddly assembly and meat – it’s closer to a spiced rice mixed with vegetables. You will love the juicy, fragrant rice and stewy curried vegetables, punctuated by the crunch of cashews and pops of fresh coriander in this biryani. I’ve fallen hard for this!

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp (30g) ghee or unsalted butter
• 1 cup (120g) unsalted cashews
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 tbsp finely grated ginger
• 1 small zucchini, cut into 1.5cm thick half-moons (see note)
• 2 cups (280g) peeled, cubed pumpkin (1.5cm cubes) (see note)
• 2 cups (180g) small cauliflower florets (see note)

Biryani vegetable spices

• ½ tsp cayenne pepper (optional, for slight spiciness)
• ¾ tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp garam masala
• ¾ tsp cooking salt

Rice

• 1 cup (180g) basmati rice, uncooked (see note)
• 400g can chickpeas, drained
• 2 cups (500ml) low-salt vegetable stock
• ¾ tsp cooking salt
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• ¾ tsp ground cardamom
• 2 star anise
• ½ cup (70g) frozen peas

Minted yoghurt

• ¾ cup (185g) plain yoghurt
• ¼ tsp cooking salt
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• ½ tightly packed cup (15g) mint leaves

To finish and garnish

• ½ cup (10g) chopped coriander leaves
• ½ cup (35g) crispy fried shallots
• 2 tbsp (30g) ghee or butter, melted

Method

1. Melt the ghee in a large heavy-based pot over high heat. Add the cashews and stir for 2 minutes or until they have brown spots. Scoop them out using a slotted spoon, transfer to a bowl and set aside.
2. Cook the onion in the same pot for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a further 2 minutes until the edges of the onion are tinged with gold. Add the zucchini, pumpkin and cauliflower and stir to coat them in the onion-y ghee. Add the biryani vegetable spices and stir for 1 minute to toast the spices.
3. Add the rice and chickpeas and stir well to coat in the tasty flavours. Add the stock, salt, cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom and star anise. Stir, then let it come to a simmer. Sprinkle the peas across the surface, cover with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Remove the pot from the stove and leave to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
4. To make the minted yoghurt, set aside ½ cup (130g) of the yoghurt, then place the remaining yoghurt, salt, lemon juice and mint in a jug large enough to fit the head of a stick blender. Blitz until the mint is very finely chopped. Gently stir in the reserved yoghurt, then transfer to a small serving bowl.
5. Use a rubber spatula to gently toss the rice. (It will be a little juicy rather than dry and fluffy because the vegetable curry is essentially jumbled throughout.) Tumble half onto a serving platter. Sprinkle with half the coriander leaves and half the crispy fried shallots and drizzle over half the ghee. Then repeat with the remaining rice, coriander, crispy fried shallots and ghee. Sprinkle with the cashews. Serve with the minted yoghurt on the side.

Serves 4-5

Notes

• I chose these vegetables because they are a good combination of curried stewiness (zucchini and pumpkin) while the cauliflower holds its form nicely. However, feel free to substitute with other vegetables – you need 5 cups in total.
• There’s no need to rinse the rice if you’ve bought it in packets at the grocery store. But if you’re concerned about rice cleanliness, rinse the rice, drain well, then reduce the stock in the recipe by 2 tablespoons. Long-grain and medium-grain rice can be substituted for basmati. Other types of rice are not suitable for this recipe.

Serves 4-5

This is an edited extract from RecipeTin Eats: Tonight by Nagi Maehashi, published by Macmillan Australia, RRP: $49.99, photography by Nagi Maehashi