Best cookbooks for every type of cook

Dave Verheul’s beautiful book On Sundays (Hardie Grant) offers plenty of inspiration to get you out of your Sunday roast rut, with recipes and menu suggestions for long lunches through the seasons. An autumn menu sure to soothe the soul might start with stracciatella, walnut pesto and cime di rapa, follow that with “Sunday after a tough week” steak with pepper sauce, and end with bitter orange ice-cream.

If your attempt to master bread-making ended with the last lockdown, Mike Russell’s Baker Bleu: Bake It Till You Make It (Murdoch Books) is here to lead you to sourdough success. This definitive guide not only makes baking bread, pastries and Roman-style pizza bases accessible to the home cook, it includes recipes for all Baker Bleu’s beloved baked goods (there are outposts in Melbourne and Sydney), including focaccia and its famous Vegemite twists.

In Easy Wins (4th Estate), Anna Jones selects 12 kitchen pantry heroes – olive oil, onions, peanuts, tomatoes, capers, chilli, tahini, garlic, miso, lemon, vinegar and mustard – and devotes a chapter of vegetarian recipes to each. The humble lemon, for instance, inspires a pilaf with buttery almonds and a green chilli and cheddar tart. Every kitchen’s hardest working allium, garlic, is roasted for broccoli rigatoni and fried for crispy egg-fried rice. It’s food that will have even the most resolute carnivore salivating.

Sophie Hansen is an expert on effortless entertaining and her latest book, What Can I Bring? (Murdoch Books), takes the anxiety out of what to make when you’re asked to bring a plate. Ditch the soggy salads and gluggy pasta for cherry tomato tarts and a cracking coleslaw with green apples, bacon and buttermilk dressing. There are also cake-stall sweets, dips and inspired ideas for potluck dinners.

Beatrix Bakes: Another Slice (Hardie Grant) isn’t a one-bowl-brownie type of book for those looking for a quick sugar fix, but a delightfully in-depth guide to making the very best bakes by the queen of cakes, Natalie Paull. It will appeal to novices, enthusiasts and experts alike, from the relatively simple tangelo custard creams to ambitious projects involving croissant dough and a whole lot of sugar-encrusted deliciousness in between.

“New and different isn’t always better,” says award-winning cookbook author Loukie Werle, who eschews fads for timeless fare in her latest book, Home. Loukie’s home is a pretty house in a valley and these are the dishes she cooks for friends and family. It features drink-friendly dishes such as parmesan dusted meatballs, comforting soups such cannellini bean and pancetta, a crowd-pleasing prawn linguine pasta, and decadent desserts such as cherry clafoutis. Tried and true recipes to cook and share with those you love.

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