Italian Two Easy: Simple Recipes from the London River Cafe

Chefs Gray and Rogers have produced yet another volume of easy recipes from their popular London restaurant, River Cafe. Relying on fresh, often seasonal ingredients, the chefs combine them in ways traditional and novel. Broccoli rabe, garlic, and red wine produce the simplest of soups. Ripe tomatoes, onion, and basil make a spare yet tasty sauce for spaghetti when each of the ingredients is at the peak of the season. Lemon, garlic, and sage perfume a combination of wine and milk to sauce a slowly cooked pork shoulder. Poultry recipes stretch far beyond chicken and turkey to include guinea hen, pheasant, and quail. Vegetable recipes abound, pairing everyday green beans and potatoes or roasting together celeriac, fennel, and squash. Desserts call for many different baked fruits, but there are a few chocolate cakes to add richness. Most of these recipes make getting a meal on the table after a day's work less burdensome and require only a modicum of planning and shopping. Mark...