Ottolenghi Test
Kitchen Extra Good Things
by Yotam Ottolenghi
and Noor Murad
Ebury Press (£25)

Ottolenghi’s recipes have a (well-earned) reputation for being a tad fussy and long on ingredients. He and his team are forgiven as the end result is generally worth every kitchen-bound minute — literally bursting with huge flavours.

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This book is all about finishing touches — sauces, drizzle, crunchy toppings and ferments that will Ottolenghify (their verb) not only the dish it’s paired with but everything you choose to sprinkle, pour or spoon it over. So all that work will carry you over for a second supper or even several.

New European Baking
by Laurel Kratochvila
Prestel (£26)
Kratochvila left the US to train as a baker in Prague before opening a Jewish bakery in Berlin and then training further in France.

Her droolworthy book takes the reader on a tour of European breads and pâtissierie with a heavy helping of haimish flavours. Recipes include sourdough bagels, baklava Danishes, halva flan and challah croissants. Interspersed with the beautiful (and sometimes challenging) bakes are the stories of 11 bakers, including Eyal Schwartz, who moved from Israel to bake in E5 Bakehouse.

Smitten Kitchen Keepers
by Debs Perelman
Random House (£27.50)
I’ve been a fan of New Yorker Perelman for years. Her approachable recipes started life as a blog from her tiny kitchen in which she road- tested other people’s recipes, tweaking them into dead certs that you could rely on.

This is her third book, packed with what she terms “keepers” — the dishes she says she wants to pass on to her children. These are the recipes you’d ordinarily cut out and store for tattered, food-stained perpetuity. There’s a big old helping of brunch options, plenty of veggies and some hearty suppers plus a very generous serving of cakes and bars.

Jewish Flavours of Italy
by Silvia Nacamulli
Green Bean Books (£25)
Long term JC contributor Silvia Nacamulli has been writing this book almost as long as I’ve known her. It’s not just a record of her family’s recipes, it’s a compelling account of their history — both sides of her family have lived in Italy for hundreds of years — and that of Italian Jews generally.

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I loved finding out about their customs (Rosh Hashanah seder services and a very different Shabbat bread) and find her huge flavours and colourful descriptions utterly compelling. It’s very much a book that demands to be read as much as it does to be cooked from. It would make a gorgeous gift, to yourself or others. And it’s kosher.