The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters · American Public Media

814: Ottolenghi Comfort with Yotam Ottolenghi and Classic German Cooking with Luisa Weiss

·50 min·4 clips

Yotam Ottolenghi reveals why texture, not flavor, is the secret to truly comforting food like al dente pasta.

The Splendid Table brings listeners back to an episode from a while ago about autumn comfort cooking with the wonderful Louisa Weiss and Yotam Odolenghi. Francis Lam opens with a zucchini method that starts with grating and then moves into slow cooking with olive oil under a lid. The zucchini darkens. Its flavor grows deeper as it cooks in its own juices. The method is plain enough to sound almost spare. It still asks for attention, because the stirring is occasional and the payoff depends on giving it time. The cooked zucchini is good warm. It can be even better after it cools, when the flavor concentrates. From there, the conversation turns the vegetable into a salad with salmon. The salmon is cooked just a little in the oven so it begins to break down. The zucchini becomes part dressing. Thinly sliced onion or shallots sit in lemon juice and salt. That quick pickle adds the acidity the plate needs. The whole thing lands fresh and bright. The larger question hangs over the exchange. Can savory food served cold or at room temperature still feel comforting? The show treats that as a serious kitchen question, and the answer grows out of sweetness, texture, and the way the dish changes as it cools. The comfort here is practical and sensory. It comes from paying attention to how the food tastes warm and how it tastes once it cools. That is why the hour lands as a summer comfort food.

As heard by us

Louisa Weiss and Yotam Odolenghi turn autumn comfort cooking into a zucchini-salmon discussion.

The Splendid Table revisits autumn comfort cooking with Louisa Weiss and Yotam Odolenghi, and the most appealing stretch is the grated zucchini method cooked slowly with olive oil under a lid.

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