Here comes comfort food, pure and simple. And I mean really simple. These are recipes for the end of a long, hard day. Easy to prepare and easy to eat, they are guaranteed to soothe both body and soul.

Pasta, noodles, rice, pearl barley and couscous: these inexpensive staples hark back to a rustic tradition of food for workers. The custom of seasoning a big plateful of these dependable tummy-fillers with a soupçon of something more flavoursome (and more pricey) has spawned some peasant food classics, such as Scotch broth, Italian spaghetti carbonara and Japanese ramen noodles. You don’t get to be a nationally loved dish without delivering a winning combination of taste, energy and value.

In particular, pasta has become a default option when something fast and filling is needed. As long as it’s not a default we resort to every night, and as long as we take our starchy ballast down a slightly different path each time, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all. There’s something honest and reassuring about straightforwardly energy-boosting, mood-enhancing dishes like these.

Nowadays, you can stay true to the thrifty spirit of this kind of cuisine by keeping it simple, but perhaps shifting the balance of the ingredients a little. If you haven’t actually been tilling the fields all day, then your portion of pasta needn’t be too mountainous, while you can perhaps be a little freer with the other elements: the luscious olive oil, the feisty cheese, the well-spiced sausage.

When it comes to choosing one or two complementary ingredients to top your pile of carbs, you’ll be instinctively drawn to foods that carry a bit of oomph. I usually add some kind of fresh, lustrous vegetable, often a green one – asparagus, courgettes, cabbage, kale, broccoli, seaweed, sorrel, nettles even. Then I might embellish this pair with something pretty intensely flavoured – maybe a herb, spice, strong cheese or some kind of smoked or salted meat or fish. Improvisation is the order of the day, and as long as there’s a shade more method than madness, the results invariably rock.

So, embrace the recipes that follow, and the spirit they embody, and you will never again look at your packet of penne or your panful of basmati as a same-old, same-old culinary cop-out. Rather, they will become the blank canvases for enjoyably stress-free creative outings. You’ll be knocking out masterpieces without breaking a sweat.