INTRODUCTION

Finding the time to prepare delicious food is a challenge for most of us, whether or not we enjoy cooking. Many cookbooks and television cooking shows would have us think that tasty meals necessarily involve long lists of ingredients and several hours’ commitment in the kitchen. During the process of devising and testing the recipes for this book I realised how wrong this is. I was amazed at how little time it takes to prepare wonderful plates of food with a handful of ingredients; complex and arduous definitely doesn’t mean tastier.

One key to super-quick cooking is well-chosen ingredients. Fresh pasta, jars of marinated vegetables, frozen fruit, punchy sauces, canned tomatoes and excellent bouillon cubes or bouillon powders are all perfectly acceptable shortcut ingredients that enable you to cook speedily without compromising quality or flavor.

Another key to speedy cooking is organization. Cooking time starts once all your ingredients and cooking utensils are assembled—I urge you to do this before you start each recipe. Be sure to follow the method as instructed, as multi-tasking is often required, but use your judgement. If, for example, you have an induction cooktop that can boil water exceptionally quickly, use this method instead of boiling the water to cook pasta on your electric or gas range.

Finally, remember that everyone cooks at a different speed. All these dishes can be made in 10 minutes or less, if you work quickly, but don’t worry if it takes a little longer to start with. Once you get into the swing of speedy cooking you will have a repertoire of meals that can be whipped up more quickly than you ever thought possible.