As a chronic recipe-tweaker, I struggle with cookbooks. The reasons are endless: the recipe doesn’t have the exact combination of ingredients I’m craving, the recipe is too detailed or too broad, or I simply don’t trust the recipe writer and take foolhardy shortcuts or make misled modifications. Even when I find a recipe that sounds appealing, I’m prone to eyeballing and improvising, yielding some disappointing results. Enter I Dream of Dinner (So You Don’t Have To) by Ali Slagle, a cookbook I feel comfortable describing as life-changing.
When I Dream of Dinner first crossed my radar, it didn’t make much of a blip. I ordered a copy for our frontlist order and didn’t think about it again until after its publication date, when I heard fellow bookseller Emma Nichols recommend it. Given my issues surrounding cookbooks, it took me a few months to check it out. I have now spent about a month making recipes from this book and I have yet to find a dud. The recipes are delicious, clever, and quick, delivering on the book’s promise of “low-effort, high-reward recipes.” They vary widely, from a warm, light spin on Couscous & Lentil Greek Salad to hearty meatballs and everything in between, encompassing many traditions. Plus, Slagle sprinkles in helpful modifications and cooking tips along the way.
But the brilliance of the book goes far beyond the recipe outcomes. The process of cooking from I Dream of Dinner is like having a conversation with Ali. She tells you to do something, you wonder why, and then her intention and brilliance unfold as you move onto the next step. In a recipe for a tasty one-pot Skillet Broccoli Spaghetti, for instance, she writes, “Peel the trunk and cut the trunk and branches into ½-inch branches,” a bit of direction that seems oddly specific until you realize she is telling you how to cut your broccoli so that it is perfectly cooked, both stems and florets.
I think of cooking as a little like writing—it’s improvisational and sensual, and it’s best not to know exactly where you’re headed. But the reality of most of our lives is that cooking can’t always be that. Ali Slagle dreams of dinner—ponders it, pours love into it, perfects it—when you aren’t able to.
Allie Levy owns and runs Still North Books & Bar in Hanover.