Courses & dish types
Main courses recipes
The centre of the plate.
The main course is where the technique of a meal usually lives, and the recipes gathered here range from twenty minutes to two days. They are grouped by nothing except that they are the centre of a plate. Where a dish needs something alongside it, the recipe says what and why — a rich braise needs acid and starch, a lean grilled thing needs fat and sauce — because the most common way a good main course disappoints is that it arrived on its own.
52 recipes
Warm Farro and Roast Squash Bowl
Farro boiled like pasta and dressed while it is still hot, under roast squash, crisped kale and feta, so it eats as a meal.
Spaghetti Carbonara
Guanciale, egg yolk and pecorino brought together off the heat into a glossy sauce, with no cream anywhere near the pan.
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
A store-cupboard sauce of anchovies, olives, capers and chilli melted into tomato, salty enough that it needs no cheese and barely any salt.
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
Garlic sliced thin and taken slowly to pale gold in olive oil, emulsified with pasta water into a sauce that is nothing but those two things.
Slow-Cooked Black Dal
Whole urad soaked overnight and simmered for hours until it turns black and glossy, then finished with butter and a little cream.
Slow-Cooked Beef Ragu
Coarse beef mince browned in batches then held at a bare simmer for three hours, finished in the pan with the pasta.
Slow-Braised Beef Shin
Beef shin browned hard then cooked for hours at a bare simmer, until the collagen melts and the meat falls apart under a fork.
Shashlik
Cubed lamb marinated in grated onion and vinegar, then grilled on flat skewers over embers until charred at the edges.
Roast Chicken with Lemon and Thyme
A whole chicken salted and left uncovered in the fridge before roasting hot then moderate, so the skin crisps and the breast stays juicy.
Potato Gnocchi with Sage Butter
Baked potatoes riced while hot and bound with as little flour as they will take, which is the difference between light gnocchi and bullets.
Pork and Fennel Meatballs
Pork mince bound with a milk and bread panade and toasted fennel seed, browned in a pan and finished in tomato sauce.
Pelmeni
Small meat dumplings in thin dough, boiled until they float and served with smetana or with butter and vinegar.
Pasta alla Norma
Fried aubergine folded through a simple tomato sauce with torn basil and salted ricotta, which is the ingredient the dish stands or falls on.
Mushroom Risotto
Carnaroli rice cooked in stock a ladle at a time and beaten with butter at the end, so it spreads on the plate rather than sitting in a heap.
Mujaddara
Lentils and rice cooked in one pot under a mound of onions fried well past golden, which is where the whole flavour comes from.
Lamb Rogan Josh
Lamb shoulder browned hard then cooked for two hours in yogurt and Kashmiri chilli, until the sauce is red, glossy and clinging rather than soupy.
Kotlety
Everyday Soviet-era mince patties bound with milk-soaked bread, which keeps them tender rather than springy.
Jerk Chicken
Chicken marinated overnight in scotch bonnet, allspice and thyme, then cooked slowly over smoke until the skin is lacquered almost black.
Egg Fried Rice
Yesterday's rice broken up cold and fried hard in a wide pan, so the grains stay separate and toast instead of steaming to paste.
Chickpea and Spinach Stew
Dried chickpeas cooked from scratch and thickened with fried bread pounded to a paste, which is how Seville gets body without cream.
Chicken Thigh and Potato Traybake
Bone-in thighs roasted on top of potatoes and lemon in one tin, so the skin crisps above the juices rather than poaching in them.
Chicken and Prawn Paella
Bomba rice cooked flat and never stirred in a wide pan, which keeps the grains separate and toasts a crust onto the base.
Cacio e Pepe
Spaghetti in a sauce of nothing but pecorino, black pepper and starchy pasta water, emulsified off the heat so it stays smooth.
Beef Chow Mein
Beef coated in cornflour and seared in batches in a pan hot enough to smoke, with the sauce going in only at the very end.
Ackee and Saltfish
Salt cod soaked and flaked into sautéed onion and pepper, then folded through ackee at the very last moment so it does not break up.
Goan Fish Curry
White fish poached in a coconut and tamarind sauce ground from whole spices, sour and hot in equal measure and cooked in under half an hour.
Escovitch Fish
Whole fish fried until the skin shatters, then dressed hot with vinegar, onion, carrot and scotch bonnet so it pickles as it cools.
Curry Goat
Goat shoulder burned into curry powder and then cooked for two hours, until the meat gives and the sauce is thick enough to coat rice.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Yogurt-marinated chicken charred hard under a grill, then finished in a spiced tomato and cream sauce that only works if the char goes in with it.
Chicken à la King
Poached chicken and mushrooms in a sherry cream sauce with pimento, served over rice, toast or pastry depending on the decade.
Brown Stew Fish
Fried whole fish simmered briefly in a dark sweet-savoury gravy built on browning, onion and thyme, and served with the sauce spooned over.
Zharkoye
Beef, potato and root vegetables braised slowly in one pot until the meat pulls apart under a fork.
Weeknight Red Lentil Dal
Red lentils simmered down to a loose puree with turmeric, then finished with cumin, mustard seed and garlic bloomed in hot ghee.
Vareniki
Larger Ukrainian dumplings filled with potato and fried onion or with sweetened curd, boiled and dressed in butter.
Tagliatelle al Ragù
Bolognese ragù cooked for three hours with milk and a little wine, served on fresh tagliatelle rather than spaghetti, which is what Bologna actually does.
Steak Diane
Thin beef fillet seared in seconds, then finished in a mustard, brandy and cream pan sauce flamed at the table.
Roast Leg of Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary
A bone-in leg studded with garlic and rosemary, roasted hot then moderate and pulled off the heat pink, with gravy made in the tin.
Pozharsky Cutlets
Breaded minced-chicken cutlets enriched with butter and cream-soaked bread, fried until the crust is deep gold.
Plov
Rice steamed over lamb, carrot and cumin in a heavy pot, left unstirred so the grains stay separate.
Pasta e Fagioli
Borlotti beans cooked down until half of them collapse, with small pasta cooked in the same pot so the starch thickens everything together.
Mushroom Julienne
Mushrooms baked in a bechamel-style sauce under grated cheese, in individual dishes, browned under the grill.
Lobster Thermidor
Lobster meat returned to its shell in a mustard and brandy cream sauce, glazed under the grill until the top is spotted brown.
Kulebyaka
An enriched pastry loaf layered with salmon, rice, egg and dill, baked until the crust sounds hollow.
Golubtsy
Cabbage leaves rolled around seasoned mince and rice, then braised slowly in tomato and soured cream.
Crisp-Skinned Salmon
Salmon fillets cooked almost entirely on the skin side in one pan, which crisps the skin and leaves the flesh barely set.
Classic Margherita Pizza
Three toppings, nothing hidden — this is the pizza that shows whether your dough is any good.
Chicken Kiev
Crumbed chicken breast sealed around garlic-and-herb butter, chilled hard so the filling stays in until cutting.
Chana Masala
Chickpeas simmered in a dark, sour tomato and onion masala, finished with amchur so the sourness sits behind the spice rather than on top of it.
Buckwheat Kasha with Mushrooms
Buckwheat toasted dry, then cooked pilaf-style with onion and mushrooms so the grains stay separate.
Beef Stroganoff
Strips of beef seared fast and finished in a soured-cream and mustard sauce that is warmed through rather than boiled.
Beef and Ale Stew with Herb Dumplings
Chuck steak simmered in dark ale until it gives, with suet dumplings steamed on the surface of the pot for the last half hour.
Baked Lasagne
Ragu and béchamel layered thin between dried pasta sheets, baked until the top blisters and rested so it cuts into squares.