The Best Recipes in the World

Mark Bittman, author of the NYTimes column, The Minimalist, and the indispensable How to Cook Everything.

The Best Recipes in the World is just you'd expect from Bittman--a collection of recipes from around the world, presented in a familar "Minimalist" format including ingredients that can be easily found at your neighborhood grocery store, suggested variations, and each coded to indicate whether it is "make ahead," "serve at room temp./cold," or "30 minutes or less."

The cookbook is organized in the traditional cookbook format--by course. I think this makes sense because it's familar to most of us, but I've already bookmarked the "Recipes by Cuisine" index in the back of the cookbook. Browsing by cuisine is how this belly works.

Masala Winter Squash was the first recipe I tried. I don't cook winter squash that often, but it came in our bi-weekly fruit and veggie box delivery, so I was happy to experiment.The recipe was easy to follow and the end result belly satisfying.

What other people are saying:

Pinoy Cook: "The idea of grilling adobo was something I picked up from Mark Bittman’s The Best Recipes in the World. When I read it, my first reaction was to raise my eyebrows. Like, here’s another foreigner bastarizing my country’s beloved adobo. But then I considered if his innovations detracted from the adoboness of adobo to justify judging it as a bastarized recipe. Truth is, despite sounding different, it was adobo through and through. . ."

Snack Blog: ". . . The international pantry section is particularly helpful and it seems the key to global cooking, as Bittman points out, most techniques are universal, it’s the ingredients that make the difference."

Related: Bittman answers questions on cooking global cuisine.