The Spanish Pantry, by José Pizarro

Pantry staples on a restaurant budget

I’ve never eaten at one of José Pizarro’s restaurants, but his name gets around. This is, admittedly, mostly his own doing: among his openings, both in the UK and abroad, you’ll find José, Pizarro, José Pizarro, Little José, and even José by Pizarro.

It comes as some relief then that The Spanish Pantry, Pizarro’s sixth cookbook, doesn’t bear his name outside of the byline. That’s perhaps because the title is more descriptive of the book than it first seems: each of its 12 chapters takes one archetypal Spanish ingredient — tomatoes, chorizo, saffron, and so on — and spins it into a selection of recipes, giving you a varied arsenal based on a core of Spanish pantry staples.

“12 ingredients, 100 simple recipes,” reads the logline, and while I don’t think that’s inaccurate, I would warn you not to take it as a sign that this is a cookbook full of work-from-home lunches or quick weeknight suppers. There are a few of those in here, but just as many dishes that require hours on the stove, or soaking and marinating a day ahead of time. Don’t take “simple” to mean “quick.”

Still, they’re often worth the time and effort. The first thing I cooked from the book was a soupy rice with braised rabbit, seasoned with fresh rosemary and oregano. It took 24 hours from beginning to end, but the result was tender meat (no easy thing with rabbit) in a sauce brimming with flavour. We followed it with a salted rice pudding, fragranced with cinnamon and cardamom, a dessert I had to tear myself away from for fear of scooping it straight from the pot. It’s just one of many recipes in the book that leans into Spanish cuisine’s Middle Eastern influences, and the book is all the better for it.

Sherry-braised lamb with chickpeas was satisfying and savoury enough on its own, but elevated by the addition of a warm anchovy and tomato salsa, a sharp and salty note to hum along above the stew. We tried chickpeas again, roasted alongside pumpkin and lemon in a traybake that certainly could prove an easy option after a long day at work, though this was one of the few dishes that fell flat, its flavours muted and the chickpeas cooked through but crying out to be crisper.