This spring yields the first big batch of cookbooks written during the pandemic, and they are filled with resourcefulness, creativity (the life-saving kind), and a deepened commitment to why we cook: to bring those we love close for a moment of shared pleasure.
If only we’d had Vogue writer Tamar Adler’s The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z (Scribner, $35) in 2020. The near-encyclopedic guide has a suggestion for every last stem, spoonful, and grain, with practical yet lusty ideas for how to get those leftovers across the finishing line with, as she says, “economy and grace.” Many of the more than 1,500 entries are traditional recipes, others economically yet elegantly written suggestions. Why don’t you roast those wilting radishes and toss them into a frittata? Or transform cheese odds and ends into creamy mac and cheese or a sauce or soufflé? Or use that almond butter to make nutty noodles? Clearly a student of M. F. K. Fisher (and her seminal wartime book, How to Cook a Wolf), Adler makes reading this book a meal in itself.
