Cook by the Book: Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy

I'm crazy about Gordon Ramsay and I've never eaten at any of his restaurants. I cooked the Roasted Sea Bass with Chive Creme Fraiche, Baby Potatoes and Artichokes from his A Chef For All Seasons book and was instantly impressed. This time around in Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy he's not trying as hard to impress us with sophisticated dishes but with how he simply and fast he cooks at home and how you can too.

The cookbook actually comes with a DVD with six recipes demonstrated as if to prove you really can do it. Ramsay has his own way of approaching even simple things like scrambled eggs, and it's worth paying attention. The book has got a little bit of everything with chapters divided into breakfast and brunch, great fast food, family and friends, summer barbies, just for kids, bellinis and blinis, posh, dinner for two and cooking for a crowd.

The recipes are ones anyone could make, and with ingredients commonly found in the supermarket, with very few exceptions (pheasant and red mullet for example). Most recipes use a minimum of ingredients at that. The pantry and basics section is much shorter in this book than in A Chef For All Seasons but it covers what you need to know just the same. The recipes run the gamut from Macaroni Cheese with Blue Cheese and Mushrooms to Halibut Bourguignon to Salmon Fish Cakes and Banana and Passion Fruit Smoothie. With 100 recipes and 200 photographs, nothing is left to chance. What more could you ask for?

This recipe is perfect example of few ingredients, no technique and yet the results are something special.

Scallops in Prosciutto with Monkfish and Rosemary
Makes 20

10 scallops
10 slices prosciutto
9 oz monkfish fillet, skinned
2-3 long rosemary sprigs
olive oil to drizzle

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the scallops in half horizontally. Cut the prosciutto slices in half lengthwise. Cut the monkfish into small chunks. Break the rosemary stems into short twigs.

Wrap each scallop disk in a strip of prosciutto, top with a piece of monkfish, and secure with a rosemary twig or two.

Carefully transfer to a baking sheet and drizzle with a little olive oil. Roast in the oven for 3 -4 minutes until firm to the touch.

Let stand for a few minutes, then serve warm.

Reprinted by permission from Gordon Ramsay Makes it Easy, by Gordon Ramsay. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2005 by Gordon Ramsay. All rights reserved.