Eleven Julia Busuttil Nishimura Recipes That Are Simple but Satisfying

Since Julia Busuttil Nishimura launched her blog, Ostro, in 2013, the Melbourne-based cook and author has become a go-to for straightforward, homey recipes. Drawing from her own Maltese heritage, her husband’s Japanese background, time spent living in Italy and a love of seasonal cooking, her recipes are approachable and comforting. Need proof? To mark the launch of her fourth cookbook, Good Cooking Every Day, we’ve collected 11 Julia Busuttil Nishimura recipes – including two from that very same new book – from this local home-cooking hero, including salads, sweets and pasta dishes.

In this recipe from Busuttil Nishimura’s latest cookbook, Good Cooking Every Day, wide, ragged pasta ribbons are folded through a luscious, creamy sauce heaving with a spring bounty of zucchini flowers. It’s classic Busuttil Nishimura: seasonal and simple, turning just a few ingredients into something spectacular.

Busuttil Nishimura had us at three-cheese lasagne – and further goaded us to make this with her promise that constructing it isn’t actually that hard. “You just need to allow enough time to make the different elements,” she says. Weekend cooking project?

This salad – “more of a suggested combination of flavours than a recipe”, according to Busuttil Nishimura – is on weekly rotation in the cook’s household. It’s simple but solid, meaning it’s enough for a midweek lunch, but also works as a side salad or as part of a larger spread.

It takes just a couple of minutes to make these fried treats – and just a couple of minutes to devour them. Before they’re deep-fried into golden glory, these dough balls are jammed with ricotta, green apple, rum and sultanas, which all converge into a can’t-stop-at-one sweet.

This vibrant and spicy Syrian dip of roasted red capsicums and walnuts is handy to have around: serve it as part of a platter with raw vegetables, labneh and breads; pair it with roast lamb or chicken; or simply use it as a sandwich spread. Talk about versatile.

There’s one simple rule to nailing this one-pot wonder: make sure you use a really good sausage. Get that right, and you can play it fast and loose with your chopping and quantities – you can even prep the lentils and the zesty salsa verde ahead of time to make life really easy.

These sweet shell-shaped sponges make for a delicate dessert served after a long lunch cooked for friends, but they’re just as good as an at-home snack, devoured warm from the oven with a glass of cold milk. And despite their elegance, they’re super simple to make.

This sauce is the ultimate slow Sunday project. Italian-style pork sausages, pork ribs and oyster blade steak are cooked slow and low in a rich tomato sauce, yielding multiple meals. Eat the sausages, ribs and steak separately with salad or vegetables, then swirl the sauce through your choice of pasta.

This hunter’s chicken stew – also known as pollo alla cacciatora – is very simple and extremely satisfying. Laced with green olives, rosemary and bay, this hearty one-pot creation can be served on a bed of polenta, or eaten as-is with a bit of bread to mop up the juices.

In Modena, Italy, locals eat these pillows of fried dough for breakfast, or as a snack with prosciutto, salami or cheese. We’re opting for the latter, and swapping out supermarket crackers for these addictive little bundles when we’re putting together our next grazing platter.

Simple dishes, with a few little tricks to dial up the flavour and texture, is the formula for some of Busuttil Nishimura’s best recipes. Take these potatoes: they are crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle, and taken to the next level with salty capers, zingy lemon and fresh parsley.