The Sunday Night Book: 52 Short Recipes to Make the Weekend Feel Longer

Chef Sykes (The Kitchen Revolution) makes her sharp debut with a year’s worth of cozy Sunday suppers. A soothing way “to extend the joys of the weekend,” she writes, is by enjoying an “easy knock-together meal” with family and friends. Chapters are broken into go-to comfort foods—for example, “On toast” includes toasts topped with anchovy butter, parsley, and shallots, perhaps, or shrimp sautéed with whiskey. “Excellent eggs” boasts scrambled eggs with black pudding, and “A bowl of pasta” includes fregola with bacon and peas. Sykes’s casual voice adds to the relaxed vibe; for spiced rice and lentils, she writes, “Give all the ingredients a couple more minutes of getting to know each other before adding the remaining tablespoon of oil.” Sykes references the friends, family, and faraway lands that inspired the dishes—including “Jack’s Life-Giving Soup,” from a friend of hers, and her Kiwi mom’s bacon and egg pie. Some potentially hard-to-find seasonal or regional ingredients occasionally appear, but nothing a substitution (which Sykes reliably recommends) or trip to a specialty market can’t fix. This is perfect for any home cook wanting to stop the world and melt into a languorous Sunday evening. (Oct.)