“When the pandemic began in March 2020, my freelance work went away, suddenly and completely,” writes recipe developer Caroline Chambers, aka “Caro,” in the introduction to her new cookbook What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking. Lucky for all of us, Caro, also a former caterer, decided to turn her attention to the home cook, cranking out “straightforward recipes that lockdown-weary folks could cook using whatever they had in their pantries.”
She began posting family-friendly recipes and meal plans on Substack, a fledgling newsletter platform at the time, providing substitutions for various ingredients, plus riffs and shortcuts — and loyal readers turned up in droves. She called her newsletter What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking, and four years and hundreds of recipes later she’s become, in the words of one follower, “the patron saint of mothers who fly by the seat of their pants.”
Personally, I find she is that rare cookbook author who has a real knack for understanding exactly what the people want without being the least bit precious. The book is organized by time (if you have 15 minutes, if you have 30 minutes, etc.) and offers an index in the back organized by mood, which I really loved:
There is also robust vegetarian dinner representation, including the Ratatouille Lasagna recipe below, which has all the hallmarks of a Caro classic: unfussy, easy, kid-friendly, and very hard to resist.
Ratatouille Lasagna
From What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking by Caroline Chambers
Serves 6
1 large (1 1/3- to 2-pound) globe eggplant
1 large (8-ounce) zucchini
1 large (6-ounce) yellow squash
1 small yellow onion
4 garlic cloves
⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning, plus more as needed
2 (28-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (8-ounce) container mascarpone cheese
1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1 (9-ounce) package no-boil lasagna noodles
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Peel and cut the eggplant, zucchini, and squash into 1/2-inch pieces. Dice the onion and mince the garlic.
Warm the olive oil in a Dutch oven or an ovenproof skillet with high sides over medium-high heat. Add the eggplant, zucchini, squash, onion, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are just beginning to get tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, red pepper flakes, and Italian seasoning and cook for 2 minutes more.
Stir in the tomatoes, half the mascarpone, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Bring it to a boil over high heat. Simmer over medium-low heat for 30 minutes. Turn it down to low if it starts to bubble aggressively. Meanwhile, thinly slice the basil and stir almost all of it into the pot (save some for garnish).
Turn off the stove. Taste and season with more salt or Italian seasoning as needed. Push the noodles into the pot, doing your best to layer in the sauce, like a lasagna. Break noodles in half to fill the edges as needed—but nothing about this is a perfect science. Just shove those noodles in there!
Make sure that the top layer of noodles is covered in sauce. Dollop the remaining mascarpone on top, then sprinkle with the mozzarella.
Bake for 30 minutes. Let the baked lasagna sit for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Top with the reserved basil and enjoy.
RIFF Make ratatouille pasta! Add only one can of diced tomatoes, then simmer the sauce for 15 minutes. Stir in 1 pound of cooked pasta and crumble a bit of goat cheese on top of everyone’s bowl.
SHORTCUT Skip the 30-minute simmer by using two 28-ounce jars of a tomato basil pasta sauce instead of the canned tomatoes. Omit the Italian seasoning and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Stir the sauce into the veggies, add your noodles, and bake.
BULK IT UP Sauté 1 pound sausage (casings removed) in the pot first, breaking it into small pieces, then continue the recipe as written, adding the oil and veggies into the pot with the cooked sausage.
Thank you, Caro! Congratulations on your your beautiful book.
P.S. Caro’s salmon crunch bowls and the 10 best things to do with summer tomatoes.
(Top photo by Eva Kolenko for Caro’s cookbook.)
