"I first met Melanie Russo when she attended kinder with my daughter Pam, so I have known her a long time. Melanie’s big, bold cooking smacks you in the mouth. My father started working for the Russo brothers, Joe and Jack (distant cousins to Mel’s family), in the early 1950s. Joe, Jack and Diego bought a farm in Tyabb called Cumbrae…"

"Keep the silverbeet stalks for a spring minestrone. Mum always said it was the stalks that were the secret to her minestrone, adding flavour without complicating the other vegetables…"

“There is nothing sweeter nor more life-affirming than the smell of spiced, roasting chicken. The chickpeas in this dish are like hundreds of golden beads edging in and around the chicken. When I was a child, Nonna Giuseppa and Mum called me Sango mio (my blood). Nonna and Mum may not have considered this dish traditional…”

“Dirty chai is a chai with a shot of espresso, and it’s what kept me going through grad school. The combination of chai spices, milky black tea, and bitter coffee is stellar. You can make this semi-homemade if you’re short on time by using boxed brownie mix. I promise I won’t judge…”

“This tart-ified version of a carrot cake might not be an obvious classic, but it belongs in this chapter as a great foundational recipe for the tarts in our ‘Not Your Average Tarts’ chapter. The cream cheese glaze is what makes this one special – it’s designed to taste the same as a typical cream cheese frosting and to sit perfectly flat across the top of the tart…”

“The Turkish love pumpkin in desserts (either baked in its own juice with sugar or poached in syrup) and baklava are a legacy of the Ottoman palace kitchens. Baked in a round tray and sliced into wedges, havuç dilimi is one of our traditional baklava shapes and traditionally walnuts…

We couldn’t do a cookbook without one of our all-time fave dinners in it. We have this at least once a week. It is utterly divine — soul food at its best. The mac is a great way to use up any random bits of cheese in the door of the fridge. We usually serve this with a tangy garden salad (for balance)…