This cookbook and its review has been a long time coming. Ever since the announcement of the first in the OTK series, Shelf Love, last year, Ottolenghi and Test Kitchen fans from across the globe have been waiting to see what this glorious team would come up with next.

Noor, Yotam and the whole team at the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (OTK) do not disappoint.

Extra Good Things (XGT) does exactly what it says on the tin. It puts the ‘x’ in ‘extra’; that is, it’s a book full of those tidbits and culinary elements that make for an undiscernibly delectable dish. Each page presents a whole recipe, but highlights the ‘x factor’ that will take your cooking from good to great. Zahra Saaidi of Culyzaar once coined this as Noor’s ‘fairy dust’, and I now can’t think of it in any other way. It might be the creamy drizzle that offsets a plate of fresh, bright vegetables… or the chilli zing that makes a simple, sweet pie sing… or perhaps the crunchy crisp topping that adds interest and excitement to something rich and otherwise overwhelming.

This is a book all about that something that you whip out your magic wand to sprinkle, swirl or drizzle over at the end of a cook.

Like the first in the OTK series, XGT is not actually about the recipes, it’s about the inspiration. It’s a book full of matches to spark your imagination. It’s a springboard from which to launch yourself and your taste buds wherever your culinary heart desires.

But where Shelf Love took its leave from Ottolenghi Simple—that is, fewer ingredients, less equipment, more straightforward execution—XGT follows in the tradition of Ottolenghi Flavour. The recipes focus first on flavour, honing in on how you can imbue your cooking with more of it. Like Flavour, XGT also steps far and wide outside of what was once Ottolenghi’s home ground: Middle Eastern cuisine. The food here take cooks around the world with ingredients as diverse as kimchi and pangrattato, banana ketchup and blue cheese.

The recipes are grouped around the particular ‘x factor’ element that they bring to the dish. First up is ‘Funk’. Think umami richness and pickled goodness thanks to the likes of cured egg yolks, cheat’s preserved lemon, garlicky yoghurt and feta cream. Next comes ‘A whole lotta sauce’ in which, obviously, you can find a whole lot of sauces: sweet and sour, peanut gochujang, rose harissa, remoulade, fennel and sausage gravy, anchovy aioli and more. ‘Crunch time’ is rife with fairy dust of all varieties, from crispy shredded tofu to everything seasoning, ginger crumbs to smoky sweet nuts. In ‘Something fresh’ you’ll find reprieve from full-on intensity of flavour in the form of light, bright salsas, pestos, gremolatas, using soft verdant herbs, citrus and other vibrant fruits and their juices. ‘A good drizzle of oil’ gives the MasterChef contestants a run for their money with recipes not just for parsley oil and chilli oil, but other drizzles and their aromatics like smoky chipotle oil, saffron water, sizzling green onions, and za’atar tomatoes.

The very last chapter takes the book in a slightly different direction while still on theme. It boasts a series of ‘x factor’ dessert recipes, providing readers with ‘one basic’ recipe for different sweet elements that can be transferred to myriad other dishes and incarnations, from a flaky sweet pie dough to a yeasted dough, a crème anglaise to a granita.

Like all Ottolenghi and Test Kitchen crew recipes, the recipes have been developed over a year or more, with avid followers picking up on recipes as they’ve dropped on the OTK crew’s social media accounts and in The Guardian and New York Times columns. To whet your appetite and try-before-you-buy, you can find Baked Polenta with Feta Bèchamel and Za’atar Tomatoes, Loaded Oven Fries with Tahini Yoghurt and Smoky Sweet Nuts, Fried Tagliatelle with Chickpeas and Smoky Tomatoes, Potato Slab Pie with Salsa Verde, and that spectacular Parmigiana Pie. But you’ll need to buy the book to discover the delights of Tahdig Ice Cream (yes, made with crispy rice), Butternut Crunch Pie with Pickled Chillies (looks just as glorious as it sounds), Green Frittata with Burnt Aubergine and Pomegranate Salsa (think Iranian kuku meets baba ganoush), and Corn Dutch Baby with Salsa Roja and Curtido (giant corn pancake. That is all.).

Despite all of these delectable recipes, in tracking my standard Cookability Factor for XGT I came up with a surprisingly paltry 22 per cent. Out of all the zing and zip and crunch within the book’s pages, I found less than 20 recipes that I want to (and know I would) make in their entirety.

But making whole recipes as written is not where the worth of this book lies. Its true magic is in being able to pick and choose elements that you can create to keep in your fridge or pantry to add some ‘Ottolenghi’ to any meal. This won’t be a favourite recipe book that becomes my ‘go-to’; it’s a book that, for me, is a thought-provoker. And having flipped through its pages and cooked up a handful of items I’ve already picked up new tricks and flavour ideas to spin into other dishes. I now know the beauty of golden crispy pasta that has been pan-fried in olive oil before boiling. I am a long-time lover of sweet dishes that border on savoury, but now I have an arsenal of ingredients I can add to my savoury dishes too, to make them just a bit sweet. I understand the elements to create my very own culinary fairy dust, which I have already begun doing, might I add, much to the dismay of my husband who is not quite as enamoured with contrasting flavours and textures.

If you live in the same camp as him, this book is not for you.

However, if you—like me—thrive on exploring food that fires up all of your taste buds and enables you to eat with all of your senses, then Extra Good Things is just the ticket to send you on your way, regardless of where you are in your journey. Even if you’re at the very start; XGT is the perfect book to introduce you to the world of Ottolenghi. It provides ways to add OTK magic to your usual repertoire of meals without having to buy into the entire cult (and buy every ingredient in every international specialty food store in town). It’s a way to dip your toe in the test kitchen water, take it slow, add elements as you go, and slowly build up a pantry, fridge and larder full of OTK fairy dust in all its incarnations.