From sardine curry to glossy pork: Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for easy midweek meals

Take midweek meals to new heights with a store-cupboard sardine curry, glossy pork with green beans, and frittata with pickled celeriac and aïoli

Delicious food needn’t be extravagant, and there are multiple ways to further your meals while still sticking to a budget. That can mean using up the tins and spices you already have in the house, rather than heading to the shops, or finding savvy swaps: tinned tuna instead of sardines, say, or chilli flakes instead of fresh chilli. Another approach that’s really effective is to take the time to try out a new cooking technique: they may seem only slight tweaks, but the effect of adding a few slivers of fried garlic, for example, or stirring lightly pickled vegetables or fresh herbs through a sauce can take a dish to wonderful new heights at little extra cost.