Once I hand them off to you, these recipes are no longer mine. They’re yours, to do with as you please. And maybe, in the act of receiving, a little thread of connection will be woven between me and each of you.

How can a recipe express the joy of sharing a meal in person? This is the feeling that Samin Nosrat sets out to capture in Good Things, offering more than 125 recipes for the things she most loves to cook.

You’ll find go-to recipes for ricotta custard pancakes, chicken braised with apricots and harissa, a crunchy Calabrian chili crisp, super-chewy sky-high focaccia and a decades-in-the-making, childhood-evoking yellow cake. Samin also shares tips and techniques, from how to buy olive oil (check the harvest date) to when to splurge on the best ingredients (salad dressing) to the one acceptable substitute for Parmigiano Reggiano (Grana Padano, if you must).

Good Things captures, with Samin’s trademark blend of warmth and precision, the essence of what makes cooking such an important source of comfort and delight, and invites you to join her at the table.

Samin Nosrat is a cook, teacher and author of Sunday Times Book of the Year and New York Times bestseller Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. She is co-host of the Home Cooking podcast, a former Eat columnist at The New York Times Magazine and host of the hugely popular Netflix original documentary series based on her book. She lives in Oakland, California.