Colu Henry knows the cooking is better at home

A conversation about her new book. Plus, a recipe!

Colu Henry is a Hudson, NY-based cookbook writer that focuses on elegant yet approachable recipes, and her work has been featured in the New York Times and Food & Wine. I spoke with her in late 2023 about her path to cookbook writing, the philosophy behind her second book Easy Fancy Food, and more.

Today, I’m back with a followup conversation with Colu as her third book, Better at Home, hits shelves this week. We chatted about about the inspiration behind the book, the styling process, and how to stock your pantry for the book.

Brianna Plaza: When we last spoke, book three hadn’t been planned yet. Can you talk to me about the new book, Better at Home?

Colu Henry: I actually had a two book deal, but I hadn’t really figured out what that book was going to be, so that’s probably why we didn’t chat about it. Better at Home came about very organically. My husband, Chad, and I will chit-chat in the morning over coffee and I’d be like, “What do we want to do for dinner, do we want to go out?” And we’d go back and forth and he’d be like, “It’s better at home.” And I always thought, “You’re right, it is better at home.”

So the title happened that way and set me on this path of reflecting on where I’m at in life and where a lot of my peers are. I love going to restaurants and love supporting restaurants, but I think for me, as I am getting older I don’t want to go out as much. How I cook in Hudson and how I cook in Nova Scotia are different, but in both situations, we’re having people over or going to someone’s home. So the book feels very, very true to who I am and what I am doing right now.

Brianna Plaza: Based on the proposal you sent and what was published, how far is the current book from the original idea?

Colu Henry: The proposal really had nothing in it other than 100ish recipes and the rest was to be determined. I feel very lucky that Abrams [the publisher] trusts me. I sent through the concept and my editor Holly was like, “I’m obsessed with this concept.”

And sometimes it’s the opposite. Easy Fancy Food took a bit more workshopping, but this book just landed.

Chickpea Fennel Stew pg. 102

Brianna Plaza: Is this book more for elevating your everyday or for having people over?

Colu Henry: I think it’s a combination of both. I was shooting a video last week for the lamb chop recipe that’s in the book. It’s got a salad of pickled shallots, charred dates, crisped garlic, and toasted nuts. That takes 25 minutes. Could it be a weeknight meal? 100% Could I share that at a dinner party? Absolutely.

Brianna Plaza: I really love the styling in the book. Can you tell me a bit about the design process?

Colu Henry: It was a really fun process. My husband and our friend Martin shot the book this time. They’re both artists and I’ve collaborated with them both before, but we’ve never done anything this big, so that was really cool. I worked with the same food stylist as Easy Fancy Food.

The creative direction I gave was that I wanted the book to feel lived in and I wanted it to feel like old money. I wanted it to feel like we were shooting it at our crazy aunt’s house. We could have new things, but we don’t. The props were a combination of my things and some prop house stuff.

The Ventura pg. 34

Brianna Plaza: How should I stock my pantry to cook through this book?

Colu Henry: The way that I organized the pantry section in this book is very deliberate. I use a lot of specific ingredients like Castelvetrano olives or Calabrian chilies or harissa paste, and you’re going to see those ingredients come up a number of times in the book, and that’s by design.

I feel like a lot of times, people write books and they ask you to buy one-off ingredients that you don’t use again. I wanted to find a way for cooks to say, “Okay, I made the picatta-like chicken, what else in the book can be made with the leftover olives that I have?”

I try to be mindful of what I call the dusty drawer problem. I want to avoid spices and ingredients sitting around and not being used. I love using dried mint, which I feel like is under-utilized in the States. I call for it quite a bit in the book, and I keep that idea in mind so cooks can be more resourceful.

Shop some of Colu’s essential pantry items: cumin seeds, dried mint leaves, fennel seeds, Diamond kosher salt

Brianna Plaza: What’s your favorite recipe in the book?

Colu Henry: It’s so interesting because two weeks ago, we shot like 10 videos and I remade some of these recipes I haven’t made in two years and I was like, “These are so good!” I was surprised at myself, even though that makes no sense at all. But when you revisit your recipes or someone else makes them, I remember how good they are.

There’s a really fun recipe for a shrimp toast that uses ‘nduja, fennel, and lemon. I love dim sum and going out for Chinese, so it’s my non-Cantonese take on shrimp toast. I also really love this braised pork that uses both Calabrian chili paste and Cento hoagie sauce and it’s delicious.

Cappelletti in Brodo pg. 96

Cappelletti in Brodo with Mortadella Meatballs

After a long, rewarding day making tortellini in brodo with my dear friend Steph, we both agreed the leftover stuffing would make great meatballs. It got me thinking . . What if I was to turn the recipe upside down and instead of making freshly stuffed pasta, make the meatballs the star of the show and serve them in broth with small pasta? I did, and it is a winner—not to mention a whole lot less of a lift. If you don’t want to make the soup, make the meatballs anyway! They’d be delightful tossed in a red tomato sauce and served on their own or with spaghetti. They also freeze very well should you want to batch them ahead of time.

Serves 4

For the meatballs:

4 ounces (115 g) mortadella, roughly chopped

4 ounces (115 g) prosciutto, roughly chopped

8 ounces (225 g) ground pork

Nutmeg

1⁄4 cup (13 g) finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

1⁄2 cup (40 g) panko bread crumbs

1 large egg

1⁄2 cup (50 g) grated pecorino cheese

For the soup:

6 cups (1.4 L) low-sodium chicken broth

6 ounces (170 g) dried cappelletti pasta

Chopped parsley, for garnish

Grated pecorino, for serving

Freshly ground black pepper

Make the meatballs: Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

In a food processor, combine the mortadella and prosciutto and pulse until it has a similar consistency to the ground pork.

In a large bowl, combine the mortadella/prosciutto mixture, ground pork, nutmeg, parsley, panko, egg, and pecorino. With your hands or a large spoon, mix together until everything is well combined. With damp hands, roll the pork mixture into balls 3⁄4 to 1 inch (2 to 2.5 cm) in diameter; it should yield about 20 meatballs.

Place the meatballs on the lined pan and bake until they are cooked through, about 12 minutes, flipping halfway through to ensure both sides get golden brown. (Alternatively, you could pan-fry these in olive oil, but I don’t. I’m a lazy cook and prefer this tidier version.)

Meanwhile, for the soup: In a pot, bring the stock to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions, stirring frequently to ensure it’s not sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Divide the meatballs among bowls and ladle the broth and pasta over top. Sprinkle a bit of parsley over each serving and pass more pecorino at the table. Finish with a few good turns of black pepper.