From KCRW, I'm Evan Klyman, and you're listening to good food.

I'm always amazed by people who have to develop recipes that engage and excite us.

It's a relentless task that's a lot more difficult than it seems

when we're gazing at those beautiful dishes on our feeds or in a book.

Cookbook author Melissa Clark has been a food columnist at the New York Times for 15 years.

We can't count the many, many, many recipes she's created, and yet she manages to produce fresh ideas and books that entice us to spend time in the kitchen.

Her latest dinner and one gives us an unusually useful collection held together by a single idea, or should I say a single pan.

Hi Melissa.

Hi, Evan.

For a few years, I thought of you and I'm sure many of us thought of you as the sheet pan queen,

but making dinner in one pan is possible using a variety of vessels and techniques.

Can you give us an idea of the breath of pans

that you've focused on that is that quote, one?

Yeah, I mean, I love a sheet pan. I was definitely an early adopter with the sheet pans. I have several of them and I think they are a great tool, but they're not the only way to make a one pan or one pot dinner. For a lot of cultures, the soup pot or the

Dutch oven is the primary way to make a one pot meal. Putting everything into a pan, stewing

it together your protein, your vegetables is just a time-honored

traditional way of cooking so we shouldn't forget our Dutch ovens and our soup

pots and then there's you know mom's casserole dish right the casserole dishes of the 1930s, 40s, these are great tools.

What's great about a casserole dish as opposed to a sheet pan is that you have they

have higher sides, so they're great for things where you

want to keep the moisture of addition intact. You know you're not looking for just

caramelization. You're also looking to keep foods soft and tender and you know making foods like lasagna

...