Skillet cookbook: One-pan recipes from tortellini to upside down cake

Bringing a whole new meaning to the one-pot meal, Anna Helm Baxter goes beyond the traditional recipes for quick, easy meals that limit the washing up too

(Beatriz Da Costa)

Lemon chicken tortellini

Serves 4

350g boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 2 cm (¾ in) pieces
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
350g small fresh cheese tortellini
225g sugar snap peas, trimmed, halved on the diagonal
50g cream cheese
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Season the chicken. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add the oil and cook the chicken for 6-8 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the pan and keep warm. Add the garlic and cook until starting to turn golden.

Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Add the tortellini, simmer for 4-7 minutes, stirring, until cooked according to the packet instructions. Add the sugar snaps during the last three minutes of cooking. Remove the pan from the heat, whisk in the cheese, then add the lemon juice. Return the chicken to the pan and season.

(Beatriz Da Costa)

Coconut mussels

Serves 2

1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
20g piece of ginger, peeled and julienned​
4 spring onions (scallions), thinly sliced, light and dark greens separated
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 red chilli, seeded and thinly sliced
1 x 400 ml tin coconut milk
Grated zest of 1 lime
900g mussels, scrubbed and debearded​
2 tablespoons lime juice (about 1 lime)

Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add the oil, ginger, light parts of the spring onions, garlic and half the chilli and stir-fry for three minutes. Add the coconut milk and lime zest, simmer, then add the mussels. Return to a simmer, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes until the mussels open.

Discard any unopened mussels. Add the lime juice. Sprinkle with the remaining spring onions and chilli.

(Beatriz Da Costa)

Upside-down banana cake

Serves 8–10

6 ripe bananas
110g  unsalted butter
225g soft brown sugar
100g granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
25 g plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder (soda)
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/Gas 4). Mash 3 bananas in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a 23cm (9in) cast-iron skillet over medium heat until golden. Remove from the heat, transfer the butter to the bowl with the bananas.

Sprinkle 150 g (5 oz) brown sugar evenly over the base of the skillet. Slice the remaining bananas in half lengthways and arrange in a single layer, cut side down, on top of the sugar. Add the remaining sugars, eggs and vanilla extract to the bananas.

Sift over the flour, baking powder and the salt; fold to combine. Pour over the bananas, place a piece of foil on an oven rack, put the skillet on top and bake for 40-45 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave to stand for five minutes, then invert onto a serving plate.

'Skillet' by Anna Helm Baxter (Hardie Grant, £12.99) Photography © Beatriz Da Costa