Fast, but not least

It doesn’t seem possible but Jacques Pepin and “fast food” do go together.

Pepin, whose PBS cooking series and cookbooks have taught us proper culinary techniques, has a new book that tells us how to make dinner the quick and easy way. It’s not a 15-minutes-or-less cookbook, but if you’re interested in cooking a great dish without spending an hour, take a look at his new book, “Jacques Pepin: Fast Food My Way” (Houghton Mifflin, $30).

Although Pepin is a renowned cook, he still wants dinner in a hurry.

When Pepin comes home hungry, the first thing he does is put a pot of water on to boil. “Only then do I take off my jacket and raid the refrigerator for vegetables. By the time I’ve grated some zucchini, carrots, and onions — and whatever else I might find — the water is boiling. The grated vegetables cook in moments; I add some instant grits and chopped salad greens for body, and presto: we have homemade soup,” Pepin writes.

He said some of the recipes are not necessarily quick, but none requires much work. Ideas for quick dishes include:

Tuna tomatoes: Mix a drained can of tuna with some minced scallions, pitted Kalamata olives, diced anchovy fillets, chopped parsley and cracked pepper. Cut off the tops of ripe tomatoes and hollow them out with a spoon, reserving and lightly crushing the tomato pulp with a fork and mixing it with a little olive oil, salt and pepper to create a sauce. Fill the hollow tomatoes with the tuna mixture and serve with some of the sauce.

Ham cornucopias: Roll individual slices of ham into a cornucopia shape, and place them atop baby spinach. Mix diced feta cheese, pitted black olives and marinated mushrooms — all from your supermarket deli — with a dash of olive oil, cracked pepper and salt. Spoon into ham and serve.

Pepin’s herb sauce for poached tilapia is his mother’s classic dressing for salad greens, and it enhances any poached fresh fish, he said. For best results, make the sauce at the last minute.

Poached Tilapia with Herbed Cream Sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 small tilapia fillets (each 3 to 4 ounces and 1/2 -inch thick)

Herbed cream sauce:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh tarragon

1/2 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh chives

1 tablespoon bottle horseradish

Bring about 1 quart water to a boil in a large skillet and add the salt. Drop the fish fillets into the boiling water and bring the water back to a gentle boil. Cover and remove from the heat. Let stand in the hot water for about 1 minute.

For the sauce: Pour the cream into a small bowl and add the salt and pepper. Whip with a whisk for about 15 seconds, or just until frothy. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Remove the fish from the water and blot dry. Place a fillet on each of four warmed plates and coat with the sauce. Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings

Nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.

Chickpea ragout is good as an accompaniment to fish. With the addition of a sausage such as kielbasa, it makes a whole meal when poured over pasta.

Chickpea Ragout

2 tablespoons good olive oil

1/2 cup diced ( 1/2 -inch) onion

1/2 cup chopped scallions

2 cups diced (1-inch) tomatoes

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic

1 can (16 ounces) chickpeas, drained

1/2 cup chicken stock, homemade, or low-salt canned chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon salt (less if using canned broth)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat oil in a saucepan over high heat and add the onion and scallions. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes, then add all ingredients except the parsley. Return to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and boil gently for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and boil for a few minutes longer to reduce the liquid. Divide among four bowls, sprinkle parsley on top, and serve.

Yield: 4 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 282 calories, 10 grams fat (1.4 grams saturated, 32 percent fat calories), 12 grams protein, 38.5 grams carbohydrate, less than 1milligram cholesterol, 10.4 grams dietary fiber, 178 milligrams sodium.