Pithaly

The most healthful meal is the one you cook at home. But for those of us skilled at the art of takeout, the idea of cooking in our kitchens is daunting. Who has time after a busy day to shop, chop, prepare and cook?

The Times’s food writer Mark Bittman always makes cooking look easy as author of the weekly Minimalist column and his new blog Bitten. He’s also the author of several cookbooks, including “How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food.'’ I recently spoke with Mark about the how-to’s of home cooking, his favorite ingredients and a lot about beans.

Why do you think so many people find it tough to cook regularly at home?

I think there are a couple of lost generations. In the years after the war it became less and less popular to cook and more and more common to do things conveniently. Especially people born after 1960 or after, when reentering the workforce and using canned and frozen microwave stuff — they just didn’t see their mothers cooking.

For those of us who want to cook more, what’s your advice for getting started?

I would say start with a decent cookbook. Pick something you really like, and make the effort to be successful; you want positive reinforcement. Read the recipe carefully, set aside the time and make sure you’ve got the ingredients and the equipment and really walk yourself through it. What takes you two hours the first time may only take 15 minutes the third time.

What supplies should I always have in my kitchen? Are there any special pots or pans I need?

In “How To Cook Everything,” there are lists of what you need for your pantry and a list of the equipment. You can start with three or four pans, a couple different utensils. And you can start with 10 or 15 ingredients. The list includes pasta and rice, canned beans and tomatoes, spices, olive oil, eggs and butter, long-keeping vegetables like onions, potatoes and garlic and canned stock. You have to start with the right ingredients, and you have to invest a little money and a fair amount of time.

But that is usually the problem for most people. They say they don’t have time to cook. I know I often don’t.

Well, whatever it takes to get food on the table, you have to do something. I’m not saying calling the Chinese takeout guy is harder than cooking. But all things considered, it’s not that much different. Yesterday morning I woke up and cooked beans while getting ready to come to work. I got home really late, like at 7:45 p.m. I reheated the beans, washed some lettuce and broiled a piece of fish. I had stuff on the table in 15 minutes. People say, “I have no time.” It’s like exercise: you have to want to do it.

For me the worst part of cooking is shopping for groceries and figuring what ingredients I need for a meal.

These days I cook a lot of things that are already in the house. I eat a lot of eggs, vegetables, beans and pasta. A lot of people think cooking is complicated. But this is the thing. Once you learn what you’re doing you realize it’s not. As I said, I woke up yesterday and made beans. Even if you take a can of beans and throw it in a pot with cherry tomatoes (you don’t even have to cut them up), some garlic and olive oil — there’s nothing wrong with that. Broil a piece of fish, wash some lettuce, and you have a fine meal. If your kids don’t like fish, then use shrimp or a piece of meat. I’ve gotten so used to cooking simply I almost never do anything else. Even when people come over for dinner — they get the same things I cook for myself. If I made what I just described to you and you were coming over for dinner, you’d probably think, “He cooked. How nice.'’ People worry about this too much.

How many different types of meals should we know how to make? Is variety important?

Whatever makes you happy. If you know how to broil a piece of fish or meat, if you know how to make a stir-fry and a couple pasta dishes and maybe a rice dish, and if you know how to deal with beans and make a salad, at that point you are well on your way.

When you are cooking, do you ask yourself whether it’s healthy, or do you just want it to taste good?

I always thought if you were aware of what you were putting in your mouth you’re not going to eat badly. Nobody can cook what they cook in fast-food joints and restaurants, in general, because you just don’t have the same ingredients. But if you looked at what it means to put a half a cup of butter in a dish, you would just look and say, “I’m going to use less.'’ When you cook yourself, you just don’t put the same kind of crappy things in there that people put in food that is prepared for you.

Do you have a favorite ingredient?

I go through an awful lot of olive oil, a stunning amount. I’m eating a lot of legumes.

You’ve talked a lot about beans. How do you cook them? Don’t you have to soak them?

You don’t have to soak them, but it makes it faster if you do. If you soak small dried beans overnight, I wager you could get them most of the way cooked by the time you and your daughter got out of the house in the morning. There’s a lot of stuff you can start and stop in the morning, especially beans and grains.

I have to confess, I’m not much of a bean eater. Maybe I need to start. Why are you such a fan?

It’s the flavor, the satisfaction, the non-meatness, the high-fiberness. When you get into cooking you start to see the subtle differences among things. At first I didn’t know anything about fish, then I learned 50 species, and then it mattered if it was bay scallops or sea scallops or pink scallops. That’s where I’m at these days with vegetables and legumes. I didn’t pay much attention to cooking them for most of my adult life, and now I’m starting to understand the subtle differences.

Okay, so what beans should we all be trying?

Chickpeas are the best. Now I’m into these huge beans called gigantes. You eat three of them and it’s like you had a small potato. But you can take a pound of chickpeas, cook them on a Saturday and stick them in the refrigerator tossed with olive oil, and you can eat them all week long.

Do you have a particular food indulgence?

I have a lot of friends in the food business, so I get my share of treats. At home it’s almost like I’m happy with pretty much everything I cook. It’s not that it’s so great. It’s the knowledge that I put something together, it’s simple and I put something on the table and there we are, sitting and eating it. It’s something I’ve loved doing for a long time, and I’m still into it.