Five ingredients or less dinner favourites

Sometimes you don't want to muck around with 15 different ingredients.

Potato tortilla Source: Rachel Tolosa Paz

--- The Cook Up with Adam Liaw  airs weeknights at 7pm on SBS Food (Ch.33). All episodes are available anytime on SBS On Demand.  ---

While it's true that recipes with a huge list of ingredients are often surprisingly simple to make, sometimes you don't want to take the risk. A dish with five ingredients or less is always a sure thing for simplicity.

Grab your ingredients (you'll only need one trip) and crack out one of these beauties for dinner tonight. They're so straightforward you'll swear your stopped time.

One quick word before we launch: we haven't included the holy trinity of oil, salt, pepper in our 'five'. We figure nothing good ever comes out of a kitchen without this trio as a base... fair enough?

Rigatoni alla Gricia

An iconic Roman dish of pecorino cheese, pepper and cured pork. Source: Jono Fleming

Right now an esausta mamma is cooking up this pasta in her apartment by the Piazza di Spagna, knowing that despite it taking only 15 mins to pull together, everyone will love it and there will only be one pan to wash up at the end. Yep, it's that dish.

Pumpkin soup

This is Margaret Fulton's pumpkin soup recipe, so it comes with extra comfort. Source: Hardie Grant

Every cook needs a good pumpkin soup recipe up their sleeve for busy, over-it kind of nights. It's simple to make and oh-so soothing to eat.

Batata harra

Source: Alan Benson

Crispy potatoes roasted with fresh lemon, spicy garlic, coriander and hot pepper flakes - this Lebanese dish serves up a flavour bomb.

Quiche Lorraine

Quiche Lorraine is traditionally made with just eggs, crème fraîche and bacon, so let's stick with that. Source: Alan Benson

Sure, if you made your own pastry you'd be well over the five-ingredient quota. Which is why you don't have to.

Cacio e pepe

Cacio e pepe is just one easy win. Source: Tammi Kwok

This is one of the most traditional dishes of the Lazio region. It’s so simple and requires just five ingredients. It was developed in that area due to the abundance of shepherds in the region who produce Cacio (Roman cheese). Mmm... cheese!

Potato tortilla

A tortilla might seem like simplicity itself, but the taste is surprisingly complex. Source: Rachel Tolosa Paz

Remember when we mentioned that mamma in Italy? Well, this is the Argentinian version. Mamá, Plaza del Congreso, exhausta.

Egg and bacon pies

Donna Hay's got your dinner sorted with these fast, fresh and simple no-pastry pies. Source: Donna Hay: Fast, Fresh, Simple

If these little pies don't make you do a happy dance at the end of the day, we've failed. Four ingredients, 10 minutes of prep and bacon.

Oven-baked chicken

Throw your five ingredients together in five minutes, then set and forget in the oven. Source: Adam Liaw

You can always rely on a chicken traybake to be fuss-free and this one is no exception. Big flavours like olives and lemon give you plenty of bang for your fiver.

Peynirli hangel

Blue cheese is definitely better as a solo artist. Source: Feast magazine

From the hills of northeastern Turkey comes a recipe that will make blue cheese lovers swoon. It's basically fresh homemade noodles with butter and crumbled blue cheese (any soft blue will do). Don't mess with perfection, right?

Cong you tofu

Ready in ten. Source: Adam Liaw

We're cheating just a little bit here because this Chinese table pleaser uses two types of soy sauce (light and dark), which technically brings the ingredient count to six. But then, we figure most of us will end up using one or the other, so five it is!

Four-ingredient flan

When was sugar, eggs, milk, condensed milk and vanilla ever not going to be good? Source: Adam Liaw

Finish your meal with a Filipino leche flan-inspired dish that will take you five minutes to prepare. It's hard to believe this thing of beauty is constructed from only four ingredients, but that's the magic of sugar for you... and Adam Liaw.