Don't bin it! With How to be an Everyday Kitchen Magician you will be astounded by what you can make from the most uninspiring food at the back of your fridge or cupboard.

This book is so much more than a recipe book - in fact, it's about learning to cook without using recipes at all. It's about making the most of what you have, reducing your waste dramatically, and discovering how to create spontaneous, delicious dishes in minutes. It's filled with ingredients that most of us would throw away without so much as a second thought. For example . . .

• A cold leftover sausage, a crusty bit of cheddar, a bendy courgette and a few wrinkly mushrooms can become a sublime risotto in 20 minutes.
• Take a dried-out flour tortilla, half an onion, a squirt of tomato puree, a squidgy tomato and a scattering of dried herbs, combine with random bits of cooked veg and you've got a delicious `pizza' in less time than it takes for delivery.

Whether you're a non-cook or an aspiring professional, the recipes, techniques and way of thinking about cooking in these pages will change your culinary life forever. Your everyday bits, leftovers and rejects will become a treasure trove of delicious dishes rather than wasted cash.

GBP12 billion worth of food and drink is thrown away every year in the UK, adding up to hundreds of pounds per household.