Trusted British chef recipes, tested at home
Jamie Oliver’s spaghetti frittata is a baked pasta omelette: cooked spaghetti tossed with eggs and a homemade “peasto”, pressed into a pan and baked until puffed and golden. It serves 6, from his book ONE. The clever twist is the peasto, Jamie’s budget-friendly pea pesto. Instead of the usual pine nuts and basil, he blitzes …
Nigella Lawson’s Parmesan shortbreads are little savoury cheese biscuits made from just four ingredients: flour, Parmesan, butter and an egg yolk, sliced from a chilled log and baked pale gold. It makes 35 to 40, from her book Nigellissima. The recipe reached her, she says, from Australia via Brazil. A Brazilian friend, Helio Fenerich, the …
Nigella Lawson’s panettone stuffing squares are savoury Christmas canapés: panettone blitzed with pancetta, apple, shallot, chestnut, sage and lemon, baked in a tray and cut into little squares like savoury brownies. It makes 48 small squares, from her book Nigellissima. She’s written a panettone stuffing before (the fruit bread cubed, toasted and mixed with Italian …
Nigella Lawson’s meringue gelato cake is a no-churn frozen dessert: whipped cream folded with dark chocolate splinters, liqueur and crushed meringue nests, frozen in a loaf tin and sliced into slabs with a warm chocolate sauce. It yields 6 to 8 slices, from her book Nigellissima. It has unusually literary roots. She found it in …
Nigella Lawson’s gnocchi gratin is a quick, indulgent side of shop-bought gnocchi coated in a mascarpone and Parmesan sauce, topped with breadcrumbs and baked until bubbling and golden. It serves 6 as a side, from her book Nigellissima. She makes it, for preference, with the so-called freshly made gnocchi from the supermarket chill cabinet. They …
Nigella Lawson’s Italian Christmas pudding cake is a no-bake, tiramisu-style layered cake of liqueur-soaked panettone and a mascarpone cream studded with chocolate, marrons glacés and pistachios, jewelled with pomegranate. It yields 12 to 14 slices, from her book Nigellissima. She describes it as her own recipe but a conflation of a couple of Italian Christmas …
Nigella Lawson’s chocolate salame is a no-bake chocolate fridge log studded with amaretti, almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios, dusted with icing sugar and tied up with string to look like a real salame. It makes about 20 generous slices, from her book Nigellissima. She’s met quite a few versions in Italy and concluded it’s really an …
Nigella Lawson’s chicken with tarragon salsa verde is roasted skin-on chicken breasts, sliced and dressed with a bright, blended green sauce of tarragon, parsley, spring onion, lemon and olive oil. It serves 6 to 8, from her book Nigellissima. She explains that tarragon, the gorgeously named “dragoncello”, is actually little used in Italy despite the …
Nigella Lawson’s cappuccino pavlova is a coffee meringue, espresso powder whisked into a marshmallowy pavlova base, topped with softly whipped cream and a cappuccino-style dusting of cocoa. It yields 8 to 10 slices, from her book Nigellissima. She’s inordinately proud of this one, and not ashamed to say so. A self-confessed “pava-holic”, she calls it …
Nigella Lawson’s baby aubergines with oregano and red onion are halved baby aubergines roasted with olive oil and dried oregano, then topped with vinegar-pickled red onions in a garlicky dressing. It serves 6 as a side, from her book Nigellissima. It comes from a memory. In the south of Italy she ate aubergines roughly chopped, …
