Trusted British chef recipes, tested at home
Nigella Lawson’s sweet potato macaroni cheese is a mac and cheese made with mashed sweet potato, feta and mature cheddar in a mustard-spiked white sauce, baked in little pots until bubbling. It serves 4, from her book Simply Nigella. She calls it, flatly, the best macaroni cheese she’s ever eaten, and says the greatness isn’t …
Nigella Lawson’s chicken barley is a thick, creamy one-pot pottage of chicken thighs, pearl barley and root vegetables simmered in mustardy stock. It serves 4 to 6, from her book At My Table. She describes it as somewhere cosily between a stew and a slightly soupy, sticky risotto, offering instant comfort. It’s the sort of …
Nigella Lawson’s meatballs with orzo is a cosy one-pot dish of tender beef meatballs and orzo pasta, all simmered together in a herby tomato and vermouth sauce. It serves 4 to 6, from her book At My Table. She calls orzo a non-negotiable staple in her kitchen, a stand-in for rice or potatoes, and the …
Nigella Lawson’s fish finger bhorta is soft-cooked onions with garlic, ginger and chilli, spiked with mustard, then crisp fish fingers mashed in with spinach, coriander and lime, topped with pink-pickled onions. It’s a comfort-food supper for 2, from her book Cook, Eat, Repeat. She’s the first to admit she never expected to put a fish …
Nigella Lawson’s crab mac ‘n’ cheese is a luxurious pasta of shell pasta in a smoky Gruyère cheese sauce studded with white and brown crab meat. It’s a rich but delicate dish for 2, from her book Cook, Eat, Repeat. She calls it the most luscious of treats, rich yet somehow delicate, like a cross …
Nigella Lawson’s brown butter colcannon is her take on the Irish classic of mashed potato and kale, enriched with a generous amount of butter cooked to a deep, nutty brown. It uses skin-on potatoes, full-fat milk and spring onions, and serves 4 to 6. In Cook, Eat, Repeat (2020) she says every form of mashed …
Nigella Lawson’s black pudding meatballs are beef and black pudding meatballs, herby and lightly spiced, simmered in a rich tomato sauce. It’s a comforting, big-batch dish that serves 4 to 6, from her book Cook, Eat, Repeat. She put them in the book’s “Loving Defence of Brown Food” chapter, and while she thought they’d be …
Jamie Oliver’s cheesy Bolognese buns are hollowed crusty rolls rubbed with garlic, baked with melting Camembert inside, then loaded with rich Bolognese. It’s a 16-minute way to use batch-cooked ragù, and it serves 4. In Simply Jamie (2024) this is his reimagined burger, using thick Bolognese as the filling instead of a patty. It’s built …
Jamie Oliver’s chicken in baked bread sauce nestles skin-on chicken thighs and bacon into a tray of torn bread soaked in milk, eggs, mustard, nutmeg and cloves, then bakes the whole thing at 180°C for 50 minutes until golden. The bread absorbs the chicken juices and sets into a savoury, custardy, spiced base. It serves …
Jamie Oliver’s pear and blackberry crumble cooks pears, apples, blackberries, stem ginger, orange and butter directly in the air-fryer drawer for 40 minutes, then scatters a crunchy topping of porridge oats, cornflakes, demerara sugar and cinnamon over the fruit and blasts it for another 10 minutes until golden and bubbling. It serves six at 378 …