Trusted British chef recipes, tested at home
Mary Berry’s mushroom quiche is a creamy egg and Cheddar filling with soft onions and chestnut mushrooms, baked in a tortilla wrap instead of pastry. It serves 4, and goes from fridge to table in about 45 minutes. The recipe comes from Mary’s Foolproof Dinners, her BBC series, where it’s published as a fast quiche. …
Mary Berry’s mushroom and spinach lasagne layers a garlicky mushroom and tomato sauce with leaf spinach, white sauce and grated Emmental. It bakes until golden and bubbling, and the whole thing takes about 1 hour 10 minutes. Berry calls it her Vegetarian Lasagne in Mary Berry Cookery Course (2015). She uses Emmental instead of the …
Jamie Oliver’s potato salad is warm new potatoes tossed in a light dressing of natural yoghurt, English mustard, lemon and extra virgin olive oil. It serves 8, from his book Together (2021). There’s no mayonnaise at all. The yoghurt brings creaminess and the English mustard brings heat, which keeps each portion to 180 calories without …
Jamie Oliver’s fennel gratin is fennel wedges roasted soft with whole garlic, then baked under cheesy single cream until golden and bubbling. It serves 8, from his book Together (2021). It’s far lighter than a classic gratin, at 134 calories a portion. There’s no roux and no butter, just 250ml of single cream and 50g …
Jamie Oliver’s Christmas salad is crisp bitter leaves, pear and apple matchsticks and clementine rounds. It’s tossed in a honey mustard and walnut dressing, needs no cooking, and serves 8 in 20 minutes. Jamie layers four bitter leaves from the chicory and endive family, plus rocket, and cuts each one differently. Frisée is roughly chopped, …
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 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 yogurt pot cake is a plain Italian ciambella, a lemon-and-vanilla ring cake where an empty yogurt pot measures out every ingredient. It yields 16 slices, from her book Nigellissima. She says if there’s a family in Italy without a recipe for yogurt pot cake, she’s yet to meet them, and she loves this …
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 …