Recipes

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Summer

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Summer

It might sound odd to introduce this as a baked pasta for summer, but that’s how I’ve always thought of it. Actually, I’d all but forgotten about it, but it popped into my mind recently, and I have returned to it happily. I’ve cooked it a few times in quick succession recently, and I feel it will be a mainstay of the summer which I hope is to come. True, I wouldn’t necessarily want to make this during a heatwave, but it’s perfect for an al fresco supper or weekend lunch when the air is balmy and the mood mellow. It is a simpler recipe than you might presume, in the sense that no part of it is difficult, though I admit it’s fairly process-heavy: you need to make the tomato sauce; mix up the filling; boil the pasta shells for 5 minutes; stuff them and cover them with the sauce before it all goes into the oven to bake. It feels like less of an undertaking, I find, if you’ve made the tomato sauce ahead of time and also if you use frozen rather than fresh spinach. (Indeed, I’ve decided to specify just the frozen in the ingredients list, as it

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Bites

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

I don’t deny bacon in brownies sounds weird, but it does really work in a quite straightforward way. Even people who shrink from the very idea find the actual outcome all-too-compelling. I like to use American-style bacon (which you can now get in UK supermarkets) for this, but if you can’t find it, then just be sure to get streaky bacon that is cut very thin, without the rind, and snip it up into small shards. You don’t really want chewy pieces of bacon, but rather nuggets of intense saltiness within the rich, gooey chocolate squares.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Summer

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Summer

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

I remember, when I was in the south of Italy, eating aubergines that had been roughly chopped, sprinkled with dried wild oregano, doused with olive oil and then roasted with a little garlic and a lot of red onions. This below, is my version: quicker, yes, but I also like the way it can be eaten as a starter or part of an antipasti table, and even as a main course, sprinkled with some ricotta salata or crumbled feta, or as an accompaniment to meat and fish. If you are adding cheese, then sprinkle it over before topping with the onions, which are turned a glorious, luminescent puce by their red wine vinegar marinade.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson