Recipes

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this (as well I might be) but since quinoa has become such a by-word for clichéd middle class trendy eating fads, I have been somewhat reluctant to print recipes for it. And yet, I eat it often, and gladly. This salad is no stranger to my table: not only is it incredibly easy to make (ideal when you’re catering for big numbers) but leftovers produce excellent packed lunches for later in the week. And its herby lightness and fresh crunch are sublime. Although I have been specific about amounts of herbs, below, please feel free to add according to your own palate. Similarly, if you are one of those unfortunates who cannot tolerate coriander, simply double the amount of parsley.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Now this is where my pickling obsession started. For all that, it isn’t really a pickle, more of a sprightly salad, but I eat these spikily soused cucumbers just as I do gherkins. If you can get Lebanese cucumbers, do, as they have much more crunch and flavour, and baby cucumbers (more widely available now) are also fabulous here, but I have made these as well with regular cucumbers cut into spears. The White Condimento I use in the dressing is a clear, sweet vinegar (made by Belazu and, indeed, used to be sold as white balsamic) but if it eludes you, I dare say you could use 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of rice vinegar and dissolve a little caster sugar in it first.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

Strange though it might sound, this is another of my supper-standbys. I keep the frozen squid in the deep freeze, taking it out in the morning at breakfast to let it thaw in time for the evening

Nigella Lawson

In one of my favourite parts of Tuscany, not the cypress-studded hills of Chiantishire, but by the coast, up a steep and squiggly lane behind Porto Santo Stefano, is a restaurant called La Fontanina. And there, I ate this, or rather its inspiration: a flat bowl of calamari shaped pasta, almost indistinguishable – until that first tender bite – from the actual squid rings which, glistening with garlic-infused wine, comprised the sauce. I thought about this when I came back, but it wasn’t until, in a favourite deli (some years on from that first sampling), I stumbled across a packet of pasta called “i calamari” – in a powder-blue paper packet, made by Voiello, shape no. 142 – that I determined to make it myself. It’s silly really, as the heavenly taste doesn’t rely on the culinary pun, but the delight we get from food is complex. I have since found an online source for the calamariform pasta but the more universally stocked De Cecco range does have a mezzi rigatoni shape that would stand in respectably; and, of course, you are free to use any pasta shape – I sometimes feel a counter-intuitive pull towards fusilli. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Nigella Lawson

I do realize that a dish that needs an hour in the oven, might not, at first glance, seem to qualify for the epithet "quick", but I

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

Just thinking of these makes me salivate: these toasted sandwiches have the perfect more-ish mixture between thin crisp crust and gooey yielding middle. What

Nigella Lawson

I wasn’t brought up on nursery food, so this sort of old-fashioned English pudding holds a certain exotic charm for me. Traditionally, a Queen of Puddings is made with breadcrumbs, but this is the Marie Antoinette version, using brioche instead. Of course, in the normal run of things, I don’t have stale brioche lying about, but you can quite easily stale it by leaving the slices on a wire rack for a good few hours or overnight. If time is pressing, put the slices on a wire rack sitting in a roasting tin, and heat in an oven preheated to 100°C/80°C Fan/220°F for 10–15 minutes. I tend to stale and crumb a whole brioche loaf at a time. American cup measures help here, as 2½ cups provide enough for each pudding (or fill a measuring jug up to the 625ml mark). I then freeze the crumbs, so measured, in tightly sealed bags in eager readiness to make this.

Nigella Lawson

This cake is not named for the bypass you might feel you

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Summer