An indulgent selection of puddings and cakes – from lemon pavlova to a boozy British trifle
These are some of Nigella's best recipes, from comforting pasta dishes and all-in-one roasting tray suppers, to indulgent desserts and bakes.
Discover the Nigella Lemon Surprise Pudding recipe, featuring eggs, butter, flour, sugar, lemon, milk, and boiling water. In just 70 minutes, you can enjoy this delightful dessert. Let's look at the simple steps for making this tasty fruit treat!
It is often decreed that the only ingredients (other than eggs of course) proper to a Spanish omelette are onions and potatoes, but I like a touch of red from some chopped peppers. I am sorry if this offends — and not only the Spanish — but you could speed this up by using some drained, canned new potatoes instead of cooking real ones. This is easy enough to make, but you do need to get it done in advance as the hottest you want to eat this is room temperature. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
Nigella Apple Pie is made with apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, brown sugar, all-purpose flour, cold unsalted butter, pie crusts, and egg. This British Nigella Apple Pie recipe creates a deliciously dessert that takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to prepare and can serve up to 8 people.
Nigella Lawson Chocolate Brownies are probably the only brownie recipe you will ever need.
There are three crucial things that I think make the difference here: the heat of the fat, the size of your potatoes and finally, dredging the potatoe...
It was in Australia — in Melbourne to be precise — that, under the auspices of George Calombaris, I ate the most fabulous chips: they’d been fried in garlicky oil and came sprinkled with dried mountain oregano and feta. It’s a sensational combo. Now, if you felt like doing some deep-frying, you could certainly make a panful of Tuscan Fries giving them this particular Greek spin by replacing the thyme, rosemary and sage with fresh oregano and scattering feta over them to serve, but for ease — and equal deliciousness — this is how I proceed. I chop unpeeled potatoes into small cubes, toss them in a shallow roasting tin — the shallowness is essential — with olive oil, garlic and dried oregano, and when they emerge from the oven burnished and crisp, I crumble feta over them and — should the season allow — and strew with fresh oregano. No deep-frying involved: deep happiness achieved. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
Nigella Spaghetti Bolognese is made with ground beef, bacon, onions, celery, garlic, tomatoes, beef broth, red wine, and spices. The recipe takes 60 minutes to cook and serves 4 people.
Nigella's Spaghetti Bolognese is a classic Italian dish made with al dente spaghetti covered in a tasty beef sauce flavored with herbs and spices. It's the perfect way to relax after a long day. When you're hungry, you can use this tried-and-true recipe to make something rich and filling to eat.
It's incredibly delicious. No, seriously.
Although this started off as a Christmas-time recipe, I have found that I cook it pretty much year round: the sweet squash is tangily countered by the blue cheese and the nuts bring gorgeous crunch, though the gentler rubble of toasted pine nuts can be happily substituted. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
From her famed Coca-Cola braised ham to chicken Cosima, Observer Food Monthly’s selection of favourite Nigella Lawson dishes
Nigella Lawson Banoffee Pie is made with digestive biscuits, unsalted butter, ripe bananas, condensed milk, heavy cream, dark chocolate. This British Nigella Lawson Banoffee Pie recipe delicious dessert takes about 7 hours to prepare and can serve up to 8 to 10 people.
A round-up of Nigella Lawson's best vegetarian recipes, including Turkish eggs, fennel gratin and a Caprese salad with a twist.
I could have called these Cornflake-Crunchy Chicken Cutlets as the crisp coating is provided not by breadcrumbs, but by cornflakes. This is particularly handy if you want a gluten-free crunch, though do check the cornflake packet to be sure. You can buy chicken escalopes already beaten, but otherwise just buy a couple of chicken breasts and, one at a time, place them on a chopping board lined with clingfilm, cover the chicken with another layer of clingfilm and bash the living daylights out of them with a rolling pin. This is a gratifying way to de-stress at the end of a long day. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
Pecans, buttermilk, and maple syrup, oh my!
This Nigella Lawson Chicken Lasagna recipe is made with chicken, lasagna noodles, mozzarella, cream cheese, bouillon, and spaghetti sauce. It takes 95 minutes to make and serves 6 people.
Nigella Lawson's delicious one-pot recipe for Orzo with Meatballs is a comforting and warming pasta dish perfect for wintry weekend cooking.
I can't remember why I call this my New Orleans coleslaw now (I've been making it, or a version of it, for so long), but I think it has something to do with all the wonderful pecan trees I saw when I was there. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
There is nothing more comforting with a cup of tea than a scone, with or without jam. Scones are so quintessentially British and always bring to mind the echoing gulder of “Tralllllleeeee!…
Nigella Lawson Banoffee Pie is made with digestive biscuits, unsalted butter, ripe bananas, condensed milk, heavy cream, dark chocolate. This British Nigella Lawson Banoffee Pie recipe delicious dessert takes about 7 hours to prepare and can serve up to 8 to 10 people.
Not all carrot cakes are created equal, especially where Nigella is concerned. This recipe, "originating from Venetian Jews, which sounds refreshingly medieval, made as it is from ground almonds, rather than flour, is enriched with eggs and olive oil and studded with rum-soaked sultanas." As she admits, "it's not much to look at'"– a golden disc about half the height of one layer of an ordinary cake – but it's incredibly moist and deliciously nutty, with a lovely citrus kick too. It's also gluten and lactose-free, for those who are sensitive to such things, but quite delicious in its own right. For a taller moister version, simply use a smaller 6-inch springform pan, cook it a little longer and the results are absolutely scrumptious. Gluten-Free Venetian Carrot Cake Serves 8-10 Recipe courtesy of Nigella Lawson Carrot cake: 3 tbsp pine nuts 2 medium carrots, about 8 oz 3 oz golden sultanas 2 1/4 fl oz rum 5 oz white granulated sugar 4 1/2 fl oz olive oil, plus extra for greasing 1 tsp vanilla extract 3 large eggs 9 oz ground almonds 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, or to taste 1/2 lemon, finely grated zest and juice Cream Cheese Frosting: 8 oz cream cheese 3 cups icing sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the base of a 9-inch round springform cake pan* with baking parchment and grease the sides with olive oil. Toast the pine nuts by browning in a dry frying pan, then set aside. Grate the carrots in a food processor or with a coarse grater, then wrap in a clean kitchen towel and wrap them, to soak up excess liquid, then set aside. Put the golden sultanas in a small saucepan with the rum, bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 3 minutes. Whisk the sugar and oil until creamily and airily mixed, then add the vanilla extract and eggs and, when well whisked, fold in the ground almonds, nutmeg, grated carrots, golden sultanas with any rum that clings to them, and finally, the lemon zest and juice. Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula. The batter will be very shallow in the tin. Sprinkle the toasted pine nuts over the cake and put it into the oven for 30–40 minutes, or until the top is risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out sticky but more or less clean. Remove from the oven and let the cake sit in its tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then un-spring and leave it on the rack to cool. To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese in a standing mixer, until smooth, then add the sugar and vanilla, and mix until light and fluffy. To assemble the cake, place the carrot cake on a serving platter and spread with cream cheese frosting, and serve. * NOTE: I used a 6-inch round springform pan for a taller cake and adjusted the baking time to 70 minutes, then turned off the oven and let the cake rest inside for another 10-15 minutes, so that the centre was cooked through.
Recipe for Nigella Lawson's Flourless Chocolate Orange Cake made with whole oranges, almonds, and cocoa.
You can’t beat a pavlova recipe, especially a crisp-chewy meringue base, with nuggets of chocolate, created by Nigella Lawson. The meringue provides an enticing layer beneath the cream and crimson raspberries. From Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson (£16.99, Chatto & Windus).
While steaming then roasting potatoes may seem rather a fandango, one bite of these will convince you that it's utterly worth it; besides, it's not as if you have to do anything while they either steam or roast. Go slowly when adding the salt and vinegar, tasting as you go, as I like these to have the wincing hit of salt and vinegar crisps, and you may prefer a lighter hand with the sprinkling. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
Pea and Ham Soup by Nigella is a tasty delicacy consisting of split peas, ham, and vegetables that take 1 hour and 10 minutes to be ready!
A useful, no-hassle, chuck-everything-in-together dish, you don’t even need to brown the chicken (though make sure you sprinkle the skin with sea salt flakes, to help it crisp up). Find a dish that has about the right dimensions, to ensure that it works well. Don’t be afraid of assertive seasoning – rice dishes such as this need it – and don’t skip the step where you wash the rice, or it will end up sticky. A bowl of Greek yogurt is good on the side.
Nigella carrot cake is made with fresh carrots, crunchy walnuts, warming spices, and crystallised ginger, topped with creamy cream cheese icing. This delicious Nigella Carrot Cake recipe takes about 1 hour to prepare and can serve 8-12 people.
I've long been tinkering about with a bottle of Bailey's, seeing how it could best be called upon in the kitchen, and I think, with this, I've found it. An Italian friend of mine, who makes a killer tiramisu herself, was an instant convert. I was relieved: the Italians generally are conservative about their food, which goes some way to explaining the longevity of their cherished culinary traditions. But this only sounds like some sort of joke — "Did you hear the one about the Irishman and the Italian...?" — and in reality is an elegantly buff-tinted, creamy-toned variant of the punchy, if comfortably cliched, original. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
Nigella Buttermilk Scones are crafted with simple ingredients like flour, sugar, butter, and buttermilk, resulting in a delightful treat. With just 15 minutes of baking time, this recipe yields 16 servings of warm, buttery scones, perfect for sharing with loved ones.
This is what I make for my children’s birthday celebrations, for farewell suppers to send them off before they go away, and for the dinners to welcome them back when they come home again. It’s our family take on a traditional lasagne, though I’m not sure Italians would exactly welcome my deviations from the classical recipe. For one thing, I don’t make my own lasagne sheets; while I have in the past, I now routinely use dried ones out of a packet and, what’s more, I don’t boil them first. In order, then, to ensure they soften properly, I make a slightly more liquid meat sauce than is customary and, rather than have a covering of béchamel at the end, I finish with a layer of meat sauce, topped with chopped mozzarella on top. None of this is proper from a North Italian perspective, but the lasagne it yields is pleasure-giving and gratifyingly popular. I can’t say that this is exactly faff-free to make: but it is time-consuming rather than difficult. I adore pottering about the kitchen making it. What’s more, you can layer it up (bar the mozzarella topping) in advance (see notes) and bake when needed. And I make this even if there isn’t a whole tableful of people to eat it; I freeze leftovers in individual portions, to make for most superior ready-meals at a later date. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
There was a time, years ago, when this was on my table pretty much whenever I had friends over for a lazy Saturday lunch. And I love it still. It’s simple and undemanding to make, and can equally offer summer sprightliness or winter comfort, and in summer you might certainly consider scattering over basil on serving, along with the parsley. The sauce itself (rather like the eggs in a carbonara) is not actually cooked, but warmed through as it’s tossed fragrantly with the hot pasta. I find when cooking such an amount of pasta (though bear in mind that this recipe halves easily enough), it is always a good idea to put the pan on to boil quite a bit before you think you need to. Once it’s come to the boil, you can switch off, cover the pan, and know that you are almost ready to go. And finally, may I suggest that with the two egg whites you have left over, you make a batch of Forgotten Cookies within two days, if the egg whites are kept covered in the fridge... And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
If you want to have something hot to pass around on a tray, then cocktail sausages are what you're after. There's nothing fiddly to make, nothing to go right or wrong, and everyone loves them. These are not just any cocktail sausages: the sesame oil, honey and soy give them a sweet-savoury stickiness that is pretty well impossible to resist. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
This is very different from the richly sweet, loftily layered and aerated American original. While it is in some senses far more reminiscent of an old-fashioned, slightly rustic English teatime treat, it is, with its ginger-spiked cream cheese icing — only on top, not running through the middle as well — just right to bring to the table, in pudding guise, at the end of dinner, too. Before you chop the amber dice of crystallised ginger, rub the cubes between your fingers to remove excess sugar. Then chop them finely, though not obsessively so: you want small nuggets, not a jammy clump. And, for what it’s worth, I find it easier to crumble up the walnuts with my fingers, rather than chopping them on a board. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
In Scandinavia, the first rhubarb stalks are a sign of spring; therefore, anything made with rhubarb makes people happy. It is a sign of the new season, a change in the light and the temperature, and the knowledge that fresh produce will shortly emerge from the land.
This is the most luscious of treats: rich, to be sure, but somehow delicate at the same time. Smoked paprika and crab (a 50/50 mixture of both white and brown meat) give an almost honeyed depth to the velvety cheese sauce, which is made with nutty and sweet gruyere. The combination is just sumptuous, like a cross between a mac’n’cheese and a bisque. I stray further from tradition in that I use pasta shells rather than macaroni, and I don’t scatter more cheese on top and brown it in the oven, and indeed advise sternly against it. I find a freckling of Aleppo pepper (though you could use paprika) more than makes up for the familiar heat-scorched finish. It would be remiss of me not to let you know that if you bump up the milk in the sauce recipe to 300ml / 1¼ cups, it makes for sensational seafood nachos: warm tortilla chips in the oven, then pour the sauce over them, and top with sliced red chillies and chopped chives or whatever you please. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
