Lunch

Doughnut French Toast

My weaknesses are mainly savoury — think salt and vinegar crisps or cheese and biscuits — but there are times when only a doughnut will do. This craving can get desperate late at night when the shops…

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Mozzarella In Carrozza

This is Italian food before Tuscan rustic chic. The 'in carrozza' bit means 'in a carriage' and doesn't really explain what this golden-crusted fried mozzarella sandwich is about, just gives an indica…

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Squid Salad With Lime, Coriander, Mint and Mizuna

Don't worry if the word mizuna means nothing to you. It's a tenderly peppery Japanese salad leaf, which some greengrocers, and even supermarkets, stock these days, but you can easily use rocket instea…

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Minestrone in Minutes

This is child's play to make, and I use the term advisedly, since it is the invention of my then ten-year-old son Bruno (Brunostrone, we call it) and we make versions of it constantly. Use any beans o…

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Pasta With Onions and Anchovies

I know that people feel very strongly about anchovies, pro or anti. I'm fiercely pro, and if you are, too, you will love this. For those who are hesistantly rather than resoundingly anti, I say to you…

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Spaghetti With Marmite

I came across this recipe in Anna Del Conte's memoirs, Risotto with Nettles. Now, there are so many recipes I could borrow from her, and many I have, but this is the one I have to show you here. She i…

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Chicken, Almond and Parsley Salad

This came about the way most of my favourite food has come about, by greedy opportunism. I had some cold chicken in the fridge, a huge bunch of parsley in a jug by the stove and had recently opened a…

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Courgette Fritters

I know the word fritter conjures up a complex world of deep-frying and dense-eating, but these are light, simple babies — just grated courgettes, mixed with feta, herbs and spring onions, stirred up w…

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Peppers With Feta and Almonds

This is really a vegetarian take on that classic combination of charred, peeled peppers and anchovies. This pepper and feta combo, with a rocket (or other green) salad, some griddled aubergines dresse…

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Red-Leaf, Fig and Serrano Ham Salad

This salad takes mere minutes to make, and yet it is enduringly beautiful. I don't overstate the case; there is something positively painterly about the delicate heaping of dark red leaves, red-bellie…

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Spinach, Avocado and Pumpkin Seed Salad

This is one of my favourite salads: superb with salmon; wonderful alone. If you don't have any pumpkin oil, simply replace both pumpkin and groundnut oils with good extra virgin olive oil.

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Turkey and Glass Noodle Salad

I love recipes using up leftovers, and this is a particular favourite because it suddenly goes off on another tangent, so to speak. The zingy South-East Asian flavours certainly give new life to the o…

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Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

If you've recently roasted a chicken, and have leftovers waiting for you in the fridge, I must steer you towards this recipe. Even if you don't have much chicken left over, you can still make this: a…

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There aren’t many weeks where we don’t make this soup. Cold weather, warms you up. Hot weather, helps bear the heat. Feeling poorly, picks you up. Stressed out, soothes the soul. Having a great day, just adds to the joy. We love this recipe.

Grilled Sardines With Lemon Salsa

There is something about fresh, really fresh, grilled sardines that reminds me instantly of those long holiday lunches in rented summer houses abroad. But if neither sardines, nor a fishmonger to fill…

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Broccoli and Stilton Soup

I use frozen broccoli; actually, frozen organic broccoli, if that makes you feel better. In fact, this is better when made with frozen, and certainly more convenient for an impromptu standby. And plea…

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Pasta E Fagioli

This is that life-saving, thick, pasta-and-bean meal of a soup — pasta fazool — as sung about by Dean Martin in That's Amore. It's just the thing you want to eat when the rain's battering against the…

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Pea and Pesto Soup

While you can make it with pesto from a jar, the difference when you use the "fresh" stuff in a tub that you can find in chiller cabinets in the supermarkets is astonishing. I think soup tastes better…

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Yellow Split Pea and Frankfurter Soup

This embracingly hearty meal of a soup always makes me feel grateful for the harsh winter weather. I used to make it for a cosy family New Year’s Day lunch, and still do happily, but it would be a sha…

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Chicken With Spring Onions, Chilli and Greek Yogurt

The sauce borrows from the idea of tsatsiki and all those Middle-Eastern yogurt salads — it is a cool, pungent accompaniment to the tender, but not strongly flavoured, chicken.

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Ritzy Chicken Nuggets

These are not even remotely fancy: the "Ritzy" of the title refers to the crackers of the same famous name. I make crumbs out of them, and use them to coat small pieces of chicken that have been tende…

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Mini Meatloaves

These mini meatloves are best eaten cold, either dunked in mayo, ketchup, brown sauce or mustard, or sliced up and made into sandwiches with your sauce of choice or, indeed, the whole concatenation of…

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Wow, made these for the first time today and were lovely. Love the fact that I got enough left for the rest of the week. Thank you Nigella.

Baked Ricotta With Grilled Radicchio

If you want to forgo the grilled radicchio alongside, then do and just make a tomato salad to go with it, but the combination, as it stands, is perfect: the heat-wilted radicchio loses some of its bit…

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Croque Monsieur Bake

Like many good brunch recipes, this is also just the ticket for an early evening supper, the sort you eat in your dressing gown before sophisticated adults feel it is entirely proper to dine. The joy…

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This is so delicious! We often make it up the night before and have it for dinner. A real winner!

Eggs in Purgatory

You don't actually need to have a hangover to enjoy this for breakfast (or anytime), but there is something about this easy and quick dish of eggs cooked in a fiery tomato sauce that just hits the spo…

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Green Eggs and Ham

This weekend breakfast favourite can, frankly, be eaten at any time of the day with equal relish and has also in its favour that children (who in my experience would probably eat anything if it had pe…

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Sweetcorn Chowder With Toasted Tortilla Chips

The tortilla chips I use here are those crisp, crunchy, corn-gritty triangles that I never need an excuse to eat, but if you are in search of one yourself, I heartily recommend this soup. Mind you, ev…

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Great soup, so tasty and quick. My boys love it for lunch after a cold morning at football, I think it's going to be a weekly staple!

Monkfish Wrapped in Rosemary, Lemon and Parma Ham

I am fully expecting a phone call from the 1980s asking for its menu back, but in my defence this is simple, superfast (to prepare) and sensational (to eat, which is what counts) and I am not suggesti…

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Elvis Presley's Fried Peanut-Butter and Banana Sandwich

This recipe, for want of a better word, comes from a rhinestone gem of a cookbook Are You Hungry Tonight?, a collection of Elvis Presley's favourite foodstuffs, which I bought on a visit to Graceland…

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Quesadillas

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's more, they're pretty well instant to mak…

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Roquamole

Although I have called this incredible blue cheese and avocado dip roquamole, I actually make it with St Agur rather than Roquefort. But do feel free to use any blue cheese you want, of course, bearin…

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This is the best dip ever! Try it and you’ll be hooked for life.

Mirin Glazed Salmon

This must be the fastest way there is to create a culinary sensation. You do scarcely a thing — just dibble some salmon steaks in a dark glossy potion, most of which you get out of a jar — and what yo…

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Salmon Fishcakes

Matzo meal is widely available at supermarkets, and well worth keeping in store. I use tinned salmon here because I think, strangely enough, that's how they taste best (if it's good enough for Marguer…

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Soba Noodles With Sesame Seeds

I love the Japanese way of eating cold noodles: I just lift a bowl to my face, fork furiously and slurp. If you want to make these part of a meal, then know that they go wonderfully well with salmon:…

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Butternut and Sweet Potato Soup

Ever since I overcame my prejudices about buying pre-chopped fruit and veg, my cooking life has got a lot simpler. And you should know that in Italian markets, storeholders regularly sell peeled and p…

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Macaroni Cheese

This is the shortcut version: no cheese sauce, but a gorgeously huge amount of cheese, bound with egg and evaporated milk. Yum. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the rec…

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Spinach and Coconut Soup

This is an almost instant, super soothing supper made easily from store cupboard ingredients. I have stipulated two tablespoons of Thai green curry paste, but do be prepared to add more if you like a…

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Quick Calamari With Garlic Mayonnaise

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's mea…

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Seafood Pot

This makes for a very quick, warming and yet elegant supper. A fennel salad before or after would be lovely, but you need no more with it than just some bread for dunking.

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Tuna and Crab and Avocado Wraps

I have never really thought of myself as a person who could wrap, fold or fiddle about with food or felt that way inclined. But you know, when you get into it, it's really quite OK — actually, more th…

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Chicken, Mushroom and Bacon Pie

Even the word pie is comforting. But then, it would be hard to deny the very real lure of pastry, especially when, as here, you know you're going to dunk it in gravied juices till its luscious lightne…

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Butternut Squash With Pecans and Blue Cheese

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, t…

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My Mother's Praised Chicken

This may well be — indeed is — the smell, the taste, the dish that says "family" to me and my siblings, and brings our long-absent mother back to the kitchen and the table with us. This is not merely…

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Slime Soup

This is just the thing to set children up for a night of marauding through the chilly streets trick-or-treating, or to warm them up once they get home. I know the title sounds disgusting — it's meant…

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Happiness Soup

Forgive the tweeness of the title, but this is a soup of such sunny, mood-enhancing yellowness that it overcomes even the most pervasively innate cynicism. To eat this is to feel cheered; even cooking…

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Mexican Scrambled Eggs

This is not only the best way to start the day, but the best way to end it, too. You can make it even more of a meal by serving some refried beans alongside, but I love it just as it is. It also happe…

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Perfect! Feeling slightly fragile this morning and this has perked me up no end!

Pasta Salad Primavera

This recipe does involve a lot of fiddly preparation, but what it creates is addictive; every mouthful repays the effort a hundredfold. What's more, you can stash it in a Tupperware or similar and lea…

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Chestnut and Pancetta Salad

I've been making this salad in one guise or another since the 90s; indeed, the recipe is to be found in How To Eat, where the salad leaf I proposed was escarole. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find…

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Greek Salad, My Way

A Greek Salad in the summertime is one of those classic dishes that needs no tinkering. And yet, I confess tinkering is just what I have done here. The only substantial alteration I’ve made to the tra…

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Bulgur Wheat Salad with Pink-Seared Lamb

This bulgur wheat salad is loosely based on tabbouleh, only using coriander in place of the parsley, lime in place of the lemon and omitting the tomatoes and adding the chilli and some raw, diced cour…

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Mexican Chicken or Turkey Salad With Tomato and Black Bean Salsa

This is the perfect recipe for using leftover chicken or turkey at any time. A jicama is sometimes known as a Mexican potato, though that's a bit misleading since you can eat it raw. It looks like a t…

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Salade Nicoise

Everyone seems to have a very strong opinion as to what should or should not go into a Salade Nicoise, so let me tell you from the outset, I have no desire to join the fray. I put in what I have at ho…

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Hot and Sour Beef Salad

In How to Eat, I used a shallot for this salad; here I've used a spring onion. Frankly any allium of your choice would be fine. Similarly, any salad leaf you like can be used as its foundation.

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Chicken, Mango and Chilli Salad

This started off life as a reworking of Coronation Chicken, that mixture of cold chicken, mayo, mango chutney, curry powder and apricot puree (or that's how both my grandmothers made it) that, strange…

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Chickpeas With Rocket and Sherry

This is not quite a stir-fry, though I do cook it in my wok. The chickpeas get soused with the sherry and infused with cumin, and the tangle of deep green peppery rocket wilts leggily in the pan.

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Crab and Avocado Salad With Japanese Dressing

Now that I can find good, fresh tubs of crab meat at the supermarket I can really rely on this as a table-and-tummy filler when I don't have much time for slow, store-by-specialist-store shopping. The…

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Crunchy Salad With Hot and Sour Dressing

This is one of those salads I love to have around to pick at from the fridge or tub up to take with me for brightening food on the move. It's got such powerful flavours and bite, which makes it feel m…

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Gingery Hot Duck Salad

This recipe is a slight reworking of a Cambodian beef salad I often make; here the lime juice in the steeping mixture (which turns into the dressing) is supplemented with orange juice (Asian evocation…

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Red Mullet With Sweet and Sour Shredded Salad

We are in rose-tinted heaven here: the pink glint of the red mullet's skin flashes like a Barbie-mermaid's tail against a salad of shredded pawpaw, red chilli pepper, carrot and spring onions, sprinkl…

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Red Seasonal Salad

For someone who’s never been to Vietnam, I am piling up quite a few recipes which are Vietnamese in inspiration if not origin. This is a festively toned take on what is sometimes referred to as ‘Vietn…

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The Rainbow Room's Carrot and Peanut Salad

This is not the place for in-depth social history, unless you take the view — as I do — that all food is social history, but I do need to provide a bit of provenance. Once upon a time there was Biba,…

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Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad

When it comes to chicken, I am very much a thigh than a breast person, but this salad makes me happily relish the white meat. Indeed, I am always happy to roast a chicken, eat the brown meat, and leav…

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Watermelon, Feta and Black Olive Salad

As improbable as it might sound, this combination is utterly fantastic, both savoury and refreshing at the same time. You can pare it down to the essential contrast, and serve no more than a plate of…

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Mouclade

For some reason, this lesser-known cousin of moules mariniere has gone out of fashion. That's to say, I haven't seen it on a menu or eaten it anywhere outside of my kitchen for yonks. And yet it's so…

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