“Pappardelle with Cavolo Nero and ‘Nduja” from “Cook, Eat, Repeat”

This is a classic Nigella recipe: easy to make but packs a real punch. In this case, it’s the ‘Nduja that’s doing all the work, but if you’ve ever cooked with ‘Nduja, you’ll know that’s true without me needing to tell you that. They should put that on all the jars of ‘Nduja, frankly: Packs a real punch.

I need to be upfront about this recipe test, and some of you may have already spotted the problem. That’s not cavolo nero in the pan, it’s spinach. I thought it would easy to source the cavolo nero since it’s in season at the moment, but there was none to be found, so I used another favourite dark green vegetable, spinach. While not the same, it worked fine. I think Nigella would approve of the pivot.

The one interesting thing that Nigella has you do is add some cubed potato to the pasta (you can spot some in the photo above in the lower right-hand corner). It helps to bulk up the dish, but also soaks up the ‘Nduja sauce. Not everyone was convinced about this addition. “It’s just adding more starch to starch,” Tim said. For what it’s worth, I thought it was a good idea.

This was an excellent weeknight meal.

“Love Lasagna” from “Cook, Eat, Repeat”

Nigella says this is a family go-to favourite, when everyone is around to celebrate. It’s certainly worthy of a crowd, especially at the weekend when there is the more than three hours available to put it together. She is right to say no part of the dish is hard, but fails to caution that pretty much all of it is time consuming. (Three hours is not a typo, which is why we had it on a Sunday.)

The meat sauce of carrots, onion, pork, beef, tomatoes, celery, wine and herbs felt like a basic Bolognese after 90 minutes in the oven. We hand-chopped the vegetables instead of using the processor, which increased the effort but seemed more authentic. The bechamel includes a 45-minute infusion of milk with vegetable scraps that we skipped, because we had doubts over how much flavour it would really add (not sure we missed it). Nigella says to use shop-bought dry pasta, which we would do except our Sainsbury’s Local doesn’t stock lasagne sheets so we made our own, from about 400 to 450 grams of dough. This is another reason why this was a Sunday afternoon project.

In the end there’s a glorious pan of goodness and the satisfaction of a hours in the kitchen in blissful ignorance of the pandemic outside. Rich and filling, the handmade noodles added extra silk to the texture. Nigella says this feeds eight, and that felt about right at dinner for the four of us, plus a few gluttonous lunches during the week. She encourages you to assemble and adapt as you wish. For us, we’ll call this Lockdown Lasagne.

“Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake” from “Cook, Eat, Repeat”

Cake. Glorious cake. Who doesn’t love a good slab of cake? I mean, probably plenty of people, but no one I would want to spend a significant amount of time with. Especially this year. We might not be able to invite anyone inside, let alone visit anywhere fun (miss you already shops, cinemas, restaurants and pubs), so cake can go a long way in making those rough patches a little more bearable.

Especially this cake. To be sure, this family is solidly in the “We Love Chocolate and Peanut Butter Together” camp. If you don’t like that combination, then this recipe would definitely not be your jam. But for us, this was perfection on a plate. There was a great deal of icing, to be sure, but we didn’t struggle with that. In 2020, we take our fun where we can find it.

Nigella advises to use four shallow cake pans to make four layers. While I do have four pans, though not specifically shallow ones that she mentions, I thought the batter didn’t quite stretch to four cakes, so I made three instead. She also advises that if you are going to do four layers, you should double the amount of icing that you make. I did that, even though we only had three layers, and we had some left over. This did not trouble me. I can confirm that it is delicious off a spoon. Again, it’s 2020. I take my fun where I can find it.

Would I recommend this? Absolutely. This was the first recipe I made from the new cookbook and it did not disappoint. In fact, the boys asked me to make again the following weekend. As much as I was tempted by the request, I resisted the entreaties. But now I can’t think of a single good reason why I did.

Make it. Eat it. Enjoy life. All good things.

If you would like to make this yourself, the Guardian published a story about Nigella’s new book featuring this very recipe. You will find it by clicking through here.

Sunday Lunch, Roast Beef Edition from “How to Eat”

Do you have a fail-safe system that you use all the time? (Me: Yes.) Do you question its origins? (Me: No.)

For me, my fail-safe system for Sunday lunch– or any big feast– is to create a menu and then make timetable for cooking all the different dishes. Obviously you work backward from when you want to sit down and eat and then plan accordingly. I never really thought about when I started using this method, or why, it just seems like it’s always been that way.

Until now. As I turned to the gravy-splattered pages covering Sunday Lunch in How to Eat, I read this sentence: “I’m sorry to sound bossy, but Sunday lunch, as I’ve said, has to be run like a military campaign. I find it easier to decide when I want to eat and then work backwards, writing every move down on a pad which I keep in a fixed place in the kitchen.”

There it is. My origin story for how to make Sunday lunch.

Nigella is right, of course. Not only do I write the schedule down, but I keep plans and schedules from big legendary feasts so that if I want to do it again, I’ll know how it went. For Thanksgiving, which is this week (huzzah!) I have a whole file folder devoted to previous schedules, recipes, menu plans, notes about didn’t work, dating back to 2001. We’ve never started eating the Thanksgiving year at the same time twice, but I find it very comforting to find these old notes when I’m planning our Thanksgiving extravaganza.

The grease stains and gravy spots in my copy of “How to Eat” will tell you that I’ve used Nigella’s recipes for a roast beef Sunday lunch countless times. The roast beef instructions are clear and work every time. The gravy is delicious and never fails. Controversially, she directs you to make one big Yorkshire pudding rather than four or eight smaller ones, but that’s good too.

Even looking at the photo again is making my mouth water. Once again: Nigella For The Win.

“Couscous” from “How to Eat”

“How to Eat” has been with me for 19 years. I got it on my first birthday in London in 1999. I had a newborn son and I was still trying to find my feet both as a Londoner and as a mother. My husband gave it to me purely because there was a whole section in the back devoted to how to feed children. Little did I know then how important this cookbook would be to me, 19 years later. It would definitely be one of my Desert Island Cookbooks.

I can’t possible recall when I first made the recipe for couscous, but I do know that once I started making it, I never stopped.

I’ve made this recipe so often now that I know it by heart. 100 grams of couscous to 150 millilitres of stock, and for our family, 300 grams of couscous to 450 millilitres of stock is a good amount. Put the two together, pop a lid on it, wait 10 minutes (or thereabouts), add some olive oil or butter, fluff it up, and it’s done.

In the ensuing years, I’ve adapted and changed this recipe countless times. Some popular variations include: adding roasted vegetables, adding feta, adding chopped flat-leaf parsley, sometimes doing all three. In the above photo, I added a new Waitrose frozen roasted vegetable assortment, which worked a treat.

Couscous carried my boys through their childhood and beyond. Soon after I started making this regularly, a new British friend (who is now an old British friend) said to me, “This couscous is perfect. It’s just the way it should be.” High praise indeed.

Once again, thanks Nigella.

“Minestrone” from “How to Eat”

The air was autumnal, the sky was grey and we had just returned from a week of eating all sorts of goodness in the US (read: fried chicken, pizza, cheesesteaks), so there was only one thing for it– a bowl of healthy soup. Minestrone fit the bill perfectly.

Once again, Nigella did not disappoint. As with all vegetable-centric dishes, the prep– chopping, peeling and the like– is what takes up so much time. But Nigella soothingly tells us in the introduction that you can chop one set of vegetables, throw it in at a low heat, and then move on to prepare the next one. It makes sense.

She does note that the soup does turn out to be “an undeniable khaki,” and that’s true. See above. This is one recipe where it probably is a good thing that there’s no photos in this book.

The one thing that tripped me up was Nigella’s recommendation to use Ligurian olive oil. I spent a fair amount of time in my local Waitrose trying, and failing, to find Ligurian olive oil. I went for the Tuscan olive oil instead, reasoning that it was the next region over, so close enough (though she says the Tuscan stuff is more peppery). But funnily enough, that night we finally sat down to watch “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” on Netflix— a cookbook we reviewed earlier this year— and Samin Nosrat goes to Liguria to see them make olive oil. Coincidental or poetic? You decide.

We had loads of leftovers, but I’ve got to say that the soup is even better the next day. Once again, Nigella for the win.

Cookbook of the Month, November 2018: How to Eat by Nigella Lawson

Maureen: How could we not review this book by the patron saint of our blog?

Kirstin: It’s twenty years since the original release. I was given my copy by a fellow doctor. We both survived the trauma of housejobs together and she gave me the book as a thank you for being her bridesmaid the following year.

Maureen: How did that happen?!?

Kirstin: Seriously, I have no idea!

Maureen: This was the first British cookbook I ever got– Tim gave it to my on my birthday in November 1999. Now that’s taking me back. It’s still on my high-rotation shelf, 19 years later. I learnt so much from this book and made so many things from it, and indeed, still do.

Kirstin: Me too, me too! I’m looking forward to learning some new recipes now I can cook a little better.

Maureen: I know what you mean. It’s such a classic book.

Our Verdict: At My Table

Maureen: Using one of my favourite British expressions, this was a bit of a damp squid.

Kirstin: I agree. Does that make it damp squid squared? I’m not sure I’d want to eat at her At Her Table every night. That sounds really mean, but it’s true.

Maureen: Nigella is so good and so inspirational it just seems a double disappointment.

Kirstin: I forgive her for that, unlike other people we could mention. {Editor’s note: She’s talking about Jamie and his recent slide into writing not-very-good cookbooks.}

Maureen: When I usually get a Nigella cookbook, it’s filled with post-its of the things I want to make. But not this time. I struggled to find something that I wanted to make.

Kirstin: I’m sure the next book will be a triumph.

Maureen: Her first books were all about getting as many people as you could around the table and enjoying a meal. It’s a philosophy that drives me to this day. But this book didn’t have that. The recipes were not inspiring. And she really didn’t talk about the communal aspect of food and how great that is, and that just made me sad.

[At this point, we lost interest in the cookbook and started talking about the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle engagement.]

We know you can do a great one the next time, Nigella.

“At My Table”
Overall Grade (A- F): B- (Kirstin)  C (Maureen)
Best recipes: Kirstin: Lime & Coriander Chicken and Indian Spiced Traybake. Maureen: Roasted tomato salsa.
Grade for Photography (A-F):  B.
Any disasters? Kirstin: No. Maureen: No.
Bookshelf or Charity Shop Donation? Kirstin: Low-rotation Bookshelf.  Maureen: I might give it to the charity shop because I know there isn’t anything in there that I’ll cook again, but then again, it is Nigella so I might hold on to it for sentimental reasons only.                                   Would You Give This Book to a Friend?: No. If I were to give a Nigella cookbook to a friend, I would give them “Feast.”

 

“Meatballs with Orzo” from “At My Table”

I was very much looking forward to cooking this recipe, as Nigella created a similar dish in “Nigellissima” that is eaten by this family so often that it’s practically in our food canon.

“Fake Risotto” (see the original post here and see the follow up post here) is so beloved that I’ve already taught 18-year-old Andrew how to make it so when he’s at university next year, he’ll be able to make it for himself.

Alas, this recipe had big shoes– or should that be bowls?– to follow, and it didn’t quite fill them.

To be sure, it was delicious. However, given that you make the meatballs and then poach them in the tomato sauce before finally adding the orzo, it takes more than an hour from start to finish. If I wanted to do something that labour intensive, I’d just make our very favourite meatballs and tomato sauce from Polpo.

It was good, I just won’t be making it again. I’ll either make the original fake risotto if I only have 15 minutes, or Polpo’s meatballs and tomato sauce if I’ve got more than an hour.

“Spelt spaghetti with spicy sesame mushrooms” from “At My Table”

Maureen: It’s like Asian spaghetti.

Kirstin: It’s perfect food for a hangover!

Maureen: I’m wondering if you could use wholewheat spaghetti instead of spelt spaghetti.

Kirstin: You probably could. But I liked the challenge finding it this morning. I almost bought soba noodles when I couldn’t find spelt spaghetti at the first shop.

Maureen: So where did you find it in the end?

Kirstin: Sainsbury’s!

Maureen: Not sure the kids would like it though because of the mushrooms, unfortunately because it is good.

Kirstin: What is it with kids and their whole texture nonsense? GRRRRRRR.

Maureen: And it’s probably delicious cold too.

Kirstin: Unless you ate it all like we did!