A healthier gluten free, sugar free version of her original breakfast bars.

This is a salty-sweet version (think Greek cheesecake) of the Greek Patsavouropita, created by bakeries as a way of using up old scraps of filo pastry: the ”old rags” indicated by the title. They’d just go along their counters, collect up all the bits and turn them into this pie. For this reason, you don’t need to worry about keeping your filo covered as you go, as is normally advised. It doesn’t matter if it dries out a little as you make it, indeed this can even be desirable. I have made this with a variety of filo pastries, and I have found that the more widely available brands are too damp and too heavily sprinkled with flour to do the job well. Luckily, those brands make a frozen filo, which doesn’t seem to suffer from the same problems, which is why I stipulate this, below. However, should you be lucky enough to have access to good quality, authentic filo, then please use fresh. 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.

See inside her bold and beautiful cooking space

A selection of three jug cocktails to make hosting easier

Feel Good Food

IT'S been 16 years since the release of her first cookbook, and Nigella Lawson has revealed it was her late husband who convinced her to pursue cooking as a career.

Nigella, also known as Love-in-a-Mist, is a remarkable plant with stunning seed pods that adds a touch of enchantment to any garden. Learn how to grow Nigella.

Speaking with Who magazine, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson revealed the one basic cooking skill she's struggled to master

It's a good idea to have something up your sleeve that you can cook quickly, and simply, when you've got friends coming over to supper midweek after work. This is that something. Don't let the length of the list of ingredients put you off. You really could go to the supermarket at lunchtime and buy everything you need. What's more, most of it keeps: salmon, raw prawns, lime leaves and lemongrass in the deep-freeze (and all but the salmon can be used from frozen); curry paste in the fridge; the coconut milk, fish sauce, fish-stock concentrate and turmeric in the cupboard. In other words, one shopping expedition, many curries. I've said 1-2 tablespoons of curry paste. This is because pastes vary enormously in their strengths and people vary enormously in their tastes. Some like it hot: I like it very hot — and use 2 tablespoonfuls. But it might be wiser to add 1 tablespoonful first and then taste later, once all the liquid's in, to see if you want to add more. One last bossy note: if you can't get raw prawns, don't use cooked ones; just double the amount of salmon. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Nigella Lawson served up delicious apricot and almond cake with polenta, pistachios, rosewater and cardamom on Simply Nigella. Nigella says: “Using ground almonds instead of flour make this c…

I can't tell you how often I get asked to make this at home. This is something of a culinary pun: it looks like a pizza, but its base is made out of meatball mixture, moreover a meatball mixture you don't have to roll into balls but can simply press into a tin, rather like a juicy disc of meatloaf, or polpettone. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

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.

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. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

I never thought I would be in raptures about the joyfulness of a – yes – vegan chocolate cake

Ever since my first pav in How To Eat, I have been something of a pavaholic. For me, acidity is key. So naturally, a lemon pavlova made perfect sense. You will note there are a lot of flaked almonds required: that is because they are the topping of the pav and not mere decoration; the crunch they offer is essential. I make this with a jar of shop-bought lemon curd, but obviously I wouldn’t stop you from making your own. Should you want, you can adapt my Passionfruit Curd recipe, omitting the passionfruit and adding the finely grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons to the butter at the melting stage. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Nigella Lawson served up tasty fish tacos with iceberg lettuce on Simply Nigella. Nigella says: “I am a broad church: when I’m not craving a bowl of food that delivers the same soothing taste…

Not for nothing does the great Nigel Slater call me ‘the queen of the frozen pea’ (an accolade I am most proud of)

A classic tiramisu is one dessert I can rarely resist, but this recipe offers stiff competition-white chocolate and raspberries are made for each other, and the vibrant green pistachios add a nutty flourish that makes this dish the absolutely perfect way to round off a meal.

I call this a pudding cake because its texture is simply a mixture between pudding and cake, though lighter by far than that could ever imply. Think, rather, of a mousse without fluffiness: this is dense but delicate with it. And it’s heavenly at blood heat, when the gooey chocolate sits warmly around the sour-sweet juicy raspberries embedded in the cake, like glinting, mud-covered garnets. This should be eaten an hour or so after it comes out of the oven. It gets more solid when cold, and loses some of that spectacular texture. If you have any left, wrap it in foil and heat it up in the oven, or warm it up a slice at a time in the microwave before eating it. 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.

While I think of this as a salad, you might consider it simply a vegetable dish served at room temperature. No matter: it’s a glorious summer dish whichever way you look at it: green and yellow courgettes/zucchini, cut into batons, oil-dressed and oven-roasted; jade-glowing broad beans/fava beans and deep emerald fine beans, both lightly boiled then refreshed in a bowl of icy water to keep their verdant intensity. It's a recipe that sings of summer and, indeed, is adapted, with a few changes, from my book, Nigella Summer! If you can’t get yellow courgettes/zucchini, simply use all green ones. I am stricter when it comes to the broad beans: you really need to shell the beans as well as pop them out of their pods. It’s not actually hard. Once you’ve plunged the drained cooked beans into icy water, and left them there for five minutes before draining them again, you’ll find it easy — and rather satisfying — to squeeze them out of their tough skins. When I use frozen broad beans — which I often do — I defrost them in a bowl of hot water, then shell them before cooking them very briefly along with the fine green beans, and I then just drain them both and plunge them into a bowl of iced water for a minute or so. Should you have any left over, cook some pasta, drain it, warm the beans and courgettes gently with a little olive oil in the pan you've cooked the pasta in and then add the pasta to the vegetables and stir to combine, along with some grated parmesan. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

I’m just going to say it: this is the best macaroni cheese I’ve ever eaten. I don’t feel it’s boastful to say as much, as the greatness lies not in any brilliance on my part, but in the simple tastes of the ingredients as they fuse in the heat. That’s home cooking for you. I do rather love the way these little macaroni cheeses, with their pixie-penne, look like they’ve been made with artificially coloured, cheap squeezy cheese or out of a box, when in fact their exotic glow comes courtesy of the earthy goodness of a sweet potato. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

It’s the weekend and no better time for a do it yourself breakfast, and particularly one which will last you the whole week. This…

This is such a good way to turn tomatoes into an utterly delicious main-course sort of affair, and it’s fun to make too. The idea is, of course, toad-like, but I think it offers a little more than bangers in batter. The tomatoes are so sweet and juicy they almost make a gravy of their own accord. I add wedges of red onion and lots of garlic, rosemary and thyme, which all work wonderfully. A little finely grated aged cheese is a nice touch – you could even use a blue cheese if you liked. Plus – after more than 20 years of cooking – I’ve finally found a batter recipe I want to be associated with. It actually works, every time. Thank you, Barney!

Most of the time I refer to this as my Cider and 5-Spice Gingerbread, but I changed the name out of concern for those who expect a little more gingeriness from their gingerbead (although anyone is free to boost the amount of ginger at will). But, actually, the tender crumb has the lightness of a cake rather than the damp heaviness (gorgeous though that is) of a gingerbread. Besides, I felt it only proper to accord the magnificently aromatic 5-spice seasoning its star role. I have since found that there are many variants of 5-spice powder out there. While generally I presume on a mixture of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds, I also love the versions that have liquorice and dried mandarin peel. But what I’ve found is that all types work, even the one or two brands that erroneously add garlic: a couple of people (one here, and one in the States) have made it with this version, and both vouch that the garlic is not detectable. Still, when you’re shopping, it’s best to check the ingredients label and go for one without garlic if you can. Either way, this is wonderful enough plain as it is, though I have something of a faiblesse for the gleaming accompaniment of Salted Caramel Sauce. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

I have been alive a long time and, at least when it comes to eating, have spent that time wisely and well. So it's not often that I eat something that tastes so different to anything I've come across before. But this is such a dish. A gorgeous and mesmerically talented chef called, so perfectly, Tum, cooked it when I was on holiday in Thailand a few years ago, and I made him cook it again and again, and then finally asked him if I could video his making it, so I could try and recreate it at home. Apart from having to make geographically enforced changes, I have stuck to Tum's recipe, including the ready-ground pepper and chicken stock concentrate (actually, he used chicken powder). I just had to share this spectacularly unfamiliar but compelling recipe with you. I hope you will be as bowled over by it as I was. 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.

This is such a good way to turn tomatoes into an utterly delicious main-course sort of affair, and it’s fun to make too. The idea is, of course, toad-like, but I think it offers a little more than bangers in batter. The tomatoes are so sweet and juicy they almost make a gravy of their own accord. I add wedges of red onion and lots of garlic, rosemary and thyme, which all work wonderfully. A little finely grated aged cheese is a nice touch – you could even use a blue cheese if you liked. Plus – after more than 20 years of cooking – I’ve finally found a batter recipe I want to be associated with. It actually works, every time. Thank you, Barney!

This is one of those thick, wintry soups made spiky and fresh with chilli, ginger and lime. It has the hit of a hot and sour soup, but the nubbliness of the split peas gives those clear, piercing flavours an unfamiliar edge, while adding cosiness at the same time. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

These are rather like Eastern Mediterranean meatballs in sausage form, though you can come across them as fat burger-like patties, too. As loose-packed sausages, they’re formed around skewers and turned over an open flame. Since I rarely use a barbecue, but just stare at it being rained on in the garden, I simply fry them in a pan. And much as I like the long lollipop approach, I can’t make a skewer fit in the frying pan, so sausages — albeit highly seasoned and juicy sausages — it is. I don’t wish to be too prescriptive as to how you should eat them, but I roughly chop some tomatoes and parsley and mix them together in a bowl, to be brought to the table along with some shredded iceberg lettuce and an eye-poppingly intense garlic sauce. Eat them, hot-dog-style, wrapped in warm flatbread. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Here is my Italian version, you could say, of creamed spinach. Actually, it tastes rather like the ricotta and spinach mixture that's used to stuff pasta; of course, given the ingredients, this is scarcely surprising. For me this is the perfect accompaniment to a grilled steak or roast chicken but then I could spoon this soft, eggy spinach down, swooningly, just as it is. 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.

This is adapted from the Salty Honey Pie from the Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book. I haven’t fiddled much with the ur-version — why mess with perfection? — but mine does have an easier-to-make, no-roll, press-in pie crust, a pastry for those with (apologies to Mel Brooks) Pie Anxiety. I am grateful for the inspiration: this is quite one of my favourite pies of all time. I find the saltiness here tempers the rich, honeyed sweetness, but if you prefer to embrace its intensity head on, reduce the salt in the filling to 1 teaspoon. But in either case, it’s essential you use sea salt flakes, not pouring salt. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

I don’t think I could say how often I’ve made this since settling into my new kitchen. Not that I’m ashamed of being repetitive — I find that comforting — but I’ve simply cooked it too often to count. This, as it cooks, fills your kitchen with its gentle anise and citrus scent, working as well in midwinter with in-season Seville oranges as it does in summer with eating oranges, their sweetness soured by lemon. I always get the chicken in its marinade a day ahead, but if you don’t have time, an hour would be fine (out of the fridge, but in a cool place) so long as you start off with good chicken. If you can afford good organic chicken, buy it. It is this chicken that provides a strong natural “gravy”, and the other reasons to do so are even more compelling. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Mughlai chicken is the perfect creamy curry recipe. Made with almonds, spices and aromatics, this curry is a guaranteed crowd favorite.

This is a Greek recipe — actually, strictly speaking, it's Italian, or of Italian derivation: strapazzare meaning, in the context of eggs, "to scramble". And really that's what this is: eggs scrambled with tomatoes. I was initially hesitant about this, as the notion of tomatoes mixed into scrambled eggs didn't seem appealing. But the thing is, it doesn't quite taste like that. This is what cooking is all about: what the ingredients do together in the pan, not what they sound like on the page. A simple alchemy. I am reliably informed that the cheese you would eat with it is Xynotyro, but since there's no way I have of getting my hands on that in my neighbourhood, I go for Wensleydale as the closest substitute available locally. What you want is a sharp and salty cheese that will crumble and melt a little, if that helps. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

This is another recipe I adapted from Nigella Lawson new book "Simply Nigella" and its absolutely delicious. It's a really ea...

Known simply as Green Sauce, this is a constant in my house: I just wouldn't be allowed not to have it in the fridge at all times. It can be eaten either as a condiment — and once you get the taste for it, you'll find yourself dolloping it alongside pretty much everything you eat — or a dip, specifically good with blue corn or unsalted tortilla chips. And don't be lulled by the cool greenness: this is — desirably — fierce and fiery. Even though I wouldn't — it's the unrelenting heat I love — you could, of course, de-seed the jalapenos. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Pizza rustica is not a pizza in the way that we've come to understand it, though anyone who's spent time in Italy might well have come across it. The word pizza simply means pie, and this term denotes a deep, pastry-encased creation. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Like poor Becky Sharp biting into a green chilli thinking it looked so cool and refreshing, it is easy to be lulled by the soothing greenness of this — the salving avocado, the juicy cucumber — but do not overlook the fierce flecks, made even more zingy by the lime’s acid rasp. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

Although I make the most of the Seville orange season (December to February), that bitter orange taste is too good to forsake during the long months that Seville oranges are not about. Then I simply try to recreate their floral sharpness by using regular orange and lime juices in something approximating a 2:1 ratio. If you want to do the same, then use 60ml / ¼ cup lime juice (from 2-3 limes) and 140ml / ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon orange juice (from 1 large or 2 medium oranges). I have to say, that when Seville oranges are in season, this tart looks like a disc of winter sunshine on the plate — and tastes like it, too. I must also add that the curd is just as fabulous spread over toasted crumpets or proper white bread. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

The general explanation given why Thai drunken noodles are so called is that they have enough chilli in them to shake you out of even the worst hangover. This is my simplified version. I've cut to the chase — no meat, fish or veg, just highly seasoned, searingly hot noodles. Most of the ingredients come from the storecupboard, and the finished dish is in front of you in 10 minutes. I find these hot noodles hard to beat, and they do really blow your head off: if you want less of a fiery fright, then halve the chilli flakes. To start with, at least... For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

This is relatively new to my repertoire but firmly established for all that. True, the tequila doesn’t exactly convey flavour, or not so that you could name it, but it sure brings fire — augmented by the chilli flakes — and tenderizes the chicken beautifully. It was while cooking this, during an extended (work) stay at the Chateau Marmont in LA, that I set off the fire alarm. Somehow that feels entirely appropriate. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

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 prepared vegetables bagged up to make their customers' life easier. These squash and sweet potato dice certainly work for me, though there's no reason you couldn't chop them yourself from fresh; a quarter of an hour's bubbling with some stock and some spice, and sweet succour is to hand. Sometimes you are not in the mood to wait. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

This is a cinch to make, and easy-easy-easy to eat. If you want to serve it in glasses with rims dipped in sugar and salt, by all means do. But it is so good that, even as someone who is not a committed ice cream eater and no kind of drinker, I find I can spoon it straight into my mouth from the container it's chilled in. 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