The Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson, is back and bringing four delicious recipes you can make for £5. Sign us up!
Who doesn’t love Nigella Lawson? From her hilarious quips (who remembers her pronunciation of microwave as mee-cro-wah-vey?) to her delightful dishes, she’s been a nations favourite for a long time. And she’s sharing yummy recipes to try during the cost-of-living crisis, that cost £5 to cook for four people.
The celebrity chef, 62, has partnered with Ocado to launch a series of recipes over the next year, as well as creating a ‘Nigella Loves’ aisle for customers to shop the cook’s favourite products. We will always take a Nigella rec on board when cooking.
She said, “I’m so thrilled to be joining with Ocado to come up with everyday recipes to make life easier and more delicious, and share with you the food that I love at home.
“It’s a particular pleasure to highlight the items I buy regularly and build my very own ‘Nigella Loves’ aisle, which I’ll be adding to often as I find new favourites. Sharing my enthusiasm and my food has always been a motivating force for me.”
The new recipes include Lawson’s Dreamy, Creamy Peanut Butter Pasta, which she says is one of her staples, a Cosy Supper Stir-Fry complete with a zig-zag of HP sauce (a woman after our own heart), a Feta, Black Bean and Clementine Couscous and a microwaveable Speedy Steamed Syrup Sponge. Yes that’s right. A speedy microwave pudding. Need we say more?
It comes after research by Ocado found that close to two thirds of households (57%) are looking to make more budget friendly recipes this autumn, while 54% of Britons want to make an effort to use up forgotten items in their cupboard shelves.
“They’re all store cupboard recipes with a little flourish of something fresh,” said Nigella Lawson. “It’s about those little touches that don’t require dexterity or a traipse round to get the most rarefied, recondite ingredient you’ve ever found.”
Credit: Ocado
Dreamy, creamy peanut butter pasta by Nigella Lawson
Serves 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
1 x 240g pack Ocado Own Range baby spinach
1 tbsp fine salt, plus ¼ tsp for the sauce
320g spaghetti (I use De Cecco)
75g M&S smooth peanut butter
2 Ocado Own Range large garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp Ocado Own Range dried thyme
½ tsp Ocado Own Range chilli flakes
½ Ocado Own Range unwaxed lemon, juiced, plus wedges to serve
1 large pinch Ocado Own Range paprika, for dusting (optional)
Method:
- Get out a large pan that comes with a tightly fitting lid, and fill it with 2.5l water from a just-boiled kettle. Clamp on the lid, and bring the water back to the boil on a large burner on your hob. Sit a large colander in the sink, break open your bag of baby spinach leaves with gusto and tip the contents into the waiting colander.
- Get out a clean tea towel (not a terry towelling or waffle one, just a smooth, thin one) and take it over to the stove. Once the water’s boiling vigorously, add 1 tbsp fine salt, which will make the water rise up fizzingly. Wait for it to subside, then give it a good stir and, once the water’s boiling again, add the pasta, and stir with a pasta fork to help it submerge. Once the water has come back to the boil, cook for 2 mins, stirring often to detangle and de-clump the spaghetti. Once the 2 mins are up, take the pan off the heat – though just to a neighbouring burner – cover with your tea towel and clamp on the lid for 8 mins, during which you can prepare your remaining ingredients.
- Drain the pasta into the spinach-filled colander – thereby wilting the leaves – and take the pan back to the hob, leaving the colander in the sink for now. Quickly spoon the peanut butter into the warm pan and add about 125ml of the reserved pasta cooking water and stir well. It will look grainy and alarming at first, and when you look at the curdled clumps, you’ll think something’s gone wrong. It hasn’t! Just carry on stirring, adding the minced garlic, dried thyme, chilli flakes, 2 tsp lemon juice and ¼ tsp salt, and you will swiftly see a pale, herb-flecked emulsion come into being. Slowly stir in another 125ml of the pasta water until that too has been smoothly incorporated.
- Add the spag’n’spinach and stir and toss in the pan (I use a couple of forks) to mix everything together as evenly as possible. You’ll need to keep adding more of the reserved pasta water, as the pasta will keep drinking it up, so keep adding a little at a time, stirring vigorously but carefully; you shouldn’t have more than 50ml left, though you might well use it all. Taste for seasoning – you may well need more salt or lemon juice – then serve, making sure you give everyone an even amount of spinach. If wished, lightly dust the top of each bowl with paprika. And if you have half a lemon left over, you could slice it into thin wedges and give one to each person to squeeze over as they eat.
