Nigella recipes

Nigella Lawson is our kitchen inspiration. She's self-taught, worldly, sophisticated and homey. Need proof? These 12 delicious recipes.

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.

Known as chip gratin in my house, this is the most fabulous potato bake, and an indispensable part of Christmas celebrations in Sweden: the potatoes are cut as if you were making French fries, then layered up in a dish with onions that you’ve cooked in butter until soft, along with a couple of tins of Swedish ansjovis, with cream and milk (or all cream, if you prefer) before being topped with breadcrumbs (although I must admit I forgot to add them for this photograph!) and butter, and baked…

Five easy recipes for the home cook, from chicken barley to slow-roast five-spice lamb with Chinese pancakes and walnut carrot cake

These little cookies — described by one friend as tasting like a cookie within a cookie — are really a mixture between a meringue and a cookie. Hence they've become known at home, where they're immensely popular, as Merookies, and are ideal with a cup of coffee after dinner. They are called "forgotten" as, just like the Forgotten Pudding, they are not baked, but put in a hot oven, which you immediately turn off, leaving the cookies to bake in the fading residual heat overnight. I find it all…

I used to make this with the potatoes cut into slices and all laid out flat, which works just fine. But standing the potato slices up gives a brilliant crunchy element on top, while the bottom half steams and softens, going wonderfully creamy. When slicing the potato, a mandolin is great but by hand is fine; what’s important is to slice them as evenly as possible.

The mic drop of easy, fancy holiday desserts.

This is revolutionary: you put the raw chipped potatoes into cold oil, then heat it up. It sounds crazy, but it works. You’d think it would make them unbearably greasy but in fact you end up with crisp, oil-free fries of utter fabulousness. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

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…

From her famed Coca-Cola braised ham to chicken Cosima, Observer Food Monthly’s selection of favourite Nigella Lawson dishes