Photo, Erik Putz. Food styling, Ashley Denton. Prop styling, Catherine Doherty.
We love leaning on our favourite chefs for inspiring (and doable) recipes to make make dinner (or dessert) an extra-special occasion. From the fast recipes featured in Jamie Oliver's cookbook 5 Ingredients (for the ultimate in last-minute rescue) to a show-stopping dessert from Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh or a classic Italian pasta from everyone's Italian nonna, Lidia Bastianich, there's a recipe to be found for every skill set, preference and time crunch.
Colourful beets, fresh tarragon, walnuts, goat cheese and clemetines (yes, just five ingredients!) give your salad course a major upgrade. Get Jamie Oliver’s Amazing Dressed Beets recipe.
Juicy steak atop white beans, rosemary, garlic and mushrooms (that’s it!) gets an entertaining-worthy meal on the table in just 26 minutes. Get Jamie Oliver’s Epic Rib-Eye Steak recipe.
These parsley and fennel-laced beef meatballs are a fragrant and delicious dinner dish. Get Jamie Oliver's meatballs alla norma recipe.
Need new broccoli inspo? Red chili pepper and a sesame dressing kick things up a notch. Get Jamie Oliver's broccoli with sesame dressing recipe.
I've used the brilliant technique of brushing the burgers with mustard and a dash of Tabasco Chipotle sauce as they cook to build up an incredibly gnarly layer of seasoning." Get Jamie Oliver's Insanity burger recipe.
This decadent carbonara uses bacon and cheddar in place of the traditional pancetta and parmesan. Get Jamie Oliver's British Carbonara recipe.
Chocolate and cherries are the perfect duo. Whip up this ultra-simple dessert in just 30 minutes, and top with a few shiny dark cherries to finish. Get Jamie Oliver’s Cherry Chocolate Mousse recipe.
Salmon, cherry tomatoes, chorizo sausage, fresh basil and black olives—everything you need for a quick midweek meal. (Did we mention it’s ready in 11 minutes?) Get Jamie Oliver’s Smoky Chorizo Salmon recipe.
"Vongole is a dish much loved by people all around the world. Ultimately, it’s a very simple pasta that celebrates the juice and flavor of clams, and if you cook it right, it’s a very delicious, classy, comforting pasta that hits the spot every time." Get Jamie Oliver's blushing spaghetti vongole recipe.
Only have one baking pan? No problem. Toss this chicken and vegetable dish together, put it in the oven, and forget it for an hour or so. Serve it up straight from the pan (side salad or rice optional). Get Jamie Oliver's Hit and Run Pan-Baked Chicken recipe.
We love sticky toffee pudding—and this gorgeous bundt-cake version is no exception. (Everyone will want seconds, seriously.) Get Jamie Oliver's Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe.
"In this recipe I want to take the joy of a steak sandwich to the next level by kind of taking the mighty steak off its pedestal a bit and putting most of the focus on awesome onions, to create the best steak sandwich ever." Get Jamie Oliver's next-level steak & onion sandwich recipe.
Dead simple, but delicious—tomato, olive and tuna pasta with lemon zest. Get Jamie Oliver's puttanesca pasta recipe.
Go all in with the vegetables tonight—crisp grated potatoes, carrots, peas, spinach, feta and soft-boiled eggs for protein. Get Jamie Oliver's Giant Veg Rosti recipe.
There is not a way I don’t like a chickpea or, indeed, a time when I couldn’t eat mashed potatoes, and this is a very happy combination of both, while being very gratifyingly its own thing. It offers comfort, uplift, aromatic zing, and ease – just what you want when lacking time or energy or both. Get Nigella Lawson's smashed chickpeas with garlic, lemon and chile recipe.
Creamy and rich, each bite of this baked delight (shared by the domestic goddess herself) is to die for! Plus it's only 10 minutes to prep. Get Nigella Lawson's gnocchi gratin recipe.
"I’m not, as a rule, one for flavouring mashed potatoes, but this version is a worthy exception. Because the garlic cloves are boiled with the potatoes, they make their presence felt sweetly rather than shoutily, and the Parmesan provides a gentle tang." Get Nigella Lawson's garlic and parmesan mashed potatoes recipe.
Keep it rustic by baking up these aubergine lovelies with the stalks on. Serve at room temperature with red onion dressing on top. Get Nigella Lawson's baby eggplant with oregano and red onion recipe.
This recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook Nigella Christmas. Get Nigella Lawson's cranberry and apple chutney recipe.
We love the vibrant flavours of this juicy steak dish, and you'll marvel with us at how quickly it comes together. Get Nigella Lawson's beef pizzaiola recipe.
It's one of the most moist and decadent slices you've ever tasted. Get Nigella Lawson's chocolate olive oil cake recipe.
Little did we know, as we started popping the beans in our mouths like fries, that they'd become a new veggie favourite! Get Nigella Lawson's green beans with pistachio pesto recipe.
It starts its life as a simple, flat sponge cake on a baking sheet. Rolled up and covered in silky buttercream, it looks rather like a barrel. Cut into it, however (revealing the bold stripes) and it looks like a whole lot of vertically inclined (and very colourful) fun. – Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh, Sweet. Get the recipe: Lemon and Blackcurrant Stripe Cake
An elegant meal for four that’s ready in under an hour. Packed with all the flavours that are the signature of Ottolenghi’s dishes, it’s a must-try. Get Ottolenghi's lamb chops with walnut, fig and goat cheese salad recipe.
This cool-toned salad of fennel and feta gets topped with parsley, tarragon, fresh fennel fronds and pomegranate arils for vibrant hits of colour and flavour. Get Ottolenghi's fennel and feta salad with pomegranate recipe.
Comforting, sticky and delicious, this chocolate loaf is right up there with perfect-for-comfort desserts like sticky toffee pudding and crumbly apple crisp. Get Ottolenghi's sticky chocolate loaf recipe.
"This is the fastest fish dish you will ever make and my first choice when I have friends coming over for a quick weeknight get-together. It’s super colourful and impressive, with the flavours of Positano in every bite. This will serve four if you have a first course or are eating lighter; otherwise, serve two fillets per person." Get Giada De Laurentiis' pan-seared branzino with tomato and capers recipe.
"Semifreddo, a frozen dessert sometimes layered with bits of crumbled cookies or fruit, is considered a special-occasion treat for Italians. It takes quite a bit of time to make one, since the ice cream layers traditionally are made from scratch. with its brownie layers (and store-bought ice cream), my version is a lot quicker to put together, but it still captures the spirit of an authentic Italian semifreddo." Get Giada De Laurentiis' black and white brownie ice cream cake recipe.
A light, fluffy, make-ahead treat. Get Giada De Laurentiis' frozen meringue cake with raspberry-balsamic syrup recipe.
Crisp and tender air-fried brussels sprouts that are ready in just 20 minutes. Get Curtis Stone's crispy air-fried Brussels sprouts recipe.
With just five minutes of prep (and five ways to season), this might be one of the easiest roast chicken recipes, ever. Get Curtis Stone's air-roasted chicken recipe.
A sticky-sweet cake that doubles up on toffee for completely irresistible results. Get Curtis Stone's air fryer sticky toffee pudding cake recipe.
A comforting Italian pasta you’ll want to make again and again. Lidia’s Tip? Slice the garlic so you can control the flavour. (Minced garlic can’t get pulled out or eaten around when the dish is plated.) Get Lidia Bastianich’s penne with ricotta and mushrooms recipe.
A "romesco-esque dip" featuring beets in lieu of roasted red peppers. Get Alison Roman's Garlicky Beet Dip recipe.
"This is the salad of my dreams," says Roman. "Garlicky, bracingly acidic, clean and crunchy as hell." Get Alison Roman's little gems with garlicky lemon pistachio recipe.
"Season it aggressively, love it passionately, and cook it perfectly," says the cookbook author about this decadent roast. Get Alison Roman's Low And Slow Rib Roast With Rosemary And Anchovy recipe.
This easy focaccia bread can be made in just a few hours. Get Alison Roman's Overnight Focaccia, Tonight recipe.
"I’ve always found chocolate chip cookies to be deeply flawed (to know this about me explains a lot). Too sweet, too soft, or with too much chocolate, there’s a lot of room for improvement, if you ask me. But no one asked me, and rather than do a complete overhaul on the most iconic cookie known to man, I took all my favourite parts and invented something else entirely. Made with lots of salted butter (it has a slightly different flavour and a deeper saltiness than using just salt—I prefer unsalted butter everywhere else but here), the dough has just enough flour to hold it together and the right amount of light brown sugar to suggest a chocolate chip cookie. The chocolate is cut into chunks to prevent chip congregation, and once the dough is formed into a cylindrical log, the whole thing gets rolled in Demerara sugar for the crispiest-ever edges. Less chocolate chip cookie, more brown sugar shortbread with chocolate chunks — they just might be the cookie you’ve been looking for." Get Alison Roman's salted butter chocolate chunk shortbread cookies recipe.
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