Al Dente

Nigella Lawson’s Spiced Peaches

Much as I love, love, love the holidays, I am not exactly a stranger to the stress they can induce. We all know what it’s like to go into hostess meltdown, when instead of feeling glad everyone’s coming over, you start feeling panicked and resentful, and even a little tearful. And the pressure to come up with original and exciting gifts is not only challenging, it can be ruinously expensive.

But while I don’t deny that this time of year can be both costly and exhausting, I do feel there are so many ways of having a good time, of giving a great time, and of really wallowing in the holiday spirit without breaking the bank or sacrificing your sanity.

Not only does food not have to be fancy to be good, I am of the firm belief that the simplest meals are the most welcoming. The holidays are a celebration of home, not of restaurant traditions, and if your friends and family are anything like mine, they’d be a lot happier coming to a holiday feast where they gather around a roquamole dip (the recipe can be found in Nigella Express) or sup on golden split pea and frankfurter soup (the recipe can be found in Feast) than they would be if faced with a caviar and eggplant stack. What the season demands is coziness, not glitz.

I’m not saying you can’t go to town on decorations; minimalism isn’t really in the spirit of the occasion. I bulk buy beautiful baubles and hang them everywhere--not just off trees--and I also fill glass bowls and vases with them.

For me, the holidays have a particular scent, and you don’t need to buy expensive candles to give your home that festive fragrance: I leave cinnamon sticks on radiators; stud clementines, satsumas or mandarin oranges with cloves and leave them decoratively, aromatically about; likewise, small bowls or measuring cups of hot water with a few drops of almond extract sprinkled in them make the house smell warm and welcoming.

Table decoration can be as simple as some pine cones gathered from a walk (dust them with powdered sugar once they’re in place to give a snowy look), some bunches of cinnamon sticks tied together with a ribbon reserved from a gift received, a few red apples just dotted about, and small see-through tealight holders filled with jewel-shiny cranberries.

As for the issue of gifts: I have long ago found out that what people really relish is something made with love--a commodity much more significant than any price tag. For ease, accessibility, affordability and just utter gorgeousness--and please excuse if this sounds like bragging--I don’t believe you can do better than to give a jar of my spiced peaches (the recipe is in Nigella Express) to each and every one of your nearest and dearest. I’m off to make a lazy batch of them now!

Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

When I was a teenager, I confess I showed the utmost disdain for the holidays. I didn’t just not see the point; I condemned others for even suggesting there might be a point. What was all this unseemly fuss about having a good time? As everyone knows, the whole point of adolescent life is that you don’t have a good time, or if you do, you mustn’t show it, let alone exhibit it noisily and--a most heinous crime--at home. 

Funny how things change, how we change. The great feature of the holidays is they are about tradition and a grateful celebration of togetherness, and perhaps it takes a little time, once childhood is over, to appreciate either. It was worth the wait. Now, every year when the holidays come around, I feel a surge of mellow optimism.  It’s all about to happen, and I love it.

No surprise really. If I were to name two areas in life that give me inordinate amounts of pleasure, I would have to say food and being surrounded by those I love (hope you appreciate the order in which I list them!). The holidays are about both in tandem, and for me this underlines and celebrates all that matters most in life.

When I wrote my book Feast some time ago, what drove it was the conviction that human society shows that an occasion, be it personal, familial, social, or religious, has significance by organizing food around it. I have never denied that I’m a greedy person, but it isn’t just greed that makes me want to load up my table with good things to eat--lamb shanks with figs and honey, flourless apple and almond cake, chocolate pistachio fudge, squash with blue cheese crumbles and toasted pecans (the first two recipes are from Feast; the second two are from Nigella Express)--but a desire to celebrate my good fortune in having people to sit around a table sharing them with me. Happy Holidays!

Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Pistachio Fudge
From Nigella Express: Good Food Fast

Ingredients:
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 14-ounce can condensed milk
Pinch of salt
1 cup shelled pistachios
2 tablespoons butter

Directions:
1. Melt the chopped chocolate, condensed milk, butter, and salt in a heavy-bottomed pan on low heat.
2. Put the nuts into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin until broken up into both big and little pieces.
3. Add the nuts to the melted chocolate and condensed milk and stir well to mix.
4. Pour this mixture into a 9-inch-square aluminum foil pan, smoothing the top.
5. Let the fudge cool and then refrigerate until set. You can then cut into small pieces approximately 1-3/4-by-1-/34 inches in size.  Cutting 7-by-7-inch lines in the pan to give 64 pieces best achieves this.
6. Once cut, you can keep it in the freezer, no need to thaw; just eat right away.

Makes 64 pieces of rich fudge

--Nigella Lawson

Excerpted from Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson. Photographs by Lis Parsons. Copyright © 2007 Nigella Lawson. Published in the United States by Hyperion. All Rights Reserved. Available wherever books are sold.