Anyone who's read Nigella Lawson's impassioned recipe for roast duck in all its "soft-fleshed, bronze-skinned glory," or watched her whip up a five-layer trifle on TV, might conclude that her children must be gastronomically spoiled. The reality is less decadent. "The number of times they have noodles and broth or pasta and pesto for dinner is embarrassing," says Lawson, 47. As for lunch, "they eat school food," she says. "That's how cruel I am."
Or, more accurately, how busy. In the past 11 years, the London-based Lawson has hosted several TV shows, written five cookbooks, and designed a kitchenware line while raising her children, Cosima, 14, and Bruno, 10. Her latest project—a quick-recipes cookbook called Nigella Express (Hyperion) and a Food Network show of the same name (airing Sundays at 10:30 a.m. EST)—was inspired by the universal parental need to make every second count. Forget 30-minute meals: Some of these dishes require as little as five minutes of kitchen time.
Of course, this is Nigella Lawson, of enthusiastic spoon-licking fame, so the book still manages to be as much about pleasure as about expediency. "There's no point in doing something fast if it isn't going to taste good," she says. The book's 130 simple but intensely tasty dishes include Rapid Ragu, Chocolate Pear Pudding Cake, and the three-ingredient Brandied-Bacony Chicken. Thanks to her kids' input, a basic soup also makes an appearance ("Minestrone in Minutes"), as does a pancake mix the author swears will "change your life irrevocably."
Some of the recipes are variations on dishes Lawson ate during her childhood. "I had a very fraught relationship with my mother," she says. "But the greatest thing I inherited from her was that she made us cook." For those of us who had more of a Stouffer's upbringing, Lawson advises, "Cook the same things over and over—you teach yourself to trust yourself."
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