Cardinal sins

“I also love red drinks, Campari and soda in particular. I particularly like a drink called an Americano, which is like a negroni without the gin: it’s red vermouth, a slice of orange and some fizzy water. I also make a fantastic big red jug of negroni sbagliato, which is prosecco mixed with red vermouth. It’s like a nice, festive negroni version of a spritz. This year for Christmas I’m adding cranberries to my red cabbage, which turns them into a cross between red cabbage and cranberry sauce. It’s good because you get the sweetness with the sharpness.

In the past, I’ve made my Redder Than Red Cranberry Sauce recipe, with the Christmassy addition of cherry brandy. The lovely thing about home cooking, whatever time of year, is the way something that is a custom or tradition in my life will make its way into other people’s lives and become significant for them. I’m a nosy person so I like to know what people cooked when and for who. The whole thing is extraordinarily intimate and full of meaning for me.

Take strawberries with black pepper. My grandfather ate them together – it was an Edwardian thing. So, for the book’s pavlova recipe, I kept that flavour combination, but changed it a little bit by putting black pepper and rose water in the meringue, before arranging the strawberries on top. Like balsamic vinegar, it all helps to bring the sweetness of the strawberries to the fore. I also steep them in passionfruit juice, so they’re very red and glossy.

Red is probably a colour we’re all drawn to naturally.”

Read the full interview in this week’s Stylist.

Nigella wears a blazer (£69.99), jumper (£19.99) and trousers (£39.99), all from zara.com.

Images: Neil Bedford

Nigella Lawson reveals why red is the ultimate foodie colour