Summer pudding

Nigella Lawson’s summer pudding encloses cooked redcurrants, blackcurrants, cherries, blackberries and raspberries in white bread. She describes this cherry-inclusive version in Cook Eat Repeat, drawing on her mother’s habit of using a range of berries.

A few redcurrant clusters are reserved for the finish. The remaining currants are stripped from their stalks, cherries are pitted over the saucepan to catch their juices, and the fruit cooks gently with caster sugar and water until it releases juice.

Crustless bread pieces are fitted to a flexible pudding basin, then removed in order. One face of each piece is dipped in the fruit’s juice before the basin is lined again, with the coloured faces pointing outwards.

Fruit and juice fill the bread casing, and more juice colours the bread lid. The covered pudding is weighted, cooled and refrigerated; leftover juice is strained and reserved separately for the finish.

The complete pudding returns to room temperature before serving and is turned onto a plate. Reserved juice colours any pale bread patches, the saved redcurrants and optional fresh mint decorate the top, and double cream accompanies the fruit-filled wedges.