Why do the foods that make the best midweek meals take so long to cook?

Take lasagnes, for instance. The slice-and-serve crowd-pleaser would be great as a Wednesday pick-me-up if it wasn’t so involved (our attempt at Nigella’s Lasagne Of Love was delicious, but took all day). 

Still, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Mary Berry has not one, but two shortcuts to the perfect layered pasta dish. 

And it turns out that the Cordon Bleu-trained chef uses the latter hack for her 30-minute quiche recipe too, turning it from an indulgent weekend bake to a viable member of my weekday recipe rotation.

What’s the trick?

Mary uses tortillas for the “pasta” layers in her “Mexican lasagne,” and she recommends cracking open a pack for a no-fuss quiche too. 

In the intro to the recipe, which features in her cookbook Mary’s Foolproof Dinners, she said: “What a clever cheat this is, using a tortilla wrap instead of pastry for this super speedy cheese and onion quiche!”. 

The telly legend added that it’s perfect for using up leftovers on “busy evenings”. 

The recipe involves frying off some onions and mushrooms in a pan, and then spooning them onto a tortilla-lined tin. 

Mary then beats eggs and cream together with salt, pepper, cheese, and parsley before cooking the lot for about 25-30 minutes. 

After letting it stand for five minutes once it’s out of the oven, it’s ready to slice and serve ― pretty impressive when you realise that that half-hour cook time is about as long as you’d need to rest shortcrust pastry in the fridge before you can even roll it out. 

Any other tips?

If you love the taste of pastry, Jamie Oliver has another time-saving trick ― “have a pastry case ready rolled and in the freezer, waiting to blind bake when needed,” he suggested on his site.

Crustless quiches are even speedier, but, in our opinion, run a little joyless. 

Meanwhile, if you struggle with the thought of pouring heavy cream into a tin of a weeknight, Gordon Ramsay recommends using slightly lighter crème fraîche.