Life is Great

A meal which can be done in under 15 minutes, contains fatty bacon and under 5 ingredients will definitely be in my good books. Recent house arrest months placed me in front of the telly with AFC on almost everyday. Nigella's new program caught my attention with her easily achievable recipes and common ingredients.



Speaking of simple ingredients, I've replaced pancetta with beef bacon and garlic oil with, well, garlic and oil. I can't imagine anyone weighing pasta to cook, but this is the recipe adapted from the book and I assume 250 grams of pasta feeds 2. I have also adjusted the cooking time according to the type of pasta used, linguine will take longer. Pancetta or thicker pieces of bacon will take around 10 minutes as her recipe suggests.



What can be easier than boiling pasta and leaving meat to cook in the oven?



You can use whatever pasta you like but keep it to the long, thin variety as this is another one of those sauceless pasta which will not taste as good with the likes of penne and tagliatelle.

Angel Hair with Garlic Oil and Beef Bacon
Serves 2. Adapted from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Bites - Chapter Three: TV Dinners Linguine with Garlic Oil and Pancetta page 62

• 8 cloves garlic smashed


• 250 grams beef bacon


• 250 grams angel hair pasta


• 2 tablespoons olive oil


• chopped parsley for garnish

Preheat oven to 240°C/gas mark 8.

Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. While it's heating up, put the garlic and olive oil in an ovenproof dish. I used the enamel pan which came with the oven. Dice the beef bacon and add to the garlic and oil, smooshing them about with your fingers to make sure they are equally, if lightly, coated.

When the water is boiling, put the dish of garlic, oil and bacon in the oven then salt the boiling water and add the angel hair. These should take about 6 minutes to cook. When the pasta's ready, drain it, reserving a scant cupful of the cooking water and take the bacon dish out of the oven. Tip the drained angel hair into the dish and toss well, adding some of the pasta-cooking water, drop by cautious drop, for lubrication as you need it.

Some chopped parsley is good to serve, without any cheese for this one.