Becca Jane St Clair

[adapted from a recipe in Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food]

While I’ve been typing this, I swear I posted this before….but I can’t find it on my blog!

You will need:

75g pasta per person
1 package bacon lardons or one pack of bacon
1 bunch fresh mint
50g frozen peas per person
300g cream fraiche (US: Sour Cream)
50g parmesean cheese (or other grated cheese)
50g bread crumbs

Wok or large frying pan

-cook pasta according to directions on pack.
-add a little oil to the wok and fry the bacon lardons. If using regular bacon, cut the bacon into smaller pieces first.
-reduce temperature and add frozen peas, cooking for about 5 minutes
-chop the fresh mint and add to wok
-add container of cream fraiche and stir. If you need more liquid, add some milk. turn up the heat and cook until bubbling
-drain pasta and add to wok, stirring pasta to coat
-sprinkle cheese and bread crumbs over top and stir until pasta, mint, and peas are coated.

This would make enough to serve 4 people as a main dish, more as a side. The beauty of this recipe is that you can add more bacon if you want, different vegetables, different kinds of pasta, and even different cheeses. I’ve made this with penne, sausage, and cheddar cheese (it didn’t taste as good with sausage!).

This meal takes about 20 minutes to prepare, too, especially if you start the pasta before you start cooking the bacon, so it’s easy to throw together at the end of a busy day. It also tastes good cold, and makes for a really good pasta salad for picnics. To convert this to a cold salad, don’t add the parmesean or breadcrumbs until after the pasta has cooled.

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