Here’s another quick, easy and almost infinitely adaptable teatime recipe. This makes a dry-ish pasta dish as there is nothing except the reduced tomatoes to make any sauce.

I remember my mother doing this in a frying pan when I was a kid and the only pasta available was quick cook macaroni.

Use suitable quantities for the number of people being fed and how hungry they are.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

You will need …

• Pasta, preferably fresh
• Bacon, cut into 1cm wide strips
• Onion
• Garlic, more or less to taste
• Tomatoes, one or two per person, fresh but over-ripe is fine
• Olive Oil
• Fresh Herbs of your choice, if available
• Black Pepper
• Parmesan Cheese

This is what you do …

1. Put the pasta on to cook. When it’s done drain and put it aside to keep warm. (You can cook the pasta while the tomato/bacon cook if you like but that’s too much for my simple mind!)
2. While the pasta cooks chop the onion, garlic, bacon, herbs and tomatoes.
3. In one pan cook the tomato in a small amount of oil. You want it to start cooking down and beginning to fall apart; you don’t want it very wet. If it does too quickly then just take it off the heat.
4. In another pan sauté the onion and garlic in some oil until the onion is translucent.
5. Then add the bacon to the onion and continue frying.
6. When the bacon is cooked to your liking add the tomato, herbs, some pepper and the pasta.
7. Stir it all together and cook for another few minutes to allow the flavours to mingle and ensure everything is hot through.
8. Serve with the grated/flaked Parmesan Cheese and a robust red wine.

Notes …

1. Like most of my other recipes you can adapt this almost infinitely. For instance leave out the tomatoes and add mushrooms along with the bacon. Or you can use spinach instead of tomatoes.
2. Bacon offcuts work well for this.
3. You can substitute prawns, anchovies, smoked salmon, Parma ham or even kidney beans for the bacon. In fact I often do this without the tomato and with prawns and lemon instead of bacon.
4. If using fish then you might want to add some lemon juice and/or zest.
5. If you want this really dry then leave out the tomatoes.
6. Short pasta works better as I find spaghetti and linguine are difficult to stir well into the mixture. Fusilli or macaroni work well.