Just a quickie...

I just stuffed myself with one of our favourite quickie dinners in a hurry, so whilst I'm trying to figure out how to roll myself off the sofa I thought I would do a quick blog post to find out what your staple quick dinners are.

Unfortunately, we were far too hungry to stop and take any photos before stuffing our faces but never mind!  So this is my quickie cheats 'carbonara' for 2:

150g linguine (or spaghetti)

1 x 100g pack of diced pancetta

1 250ml tub of single cream

A good handful of grated parmesan

Ground black pepper

Easy peasy dinner - whilst the pasta cooks in a large pan of salted boiling water, empty the tub of pancetta into a hot frying pan.  You won't need any oil as the fat from the pancetta will render down and do the job for you.  When the bacon is crispy, reduce the heat and add the tub of cream.  Stir to lift all the crispy bits of pancetta off the bottom of the pan and heat the cream through. Increase the heat a little til the cream is simmering and begins to thicken a little.  Add in a good few grinds of milled black pepper and the parmesan and combine well.  When the pasta is cooked to your liking, add this into the cream mixture, allowing some of the water the pasta has been cooked in to go in too as the parmesan makes the cream pretty thick so this will loosen it a little. Mix the pasta into the sauce until it's coated in the sauce and serve in 2 bowls.  The sauce should just coat the pasta rather than drowning it.  Fast and a bit tasty!

So what's your best super speedy dinner?

Oh, one last thing before I go and let the button of my jeans out...  The lovely Darren @ Chilli Papas is arranging the Fife Food Fayre to be held in the Kingsgate shopping centre in Dunfermline on 12th May 2012. If you are a Fife based food business and would like to take part, or know of one that would, get in touch with darren@chillipapas.com and let him know.  Now. Do it now. NOW!!  Ta :D