I love pasta!!

I should have been born Italian!  It's true ... pasta, ice cream, music, art, literature, amore ... I love them all!  Not to mention the stunning landscapes, architecture and language ... ideally, I would like to have been born into a wine-producing dynasty, so that I'd have grown up alongside numerous tanned and dusty siblings and cousins, surrounded by sun-ripened vineyards and red clay-roofed villas in golden stone with huge family meals at tables on the piazzas under the bougainvillea .....

Okay, okay, dream over!  In fact what happened was, I grew up in a bed & breakfast establishment in Devon, surrounded by tall, Victorian red-brick semis, with a small garden ... and I played alone out in the street!  However ... I did eat well and my dear, late mother's cooking was good enough (comparatively, for the 1950s/60s) to give me an interest in food.  She wasn't a great lover of "foreign food", though, so it wasn't until I became an adult that I discovered international cuisine and my love for all things pasta!

Last nights topping was pan-fried smoked bacon and mushrooms, with a carbonara sauce (I used a ready-made one on this occasion, but it's SO easy to make your own with a flour roux, some milk and seasoning); I served it with a fairly simple salad, which I dressed only with a little mint sauce drizzled over the cucumber and a squiggle of balsamic glaze.  We also re-heated a ready-prepared garlic baguette from the freezer, mostly because I'm trying to clear the freezer of some stuff that's been hanging around long enough!

V  If you're using a shop-bought carbonara sauce, check the ingredients as many will include some form of ham or bacon.  Alternatively, make your own using just mushrooms, a thickened sauce and perhaps a little cream?  Quite delicious, but there are many different vegetarian toppings for pasta, from thick chunky Mediterranean veg sauces to simple pesto ... add some grated cheese (cheddar or parmesan) for protein and you have a fab and filling meal.