Lovely dinner made last night.....

angelfairy

Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I did make a lovely dinner last night. There is myself, my hubby and my MIL.

1 x packet of cheap back bacon (98p)
1 x packet of linguene (?) (99p)
1 x small onion (approx 20p)
1 x handful mushrooms (approx 20p)
1 x carton of herb and garlic passata (29p)
1 x glove of garlic
1 x bunch of flat leaf parsley (99p massive bunch - only used about 1/3)

The clove of garlic and carton of herb passata I had left over from previous meal.

I just cooked off the bacon, then added the onion and garlic, cooked for a bit, threw in the mushrooms, cooked for a bit, added the flat leaf parsley, mixed around and then added the passata.

Let it cook through while the linguene cooked.

Strained the liguene and then mixed the sauce through the pasta and dished up!!!!

Provided 3 very ample size servings, but could have eailsy have made about four or five servings with a side salad.

Think it will become a staple in our weekly menus now.

Just wanted to share

doraexplorer

sounds lovely i have never been any good at making pasta and my sauces come out of jars. but i will try this one out . thanks

jovichick123

Sounds nice, will give this a go! Thanks for the recipe,

Sarah xx

Sugar_Junkie

I make an almost identical one to this but with single cream instead of passata. I'll try yours next time!

Queenie

beccaoz wrote: »

Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I did make a lovely dinner last night. There is myself, my hubby and my MIL.

1 x packet of cheap back bacon (98p)
1 x carton of herb and garlic passata (29p)

:T :T Well done :T :T

**** Make it cheaper! :money: ****

For the herb and garlic passata, use a tin of plum tomatoes (15p) and blitz in a food processor, add a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs - you don't need to factor the garlic, because you are adding it anyway

For the bacon, don't buy back for this, but a pack of bacon pieces/off cuts. In Tesco they call it "Cooking Bacon" and a 500g pack costs something like 78p. Asda do something similar, but I can't remember their price and it's not quite as good.
You may need to cut off some of the fat and some of the pieces can be quite chunky and will need cutting into more manageable pieces (I do it in the food processor) and you won't use all of it in one meal.

With a 500g pack of odds n bobs pieces you can make all sorts of lovely meals. I use it in soups, my basic bolognaise sauce to add extra flavour, omelettes, scrambled eggs, calzones, quiche, meatloaves/meatballs etc., etc., it really is great value and versatile. Leave the neatly sliced pretty back bacon for butties :laugh:

nicki_2

I found with the Asda "bacon bits" that they were really salty I've taken to buying the bigsaver bags of unsmoked bacon instead even if it does mean I use 2 packs at a time:rolleyes:

kethry

going on from what both Queenie and nicki have said, this isn't quite as cheap as Queenie's option but cheaper than buying proper back bacon as per the OP, and i think it works well:

Aldi sell a divided packet (as in two sealed seperately compartments) of bacon bits for 99p, i can't remember how much is actually in there, but it works well for things like this. They're all already chopped up so you don't need to chop them up further as Queenie has said, and i don't find them overly salty (although i don't add extra salt to anything i add the bacon bits to, as i find there's generally enough salt in the bacon). It also freezes well, and i find there's enough in one compartment to make enough in a pasta dish for two people (me and my OH). They also freeze well.

In addition, i've cooked something very similar to beccaoz's recipe, but then i've also cooked this: sweat down a couple of finely sliced onions, mushrooms, olives, whatever veg you like. once its getting towards cooked through, add some balsamic vinegar (I can't give amounts as its a terribly personal taste thing), stir well. Add mixed herbs, or just oregano and sage, and a teaspoon of sugar. Put the lid on that pan, and reduce to a simmer, stirring every so often to check it doesn't stick (if its getting towards sticking, you can turn the heat out completely, provided you have a well fitting lid). cook the pasta. just before the pasta is cooked, cut up some cheshire cheese into blocks and put in the microwave on high for about 10-15 seconds. What you're looking for is each cube of cheese to be slightly squidgy when pressed. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, put back in the saucepan and mix the veg mix, the cheese and the pasta together. Serve. What happens is that the cheshire keeps its shape a bit more than other cheeses (which melt completely), it just sort of sticks a couple of bits of pasta or veg together, but still has quite a strong flavour, and this, coupled with the strong flavour of the veg gives a lovely meal. If you're desperate for a meat addition you could add slices of pepperoni strips or bacon bits, or even ham strips. cooking time: 15-20 minutes (which is why i don't add any other raw meat, its a fast dish).

HTH

keth
xx