Anyway the ingredients for the MCC Carbonara are as follows

• 2 medium sized onions, diced
• 24 bits of streaky bacon, cut into strips
• About 13 medium sized button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 bags(1000g) of multi grain tagliatelle
• 500 ml of Creme Fraiche
• Parmesan, about the size of four fingers, grated!!!
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 Eggs
• Olive oil

First we fry off the bacon bits, in a splash of olive oil. We want to get rid of any water in the bacon and get it to be just about crispy. Once “crisped” we take out the bacon and chuck the onions into the same pan (to give them flavour), turn up the heat and add a bit more oil and some salt and pepper. We’re not trying to sweat the onions, just cook them off a bit. Once they look like they’re just starting to brown add the bacon back to the pan with the mushrooms and give a good stir in.

Whilst this is simmering for a minute, put the water on for the pasta and separate the yolks out from the eggs.

Add the creme fraiche to the onion, bacon and mushrooms and turn the heat down to low. Let the flavours familiarise for 10 minutes, give a stir here and there.

If the pasta is dried, read the packet for instructions, if like you used fresh, cook it for 3-4 minutes. I was a bit sceptical at first about the whole grain stuff, but it actually turned out to be a top choice.

So we’ve cooked the pasta and we now, put it into a big bowl, along with the mixture from the frying pan, add the grated parmesan and egg yolks and mix up thoroughly. Serve up and that’s it.

This amount of ingredients was actually enough for about 5 of us. Using the creme fresh instead of cream makes it a little less rich and much better for the people who want to live longer…

Ingredients

• Pine nuts (100g)
• Grated Parmesan
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Basil
• Olive oil
• Lemon Juice
• Salt and pepper

Honestly I can’t remember the exact quantities of each item, but Pesto is one of those things that even I can get right, using just my eyes, taste and better judgement, oh and of course the MCC’s best kitchen power tool – the blender.

Get ye olde blender our of the cupboard, clean off dust and plug in. Add the garlic to the blender bowl and whizz it up. After a second or two, get a spatula type thing and scrape aroound the edges of the bowl, just to make sure that the garlic doesn’t get stuck.

Add in the pine nuts, whizz up again for a few seconds, power down and scrape the edges and the bottom again, and then power up for another few seconds. Pour in 5 seconds of the oil, power up, scrape sides, etc.

Add the basil and lemon, whizz, mix by hand, add more oil, whizz, add Parmesan and a few pinches of salt. Whizz up again. If you feel that the consistancy isn’t liquid enough, add some more oil and whizz up again.

You should be left with a consistancy like above, that will last you about a week, enough for an evening meal with spaghetti and maybe a lunchtime on french bread…

What you’ll need:

• 2 cans of plum tomatoes
• 2 BIG man sized onions
• Garlic about 6/8 gloves depending on what you’re up to after the meal
• Handful of basil leaves
• Tomato puree
• Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

If you’re like me, because you only have a packet of gone off digestive biscuits in your cupboard, you’ll need to go and acquire all of the above from your local super market. But fear not, take pleasure in the fact that for once you might not look like you’re cooking for 1!

Right, here’s what you need to do:

Finely chop the onions.

Peel the garlic and chop in to thin slices…. Should look like toenail clippings when you’re done (you must use garlic though).

Add 4 seconds of oil to a pan and whack it on a medium/high heat.

Throw the garlic in to the pan and let it sizzzzzle until it’s slightly golden.

Add the onions to the pan with a couple of pinches of salt. Mix it all up and let it sweat down with the lid on (being careful to push down the onions from the side) on a medium heat until golden.

Add a tablespoon of tomato puree to the pan and fry off for a couple of minutes.

Add the tins of tomatoes… don’t drop them in from too high up unless you want to get covered.

Season to taste.

Get your pasta ready to go. Even I can do this part.

Reduce sauce down by leaving it for about 20 minutes or so on a low heat. I was actually surprised how thick the sauce became, I’d have served it up long before it got to this stage if I hadn’t had expert assistance.

Taste the sauce, if it’s not quite sweet enough you can add a pinch of sugar. Apparently if you use Tomatoes of a suspect quality, this can improve things. Thankfully, we didn’t scrimp in this area and it was all good.

When everything is ready to go… add a little of the pasta water to the sauce to erm… ‘let it down?’

Eat. Enjoy.