Spaghetti with mushrooms and cream.

I know that for many people January starts off with good intentions; thoughts of detoxing, exercise and the like. I have chosen to start with bacon fat, cream and cheese. Explains a lot.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

4 rashers of bacon
garlic, 1 clove (whole)
mushrooms, about 1 punnet
double cream
spaghetti
Parmesan cheese
parsley
one egg yolk per person (optional)

This sauce is very quick so have the boiling water ready for the pasta before you begin.  Start by cutting off the bacon rind and crisping it up in a little olive oil, then remove from the pan. This imparts great flavour to the sauce (you could cut it up and leave it in if you like that sort of thing).

                         Chop bacon rashers and add to the pan on a fairly high heat. After a couple of minutes put the pasta on to boil.

                                                  With the back of a knife press down on a fat clove of garlic (skin on is fine). 

 Add mushrooms to the pan and toss with the bacon on a high heat (if the heat isn't high enough the mushrooms will start to boil rather than fry). When the mushrooms have just started to colour, turn the heat down to medium and add the whole garlic clove. Cook for another few minutes.

At this point add about 5-6 tablespoons of the pasta water to the pan. Stir.

        Next add a generous amount of double cream (no measurements just whatever you think relative to the quantity of pasta). Let it start to bubble.

Put about 1 large cup of the pasta water aside (to loosen the sauce as necessary). When the pasta is still a couple of minutes away from being perfectly al dente, drain and add to the pan with the cream mixture. Toss to combine and add some finely chopped parsley. Season generously with salt and black pepper, and fish out the garlic. Taste and adjust as necessary.

You will probably need to add a few tablespoons of the water if the cream sauce gets too thick (it should not be a claggy mass!)

Serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan....

and an optional raw egg yolk in the centre.