a yummy substitute for maccas: super indulgent bacon pasta

I understand that the main function of food is to provide adequate nourishment for the body. This is extremely important; without good food one’s quality of life is severely diminished. Therefore ingesting a variety of delicious fresh produce into one’s body is a fabulous thing to do for oneself.

However!

There are the occasional instances where this philosophy needs to be shelved and food serves the function of being a source of much needed comfort. It should not happen often. But when it is needed it definitely SHOULD happen.

I found myself plonked into such an occasion a couple of years ago. Highly pre-menstrual and having spent the day in a customer service position constantly trying to reason, cajole and plead with people determined to be dissatisfied with perfectly delicious and wonderful products and if they are so cranky and ungrateful why don’t they just shove their coffee right up their… Hrm. Got a little carried away there.

Anyway, I came home exhausted, demoralised and more than a little weepy. I opened my fridge door and started pulling ingredients out at random, not with any recipe in mind, more about what I wanted to put in my mouth then and there. Once they were assembled on the kitchen bench I stared at them for five minutes and started chopping and chucking things in a pan. The end result could be described very accurately as ‘cholesterol in a bowl’, but given that’s not particularly appealing I’ll call it ‘Super Indulgent Bacon Pasta’. It served me extremely well that night and has earned its rightful place on my cooking repertoire.

Super Indulgent Bacon Pasta

Ingredients:

Olive oil
15 strips of bacon, diced
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 red onion, diced
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup of dry white wine
1 cup of pitted kalamata olives
3 little red chillies, chopped
½ bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
2/3 packet of spaghetti

Method:

1. Heat a good splash of olive oil in a large sturdy pan (so many great recipes start out this way). Add the onion and garlic and cook over medium heat for ten minutes so as to soften and colour slightly. Add the bacon and cook for a further five minutes.

2. Add the wine to the pan and the cherry tomatoes and cook for five to ten minutes (until the tomato skins starts to peel off).

3. Put a large pot of salted water on to boil while the sauce is cooking. Once the water is boiling, add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Be sure to stir regularly and thoroughly to keep the strands from sticking together.

4. While this is going on, after the tomato skins have started to peel off, turn the heat to low and add the olives, parsley and chilli. Taste your sauce and see if you would like more chilli – the idea is to leave a little heat in your mouth upon tasting, not to make your eyes water.

5. Drain the spaghetti and return it to the pot. Pour over the sauce mixture and toss thoroughly. Eat and find yourself returning to a more balanced emotional state.

By Emma Robinson

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