I was dining tout seul (which usually means I eat beans on toast..which I love) one day last week and had very few ingredients in the fridge. I didn’t use actual macaroni pasta, it was some other small pasta shape, but in such cases I’m no stickler. This took me about 15 minutes to make in total and was satisfying.
For one – but could easily be scaled up.
Ingredients:
2 rashes ultra thin pancetta, cut into slices (or smoked bacon)
1 spring onion, cut into chunks
cup of milk
knob of butter
1 tablespoon plain flour
1-2 tablespoons grated parmesan
100g pasta
How I made it:
Put on salted water to boil for pasta. Fry pancetta and spring onion till cooked, set aside. Put on pasta to boil. Melt knob of butter in a small saucepan on low-medium heat, then add flour, stir for around a minute. Slowly add milk, stirring vigorously. Use whisk if necessary to get rid of lumps. When thickened to a consistency somewhere in between single-double cream, turn off heat. Add pancetta, spring onion and parmesan to your béchamel sauce. Stir and season to taste. Drain pasta when cooked. Mix pasta and sauce together.
Eaten with:
I ate it with a finely sliced and peeled cucumber dressed with a sprinkling of red-wine vinegar and extra virgin rapeseed oil, ½ teaspoon of caster sugar and a pinch of salt.
Dinner Document 