15 minute Spaghetti Pesto & Bacon

This is what I had tonight..... really tasty; fabulous flavours from the bacon are soaked up by the mushrooms; leeks add a slightly contrasting but complimentary taste. As for pesto, the more you add, the stronger it is; all mixed through spaghetti.

15 minutes from start to finish.

Ingredients:

1 Packet Bacon - 6 / 8 slices, Vegetable Oil, 1 Little Box mushrooms - 10 - 20

1 Leek, 1 Packet Spaghetti, 1 Jar Pesto

Boil water in a kettle. Put the water into a big pan; or pot, which ever you like to call it.

Cookery shows and books have 100 different types of pots and pans. In my world there are 2.

A pot; as pictured. And a frying pan or wok. Everything you could possibly need to cook on top of gas can be done in one of these things.

Spaghetti TIP: whilst holding the spaghetti over the pot, carefully snap the lengths into three. Do this over the pot of water, otherwise some bits will fly off. You will leave the spaghetti to bubble for 10 - 15 minutes. This way they don't stick above the water and you don't have to dangerously push them down as they soften. You also don't have to twist the spaghetti around your fork 1000 times before you can take a mouthful.

Slice up the mushrooms and leeks. Put both into a strainer (or anything with holes in it) and give them a quick wash under the tap.

TIP: Leeks and mushrooms are the two vegetables that will always have chunks of soil in

them, so you have to rinse them or you'll crunch it.

Put a slug of oil into the frying pan or wok (a flattish pan basically)

TIP: I think it's impossible to set a rule for the 'heat level' for pans or pots, because every cooker hob is different. Basically, put the heat at about 2/3 of the max. Put the oil in. After 30 seconds you should be able to swish the oil around with it's consistency similar to water. When you put something in, like bacon, it should sizzle gently. If it roars and spits (as per every movie scene set in a busy kitchen) it's too hot, turn it down.

Chop up the bacon. Put the bacon into the frying pan until it goes grey brown and the pieces are stiff; literally about 1 minute. Add the leeks and mushrooms. Keep stirring everything

Again, everything should make a nice gentle cooking mumble; opposed to a screaming angry sizzle. TIP: If anything is sticking, take it off the heat immediately, turn the heat down and THEN put it back on the ring, stirring to keep everything free and moving. Sticking, sizzling, smoking and roaring does not mean things will be ready faster.

Once the bacon, leeks and mushrooms have been stirred, mixed through and cooked a little, you can turn the heat down a bit and cover the pan with another pan. I say this for 2 reasons.

1) it's hard to get a lid to match a flat pan or wok

2) if you do have a lid to match, I find they seal the heat in too much, which can lead to sticking and burning.

TIP: Carefully rest another pan or wok (bottom up) on top of your cooking wok. This will circulate the heat for a more even and faster cook.

Keep giving your spaghetti a random stir.

TIP: After 10 minutes, carefully take a piece of spaghetti out and put it on a cold plate. The heat will leave it pretty quickly; but if you don't do this and throw it into your mouth, you will know about it and burn yourself.

When the spaghetti is soft enough (you have eaten spaghetti a million times, you should be able to bite it, it's not too hard but it also doesn't disintegrate in your mouth); strain it and put it in a big bowl.

When your leeks and mushrooms are soft (after the 10 - 15 minutes) put them into the same big bowl. Take 2 - 3 table spoons of pesto (as in soup / dessert size spoons, I know they're not the same size exactly, but they are roughly the same ..... point is, not tiny tea spoons)

Mix everything thoroughly. Lovely.