That was Malcolm, three-quarters of an hour ago, while we were just mopping up the last creamy, lemony, chilli-ish morsels from our pasta bowls.
It wasn’t a day when I’d given much thought to cooking. All sorts of domestic tasks, boring but necessary, followed by my currently – slightly obsessive – daily attention to learning Spanish. Our landlords popped round, and a couple of glasses of wine later, there we were, quarter to eight and nothing on the stove.
Except I’d remembered glancing at this recipe in some idle moment the other day, spotted on the BBC Good Food website
No kale? I have spring greens. No anchovies? I have bacon. And gran padano and mascarpone and lemons and nutmeg and chilli – and the all-important pasta. Twenty five minutes later, we were sitting down enjoying our meal.
Messy cook at work
And it’s a meal for when you don’t feel like a long session at the stove, but need something comforting yet with light and bright flavours. Oh, and dear veggie friends. You could easily leave out the bacon or anchovies.
Messy meal in the pan.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
well, not everyone would have gran padano,mascarpone,lemons, nutmeg and chilli in their house at quarter to eight of a Friday – I am most impressed. What’s more it shows a return to health and enjoyment of life for both of you. And it did look absolutely delicious!
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OK, ok, I’ll come clean. The mascarpone was pre-planned. But chillies are a freezer standard-issue, as they freeze brilliantly and can be used frozen, and gran padano, lemons and nutmeg are always lurking in the house somewhere.
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Looks great, sounds like it was a success! And yes, clearly you’ve got some great ingredients lurking about at the ready 🙂
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If you’re an unprepared cook who doesn’t do weekly planning, you have to have!
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There are few things I love better than “goopy pasta” and this looks goopy and good! I have to admit I’ve never heard of gran padano so I had to look it up–what’s not to like?!
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Ah, well, if gran padano is hard to find, parmesan is just fine. It’ll do you a fine ‘goopy pasta’ 😉
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Very impressive pantry you have there and much moe ambition than me …looks great!
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Looks good – very similar to a favourite standby stand by from Hugh which I use a lot – pasta with greens, garlic and chilli. What would we do without pasta?
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And tossing in filaments of the gutsier brassicas toards the end of cooking time is one of my go-to favourites this year. Good old Hugh, good old Nigel, good old Yottam, eh?
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Oh! and from your title I now envisage Malcolm talking like Wallace – does he?
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Malcolm is a fantastic mimic, and will do any voice at any time, according to the occasion. Sadly for your fevered imagination, it’s just normal RP on the few occasions he’s normal!
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I feel strangely disappointed 😉
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