• The basic recipe:
  • 35g butter
  • 160ml double cream
  • 40g grated vegetarian parmesan, plus extra to serve
  • 180g dried fettucine or tagliatelli
  • ground black pepper
  • Plus for this version:
  • chilli flakes
  • 2 big handfulls rocket

A really, really simple pasta dish from my usual pasta book – tweaked and added to. The ingredients list shows the original, basic version, (with my adjusted quantities) separately, plus the extras for this particular version. Not at all vegan, this one.

Look how simple:

Put water on to boil for the pasta, and melt the butter in a pan:

For this particular version, I added some dried chilli flakes to the butter at this stage.

Add the cream to the butter, then bring to the boil, and turn down to simmer for 4 minutes.

Put the pasta to cook as per the instructions on the packet.

Add the grated parmesan to the butter and cream, plus a good few twists of black pepper:

Stir the parmesan in, and it will disappear, as if by magic (or by melting, one of the two).

Drain the pasta, then chuck it into the cream sauce and stir in until covered.

For this version I then stirred in the rocket:

Serve with extra grated parmesan and a side salad. ‘Cos, you know, this meal needs some more vegetables, really.

A wine recommendation for this? A smooth, medium-bodied Portuguese red, like an Alentejo.