Ok so continuing our fun series on easy recipes for lazy people – this one is for when you want to impress someone with your skills. It takes a *little* more time than the others, but hey, it has bacon so it is always a win-win

Things you’ll need:

• 1 onion
• 3 or infinity strips of bacon
• 100 grams chicken (optional)
• 5 mushrooms
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp of butter
•  Spaghetti sticks (like as many would fit in your hand if you held it – like you’re holding a glass of water)
• Half a bell pepper
• Salt + Pepper + oregano to taste

Making the spaghetti:

Soooo making spaghetti is really easy. Take the biggest vessel you can find, fill it up to 3/4th of its capacity with water & let it boil. Add some salt and a few drops of oil. The oil makes sure they don’t stick to each other, while the salt gives it a nice taste. Drop your spaghetti in and just leave it for like 10 minutes or so.

Your sticks will turn into nice noodles – but don’t turn off the stove yet. First try the pasta – it should have a little bite to it *a la dente* but shouldn’t give you that raw taste in your mouth. When you feel like it’s just right, take it off the stove and pour it into a colander placed in your sink. (A colander is a steel bowl with holes at the bottom)

Immediately turn on the cold water tap (or if you don’t trust the safety level of the tap water, like I do, pour cold water over it) . This will stop the spaghetti from overcooking and from turning mushy.

Making the yummy filling:

While your spaghetti is cooking, chop your onions, garlic & mushroom. Add your butter/oil to the pan & heat it a little. Then add your garlic & onions & sautee it until your onions get caramelised.

Then add your mushroom and cook it for about a minute. Don’t overcook it or your mushroom will lose its hearty flavour and it will be like wet cardboard in your mouth.

Add your chopped up chicken and toss it around so it absorbs that juicy garlicky-mushroom flavour.

Transfer all this a bowl and then cook the bacon in the same pan.

Because A) You want it to also have that garlicky-mushroom flavour

B) No need to add extra oil

C) One less pan to wash

 

For the sauce:

Now for a dish like this, I wanted something light and fresh so I just squeezed lemon over my spaghetti & chicken. BUT if you want a hearty, wholesome meal then you can make a simple bechamel or white sauce.

You just add 2 tbps of butter, let it melt, add 2 tbsp of maida and stir it like mad. DO NOT let it brown. Then add 5 tbsp of milk and let it cook. Basically you can keep adding more milk depending on how thick/liquidy you like your sauce.

And now, for my favourite part:

Mix it all together! Toss your spaghetti, meat filling and sauce together. It can be quite tricky since spaghetti can get slippery. If you want to be able to get a proper bite of pasta, meat & sauce in one shot then make sure your sauce is a bit thicker and acts as a binder.

Top it with chopped bell peppers (I like the crunch element) and grind some pepper and oregano over it.

Voila! A meal to trick people into thinking you totally have your life together hehehehehe. But seriously tho – it’s yum!

And if you’re like me, and ALWAYS end up making extra pasta – it’s a great way to prep for your Monday lunch (: