heston's pea and pancetta spaghetti

I don’t know why I’ve not thought of this before, but living in a pub is brilliant!

I say 'living' but what I actually mean is 'temporarily staying' at the rather fab Hampshire Hog in the rural countryside, for an equally fab 40th birthday party.

Having finally lived the dream, I can’t believe we’ve spent so long kipping on people’s floors, or struggling back to inaccessible B&Bs in the dead of night when we could've been staying in actual, real live pub. Who else would have a foaming nutbrown ale and maybe a scotch egg and a burger ready for when you’ve checked in? Who else would have a full English on a hotplate (‘help yourself!’) prepped once you’ve dragged yourself (and hungover wife) out of bed? And where else could you then sit for three hours, having more foaming pints of nutbrown ale bought to your table along with – oh go on then – a chicken and mushroom pie for lunch? Pubs are genius!

The only downside is, that there isn't one. And it only gets better if you forget your glasses and lenses so you can't drive home! I do have to cook dinner when we get home as 'punishment' mind, which does turn into a unique sort of torture as once again we've got almost nothing in the cupboards meaning we have to make do with a version of Heston's pea and pancetta spaghetti:

Obviously what we lack in peas and pancetta, we make up with sweetcorn and bacon.

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea and pancetta spaghetti

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea and pancetta spaghetti

I'm not sure why I bother having an Heston Blumenthal tag, seeing how I only ever cook one of his recipes. It's a good one mind; quick, simple and full of flavours, and perfect for nights like this when Ana's off being literary at one of her Book Clubs.

In fact the cooking time is really only the length of time it takes to boil the pasta; you can fry the onions and pancetta whilst the water boils, and then you nick some pasta water to mix up with the eggs and parmesan to make the sauce. Drain the pasta and mix it in the pan with the onions/pancetta, add the peas and sauce and let it sit for five minutes and Robert is your mother's brother.

This quick turn-around is particularly useful if you've found yourself inexplicably reading ten stories, having to snuggle, then having to go back to read some more stories, followed by more snuggling, and then a final story because somebody wasn't tired.


sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston blumenthal's pea and pancetta spaghetti

We're on a schedule tonight, a schedule helped by the fact it's an intermittent dieting day for one third of the household - dietary slack the other two thirds of Team Barnes are happy to pick up by the way.

Anyway, there's a three-part plan in action: Stage one, use up stuff in the fridge before it fossilizes, followed by Stage two, find a recipe that uses it all (or as much as possible) in as quick a time as possible, so I can action Stage three - watch the new episode of Midsomer Murders whilst Ana pines away in the corner, and develops nutritionally-deficient rickets.

Who's the winner? I'M the winner:

Before we go, I have a question: The new series of Midsomer, actually very good and better than the last few Nettles series? Discuss.

Wine Time
This one is an easy one: Salty bacon and parmesan, sweet peas and creamy pasta sauce. Hands up who wants a good, aromatic and crisp Pinot Grigio, and hands up who wants a light and fruity Beaujolais? Ahh you're both right, yay for you!

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti

Ana's out tonight, whooping it up with the Hurlingham girls at Kate's. This leaves me home alone, with only a bottle of my dad's apricot brandy and my new comedy fixation, Bleak Expectations, for comfort. Harrumble indeed!

However, spoof Dickensian comedy and high proof home brew only feel the soul, the stomach requires something more substantial. However, can anybody tell me what's missing from this by-now-classic Heston dish?

Pancetta is the obvious answer, but I presume you all noticed the lack of egg yolks? I only had one which whilst hardly disastrous, certainly made it less unctuous.

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti

After a scorching weekend of playing garden cricket, doing silly indie dancing and trying to unlock the flavour in many cans of lager (mmmmm, warmish fizzy, brown water), we need to detox.

It's still lovely and sunny, and there's a spare packet of pancetta lurking in the fridge so what better way to start (yet another) new regime of health than with Heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti? Obvs we have it with more fizzy, brown water and a chilled glass of rose...

Due to the fact pay day isn't til Friday, we're going to try and make meals using only what we've got in the house, other than buying salad because we're one day short. And bread.

Food of the Milos
Seeing as we start the day in Ashton, and end it in Mortlake, and it being Easter, it's yet another slightly odd day of food, but odd in a good way. Sort of.
Breakfast: nibbles, cheerios, toast;
Snacks: two bowls of weetos, most of his haul of easter eggs, a smoothie and two rice cakes;
Dinner: pea & pancetta spaghetti, and *gasp* he ate his peas

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti

Has it come to this - cooking whatever is to hand, in the quickest way possible, so we can watch two hours of foreign crime drama on the computer? It would appear so...

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti

This weekend we've got much more relaxing plans, compared to last week. In fact it's so relaxed we all spend the morning sat in sleeping bags in the lounge playing "camping". For two hours.

We eventually heave ourselves out of the house and whilst Ana tidies, Milo and I go to Palewell Park to try some riding without stabilisers. He's not the new Greg Lemond, but he doesn't mind falling in the mud and looking at wormcasts, so it's not all bad.

One trip to the tip, a coffee with Jude, and a scoot around Waitrose later and the highlight of Milo's day finally arrives - eating the rabbit jelly Ana and him made yesterday. It's cool eh?

The mould is one my mum used to make jelly with for me and my brother, and I think it's a bit older than that - mum? I remember she used to make a pink strawberry mousse in it, with raisins for eyes, but just straight jelly works well enough for us and the mini-Barnes. Full of jelly and demanding a sleeping bag to go to bed with, Milo sleeps and we slump in front of the telly with another dose of Misfits, and another batch of Heston's double-aces spaghetti. It's. What. We. Do.

Food of the Milos
Breakfast: Camp nibbles and porridge;
Lunch: Cheese on toast, followed by nibbling on chorizo, salami and fruit around Waitrose;
Dinner: Sausage and mash and jelly;

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti

Today wasn't the most exciting Sunday on record, but it was relaxing and quite-to-very-fun. There was more Scooby Doo, lots of board games and jigsaws, I had a bath and a shower with him, we all spent a couple of hours in the winter sun on the Barnes and playground circuit, and we even made a Dinosaur park for Ana to visit once she was allowed out of the shower.

Even better, we had Heston Blumenthal's pea and pancetta pasta to look forward to for dinner, which more than made up for last night's disappointing experimental curry.

Food of the Milos
After the last couple of day's pigging-out, today he's less bothered with food generally. Although this doesn't include crisps of course, for which he has a prodigious appetite.
Breakfast: toast, cheese, apple, satsuma, all of which he picks at rather than eats;
Lunch: karma soupra and dinosaur-shaped cheese on toast, again, it wasn't exactly wolfed down. This was followed by a largish pack of crisps and some wafer biscuits at the playground.
Dinner: Boiled egg and soldiers.

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti

After yesterday's lolling around (and I do not mean laugh out loud-ing), today we're super-busy as we're off to London's trendy Clapham to search for a new bed for Milo. Not only that, Matt and Virginie are coming over to install our new art in the afternoon - ooooh!

Art installed to Ana's utter delight and satisfaction, and a couple of largish glasses of wine down, we settle for a dinner of Heston's brilliant pea and pancetta spaghetti en familie.

Food of the Milos
Breakfast: fruit and toast nibbles, followed by porridge
Lunch: scrambled eggs
Dinner: pea & pancetta spaghetti

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10

heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti & macaroni cheese

Who would've thought we'd have eaten three experimental dishes in a row this week, and I'd willingly cook a Heston Blumenthal recipe! Will wonders never cease?

I know Lucyfer is a massive fan of the Heston, but I've never really warmed to him or his molecular cuisine, but Waitrose Weekend has started a mini-thaw. I've picked up a couple of his recipe cards without being overly inspired but this pasta dish in last week's paper looked too good to miss.


It was equally a little garlicky, a little salty from the pancetta and there was a nice spike of heat in the aftertaste from the chilli, with a lovely rich parmesan and egg yolk sauce. Definitely having it again, although sadly because of the chilli it's NSFM.

However Heston hadn't stopped giving, because as it only took 20 odd minutes to make I had time to knock together a cheeky macaroni cheese for the monkey's dinner tomorrow:


Not only that, I could even watch the new Matt King (that's Peep Show's Super Hans)-penned, chef comedy Whites on BBC2. A-MAY-ZING! Heston has definitely gone up in my estimation, slightly anyway.

Food of the Milos
The usual breakfast, before heading out to see the Dinosaurs and play with water with Ana at the Natural History Museum and Science Museum. They had egg mayo sandwiches out, along with the full range of fruit-based snacks. Sadly his mood does not hold up, and he spurns last night's chick pea curry AND the spaghetti Ana cooks him. The ingrate.

sources
heston's pea & pancetta spaghetti - Waitrose Weekend, 16th September, p10
macaroni cheese - My mind, but inspired by a combination of Jamie's four cheese macaroni and Annabel Karmel's cheese sauce