STEPS 4 INGREDIENTS 8 TIME 1 HR This easy pasta recipe is my brother-in-law Mauro’s favorite pasta meal, and I don’t blame him a bit because this soupy dish is full of tasty stuff. 
Packed with sweet green peas and juicy chunks of belly bacon, this dish uses broken spaghetti, which is simply cooked in the pan with the rest.
And in Italian this dribble-inducing dish is called ‘pasta piselli’ (pea pasta). It takes an hour in total, but don’t worry… because for lots of this time you just leave the pan simmering away. Oh, and it only leaves one pan of washing up. Nice!
Let’s make it…
Serves 2
Ingredients: (For a printable PDF shopping list click here, or right-click this link and choose ‘Save target/link as’ to save the list for later.)
200g/7oz spaghetti (broken into 5cm sticks)
Half a medium onion
75g/2.6oz belly bacon chunks (AKA pancetta bacon)
30g/1oz parmesan cheese
400g/14oz tin of small green peas (petit pois)
Salt
Pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Equipment:
One deep pan/skillet with lid
Cheese grater
STEP 1 – Peel and finely chop the onion. Also break the spaghetti (great for stress relief!)
– Cover the base of your pan with olive oil and pop on a medium heat hob until the oil is hot (not smoking or spitting, that’s too hot!)
Add the onion, cover the pan, and soften for 2-3 mins.
Tip: Covering the onions is the best way of softening them in their own moisture, rather than simply frying them.
STEP 2 – Next, add the bacon bits and butter.
– Cover and cook for a further 6-7 minutes, until the onion is really molten.
STEP 3 – Open the can of peas and throw them, and the juice, into the pan.
– Fill the can once more with boiled kettle water and throw this in the pan too.
– Turn up the hob until the pan simmer, then pop on medium and cook for approximately 20 mins (until the peas start to soften).
STEP 4 – At this point, add a teaspoon or big pinch of salt, and throw in the pasta.
– Turn up the hob to boil the water and cook as per the spaghetti packet’s timings (likely 10-12 mins). Stir regularly to stop the spaghetti sticking to the base of the pan.
Tip: If almost all the water evaporates before the spaghetti is cooked, add a little more from a boiling kettle. Better too much liquidity then too little.
Done!
To serve: Grate the parmesan cheese over each serving. And because this easy pasta recipe is so soupy, you really need a big chunk of your favorite bread for mopping up!
Enjoyed this easy pasta recipe? Then why not try…
• This equally soupy minestrone recipe
• This creamy-bean pasta fagioli