Mike's pasta sauce

Method

• step 1

  Heat some neutral oil in a deep frying pan and when hot, but not really hot, add the lardons and the parma ham and fry until browned and a little crispy, the fat should come out of the bacon and this is part of the flavour. If there is excessive fat, you can consider taking a little out, but you need fat to cook the remaining ingredients

• step 2

  Then turn the heat down a little and add the onions and cook until soft but not too coloured, then add the garlic and the mushrooms

• step 3

  Keep cooking the mixture, the mushrooms will release their moisture and the mix needs to be cooked until it is a little sticky. This is quite important as the liquid in the sauce should come from the passata and cream

• step 4

  Add the passata, judge the amount so that the mix will coat pasta when the sauce is cooked. If you add too much, the sauce does not suffer if you wish to reduce it.

• step 5

  Cook the mix until the passata has lost its slightly raw flavour and the volume has reduced a little.

• step 6

  Adjust the seasoning, the ham and bacon is very salty so probably only add black pepper. Then add the cream until you like the colour and flavour, I add about 50ml and then taste and judge, its not vital to be accurate! Keep cooking after adding the cream to ensure the sauce is well mixed

• step 7

  Serve with your favourite pasta, I don't add any grated cheese, but that's up to you

• step 8

  All the ingredient amounts are pretty flexible!