This was one of the first pasta recipes I learned to cook as a kid , which means I've been cooking and eating it for over 30 years .
There's no fuss , just simple ingredients coming together in 20 minutes to make some comfort food heaven .
Hi , I'm Nicky .
Welcome back to our kitchen , where we show you how to make delicious family friendly recipes in our house .
This recipe is called Cheesy Pasta .
Yay !
Because whenever I tell the kids I'm making cheesy pasta , they say the one with the sausage and bacon .
Yay !
So it guarantees clean plates all around .
It really is simple .
Easy back to school comfort food .
So let's get cooking .
We're gonna start by cooking the sausages .
So I've got four good quality pork sausages here , and I'm gonna place them on a baking tray and place them in a preheated oven at about 200 C or 400 F for 20 to 25 minutes until golden and cooked through .
Once the sausages have been in the oven for about 10 minutes , we're gonna cook the pasta .
I've got about 400 grammes , which is 14 ounces of fly pasta here .
But you can use your favourite pasta shapes , and we're gonna cook that in boiling water as per the pack instructions until Dante .
While the pasta and sausages are cooking , place a large frying pan over a medium heat to heat up .
I've got eight rashes of smoked streaky bacon , and I'm gonna add those to the pan and cook for about 5 to 6 minutes , turning once during cooking until brown and crispy .
Yeah , now remove the bacon from the pan and place it on a chopping board .
Top up that leftover bacon fat in the pan with an extra half a tablespoon of sunflower oil .
Add a finely diced onion to the pan and cook for five minutes , stirring often , until the onion softens .
Is it just me , or is the smell of onions frying in bacon fat ?
Just amazing .
This is gonna be so tasty by now .
The pasta should be ready , so we're gonna drain it in a colander , remembering to save a cup of the pasta water for the sauce for later on .
Add the drain pasta to the frying pan with the onion , and now we're gonna add in 150 grammes , which is about 1.5 packed cups of grated mature or strong Cheddar cheese , plus 180 mil , which is three quarters of a cup of double or heavy cream and half a teaspoon of black pepper to the pan .
Now stir it all together with the pasta until the cheese is melted .
So thank you .
OK , now we need to roughly chop up the sausages and the bacon .
It doesn't need to be cheffy just nice , generous , chunky pieces of both .
Add the chopped sausage and bacon to the pan with the pasta , then stir everything together until it's nicely combined .
If you want to loosen the sauce a little bit , add splashes of the pasta cooking water to the sauce until it's thin to your liking .
Now transfer the pasta to bowls and serve , topped with some fresh parsley and a little bit more black pepper if you like .
This really is such a simple recipe that comes together really quickly .
It's definitely not diet food , but if you wanted to add some veggies to it , it works really well with peas , peppers or courgette .
And if you really like this type of quick and easy comfort food .
Then check out my creamy tomato ravioli where I'll show you how to turn shop bought ravioli into something truly spectacular .
Now let's give this a taste .
Ah , cheesy deliciousness .
It's so good , hm .