Last night was another night of needing to use up various bits and pieces from the fridge that I couldn’t bear to waste – some herbs that were a bit past their prime; part of a Brie that was a bit too ripe (sounds tautologous I know, a too ripe Brie, but at a certain point it’s a bit much to eat on its own); a couple of lemon wedges; and a few rashers of bacon.

This is a pretty rough recipe so you could make lots of substitutions – different pasta, other herbs, different cheese (goats cheese or blue), normal onion, a bit of wine instead of lemon juice even…

I served Mr Minecraft’s before adding the brie as he’s not a big cheese fan, but the rest of us really enjoyed it.  I do love clearing out left overs and also getting a delicious meal!

Fettuccine with Bacon and Brie

inspired by Jack Monroe’s Car-brie-nara from A Girl Called Jack

• 4 rashers bacon (not short cut), roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 1 spring onion, sliced
• large handful fresh herbs, chopped (I used parsley and basil)
• juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
• 125-200g Brie or other soft cheese (whatever size you’ve got)
• 500g fettuccine

Put a large pot of water on to boil with a spoonful of salt.  Add the bacon to a cold frying pan over a low heat.    Heat gently to render as much fat as possible – we’re going to fry the rest of the ingredients in the bacon fat.

Once the water boils, add the pasta and cook as indicated on the packet.  Mine took 9 minutes.  Once the bacon is mostly crisp and the fat is released, add the sliced garlic and spring onion and fry for a couple more minutes.

Drain the pasta and toss in the pan with the bacon.  Add the herbs, lemon juice and chopped Brie and season to taste.