Scratch pasta and sauce

• Pasta (penne is more traditional but it really doesn’t matter)
• Tomatoes (I use a 2:1 ratio of diced tomatoes and whole plum tomatoes)
• Bacon or thin-sliced ham (I use bacon scraps and hand-remove all the fat to produce semi-ham)
• Olives (I prefer oil-cured black kalamata olives but green also work)
• Rosemary (a little goes a long way)
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt

Chop the meat into little bits and then heat until cooked but still limp (not crisp or chewy!). Drain the fat. Quickly chop and brown the rosemary in the bottom of a saucepan along with the garlic and a little olive oil. Chop or slice the olives and dump the meat, tomatoes, olives and rosemary into the pan with the rosemary and garlic, and stew until the diced tomatoes have lost most of their consistency. Salt to taste. When ready, dump over freshly cooked pasta (a little al dente is good – the chewiness adds structure and makes it easier to eat).

While great hot and fresh, the final dish also refrigerates well and improves in flavour over time as the flavours meld. If you’ve picky kids, lower the rosemary and olive proportions. If you’re like me, up the rosemary and olives. If you want to (deliciously) experiment, coarsely cube and brown some aubergine on the side and dump into the mix right before the end.