Day 23

I’m starting to suspect that Dear Husband simply isn’t fussed on mint. Tonight, I made Tagliatelle with bacon, peas and mint and I had to get straight to his description of this evening’s efforts which he described as “being like creamy Silvermints”(!) and gave it 6 marks out of 10!!! I really thought I’d get at least a seven being made with pasta, bacon and cream.

Anyway, getting down to the recipe, I put the tagliatelle on first and then started on the sauce part. I must admit cheating here as I bought a packet of ready-cubed bacon lardons instead of chopping 8 rashers (or as we call them in Donegal - slices) of streaky bacon. Anything that cut the prep time this evening, I was all for. Once the bacon lardons were lightly golden and crispy, I added in cream and let it come up to the boil. I then added frozen peas and, soon after, I drained the pasta before tossing it into the sauce and then finished off with freshly chopped mint.

The verdict…

As I said, Dear Husband gave the dish 6 marks out of 10. He said it was the mint. He felt there was too much of it in the dish but there was only one tablespoon whereas I would think that wasn’t a lot. In fairness though, during summer time, I grew up on eating new potatoes drowned in mint sauce grown in my father’s garden and it was a fight between me and my three sisters as to who got the most which is where my love of mint began so I am totally biased in favour of this herb. Dear Son loved the bacon, cream and pasta part of the dish but was picking out the peas – not sure if he recognised the mint but he ate most of his.

This dish was super easy to prepare and super easy to cook. This was my saviour as Dear Husband and I were heading out to dinner this evening so I had limited time and, yes, you guessed correctly. Dear Husband did eat this and then was sat down for 4-course meal 45 minutes later. He really does love his food. Despite the low-ish marks, this recipe has definitely made my list of dishes I’d make again although I think I'll leave out the mint next time.

On another note, after three weeks of making dinners, I finally got a dinner made for me (Yay!) and it was absolutely gorgeous so a big thank you to Claire McGowan and the staff of the Beach House in Buncrana. It was Michelin-star quality food and the potato and lentil bake was one of the nicest vegetarian dishes I’ve ever had! To top it all off, it was a beautiful, sunny evening which made it all the more enjoyable. However, I really do love it when someone makes me dinner…