Happy Monday! It's tough being in isolation all the time! I find my emotions go from being excited that I have so much time off, to bored, to enjoyment of all the things I now have time to do, to anxious to the fact that I don't know if I will still have a job once this is all over, to sad, you get the idea. So I wanted to make something delicious, comforting and simple, easy to make.

I settled on a tried and tested favourite, Penne Alfredo, or ham and mushroom pasta. I think it's one of those recipes that are easy if you have basic cooking skills, and that can be elevated with a few simple tricks.

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INGREDIENTS (makes two large portions)

• 200g penne pasta
• 5 Tbls butter
• 10 Tbls all purpose flour
• approx 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 1 T crushed garlic
• 100g chopped mushrooms
• 50g ham
• salt and pepper to taste
• oreganum to taste

METHOD:

In a non stick pan, on medium heat, melt the butter and fry the garlic. Not too hot, nice and slowly. It will smell fantastic!

In a separate saucepan, prepare the pasta until just under al dente.

Slowly, tablespoon by tablespoon, add the flour to the butter and mix with a fork, ensuring there are no lumps, until you have formed a paste.

Back to the butter. Once a paste is formed, add the milk, bit by bit. You may need a bit more or less milk according to how you like the consistency of your roux (that's what you've just made - the sauce is called a roux).

Don't forget it will thicken as it cooks, so it is better to add less milk and then see how it goes.

Add the mushrooms, ham, salt and pepper and oreganum, and slowly simmer until everything is cooked through. At this stage you can make a judgement on whether you need more milk, as you're almost done.

Turn down to a low heat until the pasta is ready. Spoon cooked pasta into the sauce, don't bother about rinsing it, as the starches from the pasta water add a nice dimension to the sauce.

Turn back up to medium heat, and cook until the pasta is al dente. This shouldn't take longer than five minutes.

Serve, and garnish with a parmesan or other cheese of your choosing

Tada!

Close up, can you smell it? Mmmm

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