Amatraciana - Pasta (Eric Treuile and Anna Del Conte - last one for a while I promise)

I know I have been cooking a lot from this book but I find it so useful for cooking after work, especially when I don't want to be tied to the kitchen in the evenings (have to help daughter with homework) and work/life balance should include life/kitchen balance.  Also as said before, the book has photos with every recipe.  I find that I look at the pictures first before looking at the recipe.  I am sure there is something psychological about "eating with our eyes".

As a mother who also works full time in a job (got to be careful how I word that last bit) I choose what to cook based on if cooking straight from work or weekend; how knackered I am; what ingredients I already have in the house; and if my choice (as it is usually is my choice) is going to elicit moans of delight rather than groans of displeasure (e.g. "where is the meat?", "its OK, I ate at ..."). This recipe is an after work recipe and based on larder ingredients (as I have recently taken to always having packets of pancetta in the fridge).  Technically speaking, this is not a new recipe as it is one of my variations of tinned tomato pasta sauces - but I chose it as I decided to follow a recipe rather than going from a long distant memory.

I like the taste of pancetta as it is sweeter and tastier than bacon.  I also add it to macaroni cheese - "Well lush" as my daughter would say.  As this is an "after work" meal, I consider making a proper cheese sauce and making macaroni cheese slightly more time consuming (not to say fattening) than a pasta sauce based on tinned tomatoes, so here we are - Amatraciana.

And here it is.  For me a fairly typical evening meal using olive oil, garlic, tinned tomatoes and pancetta.  I like to add chilli flakes to mine for an extra kick.  This type of dish always goes down well, is not controversial and quite inexpensive (cheaper if don't use pancetta) so a good budget meal.