Prue’s easy party pasta

Name: Prue’s easy party pasta
Yield: Serves 6–8
Ingredients: 75 g mature Cheddar cheese, finely grated; 350 g pasta shells, macaroni pieces or tagliatelle; a good handful of chives or spring onion tops, chopped; 225 g chestnut mushrooms, sliced; salt and pepper to season; a large knob of butter; 2 onions, finely sliced; 15 or so ripe cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters; a dash of olive oil; 80 g finely sliced ham, torn or cut into smaller strips; 2 garlic cloves, crushed

Preparation info

Serves
6–8

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Prue

By Prue Leith

Published 2018

About

This is cooking at its absolute simplest and easiest, using standard ingredients. Its delicious, it doesn’t cost much and children like it, so you don’t have to cook something separate for fussy kids. And you can vary the ingredients depending on what you have in the fridge – the quantities are only a rough guide.

Ingredients

350 g pasta shells, macaroni pieces or tagliatelle
a dash of olive oil

Main course
Pasta

Method

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a gentle simmer. Add the pasta and cook for 8–9 minutes or until just al dente. Drain well and rinse off any excess starch under hot running water. Return the cooked pasta to the pan and toss in just enough oil to stop it sticking together.
In a heavy-based frying pan, gently cook the onions in the butter un