Pasta for sore eyes

Well, the doctor sent me home from work, having diagnosed me with "Allergic Conjunctivitis", so I could rest my eyes while the eye drops took effect. I learned today that a blind art director is a useless art director, so this suited me just fine.

Well, what better to do when sent home with sore eyes than make pasta? I'm not sure that making, eating, or typing about pasta really counts as "resting eyes", but after this I'll take my eyes straight to bed. Promise.

So. A recipe for "pasta for sore eyes". Loosely based on a far fancier variant in this month's Delicious mag.

While your 400g of pasta (I used fettuccini) is boiling, toast a handful of walnuts in a dry frying pan until they look faintly golden and smell toasty (mmm). Remove walnuts from the pan, and saute 3 rashers of bacon and two small chopped onions until soft and golden. Add to the pan as many chopped mushrooms as your heart desires (I think my heart desired about 8 medium-sized ones from memory), and the leaves stripped from four fat rosemary stems. Saute another five minutes or so, then add a 250g tub of low-fat sour cream (courtesy of Anna's overstuffed fridge) and about 120g of grated Romano cheese (you can add some pasta water if it doesn't look like a sauce). Stir for a minute or so, adding the pasta when it's cooked. Stir through the walnuts. Serve with a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Will feed a blind Dr VonWoof for about 5 lunches, I reckon.

While on the subject of toasted walnuts (and it's a tasty subject), honey toasted walnuts (done the same way as above, but with a tablespoon of nice aromatic honey added in the final minute to caramelise) are fabulous in salad. Combine with ripe, juicy tomatoes, torn basil, crumbled goats cheese and salt and pepper. And if you're feeling gourmet, pomegranate seeds make this look and taste like a million dollars. If your tomatoes are nice enough (I spent a lot of money on "heirloom" purple tomatoes when making this salad) you won't need a dressing, but otherwise a tiny bit of balsamic will be lovely... Recipe inspired by the very wonderful Yellow Bistro in Potts Point.