Vic Grimshaw
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Lunches

Our lady of lunches

No. Not the type with two bottles of Chablis. The other ones, where you're freelance, on a budget and working from home.

A rarely mentioned aspect about working from home, is just how much you think about making lunch. If there are no leftovers to hand, my lunches ideally need to be quick, healthy and satisfying. For my own amusement, and maybe yours, I've scored these with an effort to taste ratio. They're all sized for one person, too. I really don't like measuring things out.

Go on. Send me something to try.

hello@vicgrimshaw.com

 

Pesto penne (with bacon!)

pesto-penne.jpeg

You'll need:

Four handfuls of penne pasta
Two rashers of smoked streaky bacon, chopped into 2cmish squares
”Green things from your fridge” I used a few florets of broccoli and a handful of frozen peas
Half handful of fresh basil leaves
Two cloves of garlic
A good chunk of parmesan
Olive oil, very good glug of
Parmesan cheese, to grate over

Method:

Chuck the penne into a big pan of already boiling water. Add salt if you want. While that’s cooking, fry the bacon and make the pesto. I add the bacon neat to the pan, no oil. Whizz up all the remaining ingredients to make the pesto - keep tasting until you like it. I don’t add pine nuts, because I don’t love them. Add this mix to the bacon, and cook through a little in the warm pan (turn the heat back on if needed). Chuck some of the pasta water in to loosen it a bit. Drain the pasta after 11 or so minutes, then toss into the bacon, to properly coat it. Serve it up, with extra parmesan shavings.

Effort to taste ratio (both out of 10):
5:9

Verdict:
Involves using a mini chopper, which is quite a lot for a lunch, imho. But unbeatable on the rammed with flavour front, and also rates highly for using up odds and ends of veg.

Vic GrimshawLUNCH, 5:9, PESTO, PASTA, PENNE, BACON, FRIDGE-RAID