Creamy spring greens rigatoni with lemon, bacon & chilli

Team spring greens with some of its best culinary friends – bacon, cream, lemon and cheese – in this easy and flavour-packed pasta dish

Ingredients

• 150 g smoked bacon lardons or pancetta
• drizzle of olive oil (optional)
• 150 g spring greens
• 2 garlic cloves , crushed
• pinch of chilli flakes , plus extra to serve
• 200 g rigatoni or any short pasta
• 100 ml double cream
• 2 egg yolks (freeze the whites for another recipe)
• 30 g parmesan , grated, plus extra to serve
• 1 lemon , zested and juiced
• 50 g freshly podded or frozen peas

Steps

1. Heat a large pan over a medium heat, tip in the bacon lardons and leave to sizzle for 5 mins until crisp and some of the fat has rendered into the pan. Add a drizzle of oil if the pan looks dry.
2. Strip the stalks of the spring greens from the leaves, then finely chop the stalks, roll up the leaves and cut them into ribbons. Add the stalks, garlic and chilli to the bacon lardons in the pan and cook for 2-3 mins to soften.
3. Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook following packet instructions. Add the leaves of the greens to the pasta 1 min before the end of the cooking time.
4. Whisk the cream, egg yolks, parmesan and lemon zest with some seasoning in a jug.
5. Drain the pasta and greens, reserving a mugful of the starchy water. Tip the pasta and greens into the pan with the bacon mix, then turn the heat to low and pour in the cream mixture. Add the peas, a splash of the reserved pasta water and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens enough to cling to the pasta and the peas are cooked. Serve with more parmesan and chilli flakes sprinkled over, if you like.