Linguine with Pancetta, Prawns and Rocket

You know how much I love pasta... I'd happily eat pasta for supper everyday. Pasta is just a great neutral starch on which to combine flavours and ingredients. I have been eating pasta for as long as I can remember and I have always considered pasta as one of the great pleasures of the table. There's something so satisfying about a big bowl piled high with pasta. Everyone can serves themselves and it's great as a side dish, or the main course. Plus, pasta is economical, what is not to like?

It's hard to choose on a single favourite pasta dish. I have several pasta dishes which I love: pasta puttanesca is perhaps the pasta dish I cook most often, followed by spaghetti with Marmite for lazy days.  On the weekend when I want to spend some quality time in the kitchen, I love making fresh pasta and 'proper' bolognese sauce. Or when I visit the fishmonger, I am always in the look for beautiful clams for linguine alla vongole.

I could go on and on, but let's focus on this linguine with pancetta, prawns and rocket.  This particular pasta dish is a proof of my indecisiveness and greediness. One evening, I could not decide whether to have linguine with garlic and pancetta, or to have linguine with prawns, chilli, lemon and rocket; so instead, I took the elements from both dishes and this is what I came up with...

Linguine with Pancetta, Prawns and Rocket
Recipe by Me
Serves 4

500 gr linguine
160 gr pancetta, cubed
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 fresh red chillies, finely
a knob of butter
250 gr raw king prawns
1/2 cup of white wine
juice of 1 lemon or to taste
a handful of rocket leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Now, instead of reading the instructions on how to cook this pasta dish, you can watch me cook it. So, it's true, I am a real human. This blog is not run by a robot... just a lunatic. I hope you enjoy the video. Credit to my friend Jacky who is the camera operator and the editor of the video. I am his puppet.