Day 61: just what the doctor ordered

It was one of those days (the kind we are all only too familiar with) when maximum comfort and flavour satisfaction were needed. The kind of day when you want the comfort of a homecooked meal but you don’t want the responsibility of investing even half an hour of life’s most precious resource (time) into the making of it. You’ve also got the week’s menu planned and the ingredients on standby so you can’t justify the expense of a takeaway, even if you did fancy one. No. Homecooked was the operative word here. I knew I could find many inspirations in the comfort-evoking pages of a Nigella cookbook, I just had to hope that somewhere on my selection for this week I had picked something as simple to make as it was delicious to eat.

The long workday came to a close and I (dramatically) dragged my physically and emotionally exhausted body into the kitchen and up to the fridge, where an equally worn-out chalkboard hangs displaying the week’s picks for 365 Days of Nigella. I was very happy indeed to see (and be reminded) that I had chosen Nigella’s Linguine with Garlic Oil and Pancetta for one night; requiring only three essential ingredients, this was the bowl of food that was destined to provide sustenance and much-needed comfort at the end of a very long, and quite frankly shit, day. Am I allowed to swear here? If not, I do apologise.

Nigella’s Linguine with Garlic Oil and Pancetta

I'll be honest: I really didn’t think, in terms of flavour, that this was going to be all that satisfying. But let’s face it, Nigella is hardly going to speak so passionately about something if it's bland and unfulfilling, in my humble opinion. I was also still reeling with gratitude for the fact that I had picked at least one very easy, quick recipe to add to the cookalong this week. I actually think I do this every week: a sort of subconscious precursory measure for days like today.

Of course, the final result is only going to be as good as the pancetta you use: I’ve had some bland ones in the past, the presence of which went unnoticed in the recipes that I used them in, and this is definitely not what I wanted today. Instead, I cubed a one-inch thick piece of cured, smoked pork belly (boczek wędzony) that I got from the deli counter in my local Polski sklep; the aroma so strong that I could clearly imagine myself stood next to the smoking embers of the wood upon which it was cured. Roasted in the oven in potent garlic oil released a scent so wonderful that it permeated through the house a promise of very good things to come.

I don’t know much about the anatomy of a pig, but in this Polish deli was an entire half (maybe full?) piece of smoked pork belly; I ordered a one-inch thick piece with restraint in order to test it out, but now I would be more than happy to keep a generous segment of this to hand for suppers such as these. And for stews, or wherever pancetta would be required, like, for example, in Nigella’s Peas with Pancetta. I am completely aware that the flavour profile is different from pancetta: this cured bacon is smoked whereas (I believe) pancetta is not (?). I am likely to always make this sub, however; as much as I love pork, I only really like bacon and ham when they’re smoked.

Flavour musings

Although I always like to try every pick in this cookalong 100% true to the written recipe (unless I make substitutes for things I am not keen on, or do not have), I did allow myself the indulgence of a (not so) light sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan. I also used parsley, but permission for this is granted within the recipe itself in Nigella Bites.

The cured bacon I used added a smokey-salinity, a big difference perhaps to how the original should taste, but it was just the one-way ticket to contentment I was looking for.

Nigella’s Linguine with Garlic Oil and Pancetta is deliciously simple and just what the doctor ordered.