Pappardelle appears to be ‘pasta of the month’, the internet is awash with it and one can see why. Its appearance is so warm and comforting – perfect for pairing with a rich, buttery sauce. Indeed, the name Pappardelle is a derivation of the Italian verb ‘pappare’, which means to gobble. This is, in my opinion, incredibly apt considering winter pasta dishes of this variety are intended to be rather homely and comforting. Perhaps this yearning for comfort food is one of the reasons I’m very close to being addicted to mushrooms.

Though there are many recipes which feature Pappardelle and mushrooms, this particular set of instructions is a very roughly followed version of one found on BBC GoodFood. What a recipe it is too, the flavours all work together wonderfully, as one might expect. After all, lemon and parsley are an age-old combination and garlic goes well with almost anything, as long as one is being sensible. At the same time, the butter gives the dish a wonderful warmth and richness, making it a perfect selection for this time of year.

There aren’t many things I’ve cooked over the course of the past year that have been total cock ups, though there was one particularly painful batch of onion bhajis. However, and it pains me to admit this, but a batch of red velvet cupcakes produced yesterday were overwhelmingly brown in appearance and tasted a little too much like beetroot. As one might imagine, the recipe being used called for beetroot since I’m not particularly in favour of pouring a fluid ounce of red food colouring into anything intended for digestion. Surely, there must be some kind of negative health effect associated with ingesting that much colouring, but I digress. At least I can take solace in the fact that the texture of the cupcakes was perfect, which means that the recipe is fundamentally correct.

Pappardelle with Buttery Mushrooms

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 200g Pappardelle pasta

• 100g chestnut mushrooms, any strong flavoured mushroom will do

• 30g salted butter

• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

• A little parsley, finely chopped

• The juice of half a lemon

Method:

1. Put the pasta on to boil, this should take no more than 10 minutes. Heat up a heavy based frying pan and melt the butter, add a drizzle of olive oil to stop the butter burning. When the butter is hot begin frying the mushrooms. Cook until they are beginning to brown, add the garlic. It is very difficult to overcook mushrooms so continue to fry on a high heat until the pasta is ready. Mix the pasta in with the mushrooms and serve. Sprinkle over a little parsley and lemon juice before gobbling down.

Cost: By far the most expensive ingredient here is the pasta, but it is absolutely worth it. One could make this meal for less than £1 if one was willing to skimp on pasta quality, but in this case I’m not. As such, this dish will set you back roughly £1.60 and it is entirely worth it.