Luke’s Elephant Garlic, Pancetta and Mushroom Tagliatelle

Peel and finely chop half the red onion into roughly 1cm pieces. Peel and finely chop your elephant garlic. Thinly slice the chestnut mushrooms. Pull your thyme leaves off their stalks and grate the zest of half your lemon.

Put a frying pan on a medium-high heat with ½ tbsp of oil. Add the pancetta and cook for 3 mins until it starts to crisp, then remove from the pan (try to leave as much oil as you can in the pan). Tip: Place your pancetta on some kitchen paper to soak up the excess oil.

Reduce the heat to medium, add your onion to the pan (no need to wash the pan!) and allow to cook gently for 3-4 mins until soft. Add the garlic and thyme to the onion and cook for a further 2 mins.

Add the pasta to the water along with 1/4 tsp of salt and cook for 9 mins or until ‘al dente’. Tip: ‘Al dente’ means the pasta is cooked through but has a hint of firmness left in the middle. Drain but keep some of the pasta water as you’ll need it for the sauce.

In the meantime, add the mushrooms and pancetta to the onion mixture along with your lemon zest and season with a pinch of salt and lots of black pepper. Cook for 4-5 mins until the mushrooms have cooked down, then turn the heat to low.

Finish the sauce by stirring in the crème fraîche. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice and a few more grinds of black pepper. Cook gently for 1-2 mins. Add a few tbsp of the pasta water to loosen it up. If the pasta is not quite cooked at this point, just leave your sauce to the side until it is cooked, then drain the pasta.