Quick Pasta Carbonara

• Short tubular pasta (rigatoni, penne, macaroni) is best used in baked dishes with vegetables, cheese and meat.
• Smooth long pasta (spaghetti, linguine) is best with sauces like Bolognese, tomato and clams as these keep the pasta slippery and separate.
• Cup-shaped pasta (conchiglie, orichette) is designed to hold sauces with larger ingredients such as mushrooms, artichokes and tomatoes.
• Cut pasta (tagliatelle, fettuccine, farfalle) is best eaten with rich sauce made with cream, eggs or meat.
• Twisted pasta (fusilli, eliche, fettuccines, farfalle) the curly character of these pastas means that they will trap thin sauces such as pesto, garlic, and olive oil flavoured with chilli.
• Tiny pasta shapes (alphabet letters, fillini, vermicelli) cook quickly and are ideal for adding to soups and casseroles.
• Ravioli is stuffed pasta and can vary from cheese, vegetables and meat.
• Lasagne sheets and cannelloni are good pastas used in a baked layered meat or vegetables dishes.

Easy spread butter is ideal for sandwiches and toast.

• It can be used to lace soups, sauces and stews or it can be spooned over puddings and stirred into sweet dishes. Great for adding to leftovers, as it is quite rich and can withstand being heated.
• Plain full-fat yoghurt can be used instead of crème fraîche in cooking as long as you heat it gently – adding a little cornflour, which can help to prevent it from separating.
• The best crème fraîche comes from a strictly controlled area of Normandy called Isigny-sur-Mer and it’s sold in larger supermarkets in the UK.

• French mustard or Dijon is creamy and can be used in dressings, marinades or adding to sauces.
• English is good for roast beef, steak, gammon or sizzling sausages.
• Wholegrain is used in chutney’s and pickles

• Although it might seem odd, grinding black pepper over a bowl of strawberries enhances the flavour of the fruit.
• Pepper that is pre-ground is not fresh tasting and often has other ingredients mixed in.
• Choose the type of mill that suits you, and if you want coarser pepper you can loosen the screw on the top of the mill or crush the seeds in a pestle and mortar

Sea salt’s pronounced and salty flavour means less is required to season food.

• Keep eggs in the fridge in their box and never eat them after their use-by date.
• The Health Protection Agency recommends buying Lion branded eggs, which come from vaccinated hens and are therefore less likely to contain salmonella

To keep cut parsley or coriander, put in a hole free polythene bag with a couple of tablespoons of cold water, give the bag a good shake and keep in the salad drawer of the fridge. Herbs should keep for a week like this.

• Parmesan often goes rock hard or becomes horribly sweaty. Ideally, all cheese should be stored in a cool, airy place at a temperature of 46-50F/8-10C. However, most of us put it straight into the fridge. This is fine providing the cheese is kept loosely wrapped in its own airtight container so it isn’t tainted by other foods.
• Store it in the salad drawer, which is not quite as cold as the rest of the fridge and use a micro plane for grating.