Prep time: 20min
Cooking time: 30min
Servings: About 5-6

1. Farfalle pasta (ribbon pasta) x 300g

2. Water

3. Pink salt

4. Butter x 6 pats

5. Minced garlic x 2 tbsp

6. Yellow onion x 1 large or 2 medium

7. White button mushrooms x 600g

8. Sharp spinach x 750g

   • Cut stems into small pieces.

   • Leaves need not be cut into small pieces.

9. Maggi concentrated chicken stock x 4 tbsp

10. White pepper powder x a few shakes

11. Maple syrup (or sugar) x 1 tbsp

12. Back bacon x 1 packet (about 6-7 pieces), fat removed, cut into medium-sized pieces

13. Cooking oil x 2 tsp

14. Cooking cream x 400ml

15. Low fat milk x 400ml

1. Boil pasta according to package instructions, but take it out and strain 1-2 minutes before your desired doneness. Set aside.

2. Whilst the pasta is boiling, pan-fry the bacon in 2 tsp of oil, the deglaze with 400ml of low fat milk. Turn off the heat and set aside.

• You should get some nice brown bits at the base of your pan before deglazing.

• These brown bits are important for flavour.

• Be careful with the heat. Do not fry until there are black, charred bits - this will spoil the flavour later on.

3. In a large pan or a wok, melt 2 pats of butter and saute minced garlic until fragrant.

4. Add onions, saute until they're half-translucent, then add mushrooms and saute until all ingredients are cooked.

5. Add 400ml cooking cream, a few shakes of pepper, 1 tbsp maple syrup and 4 tbsp of concentrated chicken stock. Mix well, then add in all the spinach and close the lid to let it wilt.

6. Once spinach is about ¾ wilted, add in the cooked pasta and the contents of the deglazed bacon pan (including the bacon. Mix well.

• Note: In the image below, the contents of the deglazed bacon pan were not added yet - my domestic worker doesn't take pork, so I didn't add in the bacon until right at the end, after I had already removed her pork-free portion of the pasta. She says it tastes good even without the bacon! What I did was that I added the milk in, took out her portion, then scooped out the creamy soup to deglaze the bacon pan and added the contents in.

7. Let the contents simmer until the pasta is the desired doneness so that the flavours can get absorbed into the pasta.

8. Taste the soup base and add more salt / maple syrup / pepper as needed.

9. Serve warm. Enjoy!