Suffolk chef and Masterchef competitor Hannah Gregory cooks up a pasta treat using anything she had lying around...

This dish was not intended to become a column.

This was one of those dishes that was thrown together on a Sunday night when the shops were closed, we didn’t have much in and I wanted to use up some slowly dying ingredients.

It started out as a humble carbonara and then metamorphosed into something more. About halfway through slurping up strings of spaghetti, my carb-loving partner stopped for air and said “this is column worthy”. So there you have it, you don’t get much higher praise than a bonafide lover of all things beige and pasta related telling you to write about your kitchen raid supper.

I am not using the word ‘carbonara’ in the title because I fear it would a) get me thrown out of Italy next time I visit, and b) cause any Italian readers to hunt me down and kill me.

You could adapt and modify this dish with literally anything you have knocking around, but I have listed exactly what I threw into it so you can recreate it at home and wait for your loved one to regale you with compliments.

Kitchen raid pasta

(Serves 2 generously)

250g dried spaghetti, bucatini, tagliatelle or any other pasta you have knocking around

2 egg yolks

Generous handful of grated parmesan cheese

Black pepper

100g cubed pancetta (or use lardons/chopped bacon)

Half a punnet of shiitakes, sliced (again, use any mushrooms you have lying around)

Half a bag of spinach

50g Binham Blue cheese

Truffle oil

For the pangrattato:

Couple of slices of stale bread

2 garlic cloves

Zest of half a lemon

Small bunch of thyme, leaves picked

Glug of olive oil

What to do:

Bring a well-salted pan of water to the boil.

Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan.

Blitz the bread to make breadcrumbs then tip into the hot olive oil.

Crush in the garlic cloves and add the thyme leaves and lemon zest. Keep stirring and fry until everything is golden brown, then set aside.

In a large frying pan, heat the pancetta until crispy, remove from the pan, making sure you leave all the porky fatty goodness behind.

Fry the mushrooms in the rendered pork fat. Turn the heat down to low, if the mushrooms look like they are starting to catch, remove from the pan until your pasta is cooked.

Throw your pasta into the boiling water and cook as per the packet instructions or until al dente.

While the pasta is doing its thing, whisk together the egg yolks and parmesan cheese, season well with black pepper.

When the pasta has cooked, turn the heat off on your frying pan and use tongs to move the pasta from the cooking water into the frying pan. I do this as it tends to carry exactly the right amount of water needed to create the sauce (you can always add more if needed) and sucks up all the flavour from the pancetta and mushrooms.

Add the egg and parmesan mix to the pasta and stir vigorously until the eggs are cooked through and you have achieved a silky sauce. You can add a ladle of the cooking water to keep things loose if you need to. You will notice as the pasta moves, the sauce begins to emulsify and thicken. The heat from the pasta will cook the eggs.

When you have achieved your desired sauce consistency, crumble in the blue cheese, add the spinach and cooked pancetta and keep stirring until the cheese begins to melt and the spinach wilts.

Top your pasta with the pangrattato and a glug of truffle oil and loads of black pepper.

Find out about Hannah’s upcoming Supper Clubs and what she is currently cooking via Instagram @WanderSups