Blue cheese, leek and bacon pasta

Sometimes, you know you're going to be coming home tired or too late to be able to put together anything more than a simple meal. Having recipes like this one ready to hand are so useful to be help get a quick and tasty meal on the table, it also doesn't have to break the bank balance. This more than ever is proving to be important for our family as the cost of living continues to rise. I've not calculated the exact cost of this meal but I didn't use the whole packet of bacon, so I estimate that this cost around £4. Whilst it was only designed to feed the three of us, it would be quite easy to increase the number of mouths fed by this meal without increasing the cost dramatically.

Blue cheese, leek and bacon pasta (served 2 plus toddler)

6 slices streaky bacon

250g pasta

1 packet blue cheese (I choose the cheapest but anything like dolcelatte would be fine)

3 leeks

1 to 2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp oil

1. Put the bacon on a tray and cook in the oven (or under the grill if you have one) until it is crispy. This takes about 20 minutes in our oven as I like really crispy bacon.
   
2. Meanwhile, get the kettle full of water and set it to boil whilst you weigh out the pasta. Wash and slice the leeks. Pour the olive oil into a pan or frying pan and place on a medium heat. Add the leeks and start to soften them gently.
   
3. Whilst the leeks are cooking, chop up the blue cheese roughly. Once the leeks have softened, add the blue cheese and keep stirring until it melts. Add the milk.
   
4. Drain the pasta and remove the bacon from the oven. Stir the pasta and leek blue cheese mixture together.