h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nice recipe, GT. I think I'd prefer it if you added the brill at some stage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brill_(fish)

Can you write a paragraph or two to make this a little more than just a recipe? I have books containing thousands, but I wouldn't sit and read through them.

Icy

I think this is a tasty sounding recipe, and this entry has potential but isn't quite there at the moment. I agree that it needs more, well, words. it's just a bullet point list of instructions, and I don't think that the instructions are for something so detailed that you need to look it up on the internet.

This is a very basic pasta bake, if you gave any confident cook the ingredients they would be able to bake it without needing a recipe. At the moment it's a recipe in the form that an experienced cook would be used to following, but an experienced cook wouldn't need this recipe.

This entry would be of use to someone who wasn't a confident cook but wanted to make something to impress a partner or a group of friends. The sort of person I lived with at Uni, who didn't know once tried to make mashed potateo without draining off the water the potateos had boiled in and wondered why it was more like soup.

So I would suggest re-titling it 'very easy' pasta bake, or something like that, and adding more description. Aim it at the 17 year old who's never cooked and wants to impress his girlfriend on the night that his parents have gone out! You could include suggestions for variation - eg mushrooms not essential, or omit the bacon for a veggie, you could omit the garlic if you didn't like that! If I was making this I'd consider including roast veg, such as pepper or corgette. It doesn't really matter which sort of pasta you use does it? The other advantage is that this is something that you couple prepare in advance and leave in the oven until your guests arrived.

Try reading it out loud to yourself, image how you'd tell that 17 year old to make it, if he rang you up for advice. Say things like:

'Get 100g, about 1 handful, of pasta per person, the best one is fusilli, but you can use any sort'

What would you serve it with? - garlic bread would be good, or perhaps a salad, dressed with balsamic and olive oil. They might need instructions on how to make a salad dressing as well. Well done for mentioning the Chianti, you could add that any red wine would work well, or a chilled Rose in the summer.

Streaky bacon or back bacon? I know back bacon is considered "normal bacon" over there, but some places only *have* streaky bacon (and thus streaky is "normal"--the only other kind of bacon I (for instance) have access to is Canadian bacon, which I have on good authority is a completely different thing altogether! The first time I saw the phrase streaky bacon in a cookbook from the UK, I knew immediately what was meant, even if I hadn't the slightest idea what other kind there was)

Are you still around, Gandalfstwin?
Nothing has happened here for over a year, if the author has ed (although it says 'Lost Posted Last Week) I propose Flea Market?

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