Sticky five spiced potatoes with pancetta, peas and parsley.

This salad. it’s my kind of salad. is it even a salad, yes, I guess it is now.

Like, don’t give me bleedin’ coleslaw unless it’s with maybe some lasagne or stuffed in a chunk of French bread with deli sliced ham. Salads that are stuffed on the side of the plate to fill it up, to make you feel like you’re getting more for your money. I don’t know, but why do restaurants do such shit salads. I love this one. the roasty toasty bacon bits, pea pops and squidy spuds are everything I want. you could actually add some thin slivers of spring onion too.

The bacon: it’s so important that it’s really good quality, I buy a chunk of pancetta on the deli counter and cube it up, some butchers will have this also. you need chunks of bacon lardons here, not scraggly bits you buy in a bag, I reckon they’d burn.

Actually, a bulb of garlic, halved and added to the tray, with the little nuggets of cloves squished out after would be really great. But a non essential.

Add pepper to the bits of bacon. lots of it. it’s SO good with the stickiness the honey gives the dish.

One last thing, it’s great cold too. love cold spuds.

Serves: 4 

1kg baby potatoes, halved 

250g pancetta, cubed

2 red onion, sliced into wedges 

2tbsp olive oil 

2 tbsp chinese five spice 

2 tbsp honey

200g frozen peas, defrosted

Large handful parsley, chopped 

Large handful Dill 

Now, firstly, heat your oven to 180c. 

Toss the potatoes with the bacon, onion, olive oil and Chinese five spice on a large roasting tray. Pop into the oven for 30 minutes, toss halfway through and drizzling with honey at this point also, and turn the tray if your oven’s a bit uneven.

Once cooked, stir through the peas, lots of pepper and herbs.