Creamy Pasta Shells with Peas and Bacon

I found this recipe on a site. Its from Jamie Oliver but for the life of me I cant find it again. I went out today and picked up the ingredients from memory so I hope I got it right. It sure tasted good.
What you need…

Cooked Pasta Shells. Follow instructions on the bag. I used about 3/4 of the bag for 3 of us for a full meal.
Streaky bacon (normal American bacon) Cut up about 10 slices into bits. I will admit that I used left over Italian prosciutto That we had left over. Cut up, raw ready to go.
1/2 cup of frozen peas.
Fresh shredded Parmesan cheese. About a handful
Small-ish container of creme fresh. Sour cream could be used I am sure
Mint. I used dry.

Just as the pasta was close to being finished, I put some olive oil in a frying pan and heated it up. I added the mint to the oil for a few seconds. Then I added the bacon and cooked for several mins until is was cooked through. Then I added the peas in and let that cook up a bit. I added the creme fresh and stired. Add the cheese. Stir well. (If it seems a little thick add some water from the coooking pasta. This is another trick I have seen Jamie do. Thanks Jamie) Then add the pasta and stir.

I wasnt really sure about the mint but its really nice. Its easy and not expensive at all.

Vanilla Sugar

I love watching Jamie Oliver shows. I love him to bits. He is a sweetheart. So, with his latest series, I noticed him using Vanilla sugar. Hmmm. New one to me. I love Vanilla. Its what I would choose over most everything. So my interest was peaked. He made it look easy to make. So I gave it a go over the weekend.

Get some Vanilla bean pods. I found some at Tesco. In a metal tube in the fancy ingredient section. I also got a 500g bag of organic sugar.  I took one of the bean pods and cut it up a bit and whizzed it in the food processor. It didn’t whizz up great. The blades didn’t really hit it.  So I added the sugar. Whizz, whizz, whizz. I poured it into a sieve and using a spoon stirred it until all the sugar went into a bowl underneath. I was left with a bit of big bits. I whizzed those with a bit of the sugar and sieved again. I was left with a bit of the bean bits left that where big. I just tossed them away. I put the sugar in an air tight canister. Its supposed to get stronger with time.

It is great. Next to Vanilla I love coffee. I could live on coffee. I will always get a vanilla latte at any cafe I go to. So I brewed up some espresso and heated up some milk in my big mug. Normally we use the sweetener tabs. I substituted 1 teaspoon full of vanilla sugar for 1 sweetener tab. It was the perfect sweetness, and perfect vanilla flavor. Yeah. No need to buy any syrup again.

You can also use Vanilla sugar on top of cakes, or cookies and things like that. It is supposed to last donkeys years in an airtight container and it was fairly cheap to make. Win / win in my book.  Thanks Jamie. Your the best.