My dairy-free cabonara alternative. Serves about 4 depending on how much pasta you cook.

Ingredients

300g chicken fillets, diced
2 rashers bacon, diced
1 onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 a red capsicum, diced
2 cups (approx) mushrooms, peeled & sliced
1 cup tinned chick peas, thoroughly washed
Extra virgin olive oil
400ml can coconut milk
Breadcrumbs (optional)
Pasta of your choice

Method

1. Fry the onion, garlic, capsicum, mushrooms and chick peas in oil then remove from pan.
2. Fry chicken and bacon until browned. I like to add paprika at this step.
3. Add coconut milk and the vegies you fried earlier. Simmer for 15 mins or more.
4. Add breadcrumbs only if you want to thicken the sauce. It actually works quite well and is better than flour which screws the taste. About 2 TB is a good amount but be careful because it takes a few mins to thicken as they soak up the liquid.
5. Oh yeah, cook and drain the pasta at some stage :-)
6. Serve with lots of freshly ground black pepper (Chris Taylor style).

Notes

Chives would probably be good in this but I didn’t have any. Tuna instead of chicken might be a nice variation. I have it with chinotto but I’m just into it at the moment.