Time To Prep & Cook: 20mins

Ingredients:

• Pasta
• Onion
• Garlic
• Mushrooms
• Ham
• Tinned (Canned) Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup
• Cheddar Cheese

Back in 1998 STEPS released their first video and as part of it, Claire shared her love of cooking and her recipe for Pasta A La Clara. The video clip quickly took on legendary status amongst STEPS fans as they debated the merits of the recipe.

We admit, it’s taken 20 years for us to make this for the first time (we were put off by the tinned soup) – read on to find out how to make Pasta A La Clara and what we thought of it…

Method:

1. Start by chopping your onions and garlic
2. If you’re using dried pasta put the water on to boil now and get your pasta started
3. Heat your pan over medium heat with a little olive oil (she leaves this out in the video but some sort of oil is necessary for frying in)
4. Saute your onions and garlic until they get soft – this should take 3-5mins
5. Whilst your onions and garlic are frying, chop up your mushrooms & the ham, leaving them reasonably big
6. Next shred some cheddar cheese so that it’s ready to melt
7. Time to break out that tinned soup, open it up and put it into your pan, turning the heat to a nice simmer leaving it for 5-10 mins or so
8. Add your ham and cheddar cheese into the pan, give it a stir and mix it around
9. The whole mix should have been on for around 15 or so mins now, so your pasta should be ready
10. Drain your pasta and add it to the pan, mixing it through the sauce
11. Voila! Pasta A La Clara, the original.

So… what did it taste like?? Well I’ll start out by pointing out that we love Claire, and she was only 21 when she shared this recipe but it definitely falls into the category of ‘uni food’.

That being said, it’s quick, it’s easy, you can easily make a large batch at once that can sit in your fridge for leftovers and even with the Heinz Tomato Soup (which as soup we generally love btw) it’s not too bad. 

Claire has apparently now updated the recipe – making passata (instead of the soup) and using mascarpone instead of the cheddar – I reckon my older self would probably prefer that version! Maybe we can get her to share the updated version if we ask her on Twitter enough!