Spicy, soupy pasta and beans

Mondays are typically reserved for eating at the counter as soon as I breeze through the door, grumbling about the rain or the weather, listening to a podcast where the voices are twinkling from the warmer climes of California. Sometimes it’s cutting slices of cheese and placing them on pieces of slightly stale bread thickly spread with butter whilst quickly putting some water on the boil because hunger can’t wait with me.

This Monday was different. An impromptu dinner for my Canadian girls before our various trips stopped us from spending time together. I’d conveniently cooked up a big pot of beans the day before and hadn’t tucked in yet thanks to four glasses of wine at the pub on Sunday night which rolled into dinner at Kel and Sam’s (a perfect carbonara!) instead of me returning home for a solo dinner.

A pot of spicy, soupy pasta and beans pretty much sums up my winter mood – I want to be comforted, feel tricked into virtue; I want the taste of Korea in everything, and I want to be able to grate inordinate amounts of cheese on top.

For 6 people you’ll need…