Ham and Mushroom Linguine

A linguine 'style' dish, made using Udon Noodles instead of pasta, in a deliciously creamy, garlic sauce, with ham and mushrooms. Serve with a side salad as part of a main meal or without as a light lunch.

Extremely quick to make and great value, making it a fantastic mid-week meal for those on the go.

Serves 4 | 6 ProPoints/250 Calories per portion (approx)

Ingredients
375g Udon Noodles
Mushrooms (sliced, enough for 4 people)
2-3 cloves garlic 
12 slices wafer thin ham
Bisto White Sauce
4 tspns low fat cheese spread (see notes at bottom of page)
Flat leaf parsley (fresh, finely chopped)(optional)
Salad selection (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, etc.)

Method
1) Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and reduce to a simmer, ready for the noodles. Also, boil the kettle ready to make the white sauce.

2) Slice the mushrooms and garlic and gently fry in a large pan or wok with a few squirts of 1Cal spray oil.

3) When the mushrooms begin to turn golden, slice the ham and add to the pan and continue cooking for a minute or two.

4) As the mushrooms and ham are cooking, make up the Bisto White Sauce, using about 300ml of boiling water and 4 teaspoons of white sauce granules - don't worry, the sauce will look too runny, but will thicken later on! Add the sauce and the cheese spread to the pan with the mushrooms and ham and stir well. Allow to gently simmer so the sauce thickens.

5) Add the noodles to the saucepan of boiling water and cook for 3-4 minutes. Use a splash of the noodle water to 'loosen' the sauce in the other pan, if it starts to become too thick while the noodles are cooking.

6) When soft, drain the noodles and add to the pan of mushrooms, ham and sauce. Mix thoroughly so all the noodles are coated with sauce. Portion between four people using tongs. Garnish with finely chopped flat leaf parsley and serve with a side salad, if required.

Notes/Ideas
Other brands are available, but we use Philadelphia Light as our soft cheese spread. Our calorie/ProPoints calculation uses this product as a basis. Actually, you can have 30g of spread for just under 50 calories/1 ProPoint, but we use less than that in our recipe above!

For an extra touch of luxury, top each serving with 10g of low fat grated cheese, for an extra 1 ProPoint, depending on brand used.

Use gammon grills, cooked and diced, instead of wafer ham, for a more substantial meal. Adjust the calories/ProPoints accordingly.

You can, of course, use real linguine pasta, but the calories/ProPoints would increase quite a lot. Check the packaging of the brand you buy.

Similarly, you can use another brand of packet white/cheese sauce, but calories/fat varies and will tend to be higher than the Bisto Range. If you make a 'traditional' white sauce yourself with flour, butter and milk, calories will be much higher again!