Pour boiling water from a kettle into a roomy saucepan over high heat and season generously with salt.

When the water is back up to the boil, put in the linguine and cook until done to your liking (8 - 12 minutes). Add the frozen peas for the final minute. If using fresh peas add them for the final 2 - 3 minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce as below.

Put 1 tsp of olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat (use 2 tsp if your meat is on the lean side) and add the chopped pancetta or bacon.

Fry until starting to crisp (3-5 min) then reduce the heat to low.

Stir in the garlic and cook until just golden (2 min): don't allow it to burn and take the pan off the heat if the pasta isn't ready when the garlic's done.

Strain the pasta and peas, reserving approximately 100ml of the cooking water.

Turn up the heat under the frying pan to medium then tip in the pasta and peas along with the butter, parsley, plus two-thirds of the Parmesan. Season generously with black pepper and add approximately 50ml of the pasta cooking water.

Stir well until the butter melts and combines with the other ingredients, adding more of the pasta water if needed to create a moist but not wet dressing for the pasta.

Take off the heat and serve straight away sprinkled with the reserved Parmesan and more black pepper if liked.