Ad break recipe - cook some oil with chilli, no onion no garlic;at the same time cook linguine, drain. put chilli in pasta, add tin of crab (about £2 in the supermarket, next to the tins of tuna and sardines) and some flat parsley. add parmesan if you want. Back to sofa. Mmmmmm.

Angus, London,

Even better still - I use a pasta extruder called Lillo Due to make fresh semolina pasta. It uses traditional bronze dies and gives a rough surface texture that holds the sauce better.

It also takes only a few minutes to make and is so easy I use mine 2-3 times a week to feed two hungry boys

Cheryl Harris, Oakham, Rutland

It is great to see on Thr Times a recipe for spaghetti. Even with Prodi at the governement our food is till good for export !

Roberto Castellano, Salsomaggiore, Italy

Ben - I'm laughing because this _is_ a student dish, just ponced up a bit. If I remember rightly the student version involved a teaspoon or two of dried chilli flakes (about 79p for a jar in Sainsburys) instead of the real thing, rather more garlic than Heston has, and the onion but not the lemon, the anchovies or the herbs - but actually it's perfectly easy to get them in the supermarkets too (anchovies come in a little flat rectangular tin). Top comment about winner btw.

Steve, London,

hi, im a student. I dont have much money and dont have the time/can't be bothered spending ages looking for all sorts of exotic ingredients to use when cooking for our house. The recipe above is great but if you could provide the details of a really simple dish that i could cook to impress my housemates that would be fantastic. either pudding or maincourse. p.s. i know as much about cooking as michael winner knows about not wanting to be the most punchable man on tv in those Esure adverts.

Ben, nottingham,

Better yet, make your own eggless pasta, too. 2 cups semolina, pinch of salt, +-half cup warm water (or carrot juice, or liquified roasted red peppers etc); mix, knead a minute or two, let rest 20 minutes, roll out and cut into noodles, most easily with a machine to #5 thickness); drop into boiling salted water, stir gently, drain a minute after water has come to a reboil. Start to finish, half an hour. Nummy noobers.

Ice Ko, Steveston Harbour, BC