A quick leek linguine for a November evening

The first meal in our weekly selection is a small plan for a dark November evening: pasta for two, with leeks taking the lead. Waitrose’s leek and béarnaise linguine uses a prepared sauce to bring the dish together, with pecorino and toasted breadcrumbs providing a different finish from the usual tomato pasta.

It is a useful choice when the evening is short but you still want to sit down to something warm. The published timings are five minutes of preparation and twenty minutes of cooking. That puts it comfortably in the quicker end of this series, without needing a long shopping list or a separate main course.

Plan the meal

Before shopping, check the sauce and cheese specified in the original recipe. They are part of its character, rather than incidental garnishes. If you already have pasta and breadcrumbs, compare the cupboard with the ingredient list before adding more to the basket.

Our suggestion is to keep the rest of supper simple and let the contrasting textures do the work. Put the recipe somewhere easy to read before starting: the pasta and leeks share cooking time, so a little preparation makes the evening easier.

Serves 2. Preparation: 5 minutes. Cooking: 20 minutes.

Recipe credit: Waitrose Food, October 2026, page 71. Read the full Leek & béarnaise linguine recipe at Waitrose.