Not Quite Italian

It's not very Italian I suppose but when I walked in the door from work James already had the pasta water boiling so I had to think fast.

Two big leeks were taking up way too much room in the fridge, so I sliced the white and light green parts into thin matchsticks and popped them into a pan to saute in olive oil along with some cloves of garlic confit I made a couple months back while slavishly following one of Thomas Keller's more involved, "how did I get myself into this" sort of recipes. I threw in a little crushed red chile just because I like it, along with some cooked bits of slab bacon for a little flavor and color and left everything to saute until the leeks were meltingly tender.

When I drained the spaghetti I added it to the sauté pan along with a knob of butter, a good handful of chopped parsley and, because this not quite Italian dish was starting to seem very Alsatian, a heavy covering of shredded Gruyere cheese.

Wish I'd remembered to reserve a little of the cooking water to make a cheesier sauce.