Cheap Dinner Recipes For Concerned Budget Bashers

These scrumptious cheap dinner recipes are authentic Italian pasta dishes, which means their main ingredient is cheap to buy and they are super-quick to prepare - a double whammy of convenience you might say.

1. Breakfast Pasta (serves 4)

This cost-effective, runny-eggy delight is the cheap dinner recipe you wish you had known at college.

- Boil a deep pan of water, throwing in a handful of salt (to bring out the taste of the pasta)

- Check your pasta's cooking time and throw 400g/14oz of this into the pan. Stir.

- When your pasta has 5 mins left to cook, melt 50g (a medium knob) of butter in a frying pan (use a medium heat so it does not burn)

- Pasta done? Drain it, pop it in a large mixing bowl and stir in the melted butter.

- Drop this slippery mixture into 4 serving dishes and pop a fried egg on top of each. Delicious.

2. Pasta fagioli (bean pasta) (serves 4)

This vegetarian broth-like winner is a real steal, because there is no expensive involved. It also makes a great winter warmer, now the weather is beginning to turn.

-Put a big splash of olive oil into a deep pan/skillet, along with 2 whole garlic cloves (peeled and ended). (If you do love your meat and have bacon in the fridge, chop a little and throw it in now).

- When the garlic browns, drop in 4 plum tomatoes (from a single 400g/14oz can).

- After a couple of minutes, the toms should be softer, so break these into bits with a spoon and give it a good stir.

- Throw in two 400g/14oz cans of white cannellini beans (in water). Add a good pinch of salt and crank up the heat to medium/high, so that everything simmers lightly.

- Let the beans cook for a couple of minutes, before throwing in 320g/11.2oz of your favourite short pasta.

Note: The final consistency of this cheap dinner recipe should be 'creamy'. If it becomes creamy before the pasta is cooked however (test it to see), just pour in a cup more boiling water and keep stirring.

3. Bacon and cream penne (serves 4)

The last of our cheap dinner recipes requires a mere 6 ingredients and is done and dusted in only 4 steps.

- Boil a couple of kettles of water and get this boiling in a large deep pan on a high heat hob.

Stir in 2 handfuls of salt and drop in 400g/14oz of penne pasta. If you can, set a timer as per your pasta packet's instructions (penne typically takes 8-10 minutes).

- Melt 25g/.8oz of butter in a frying pan. When melted, throw in 100g/3.5oz of pancetta (belly) bacon or chopped bacon bits. Cook until slightly crisp and browned (usually 4-5 minutes).

- When the bacon is brown, pour over a quarter litre (250ml/8.5fl oz) of full-fat single cream. Mix gently and heat through for 2 mins on the same medium heat hob.

- When the pasta is ready, drain it and throw this in the frying pan along with 50g/1.75oz of grated Parmesan cheese. Mix this all through for a minute or two, then serve.