I remember thinking that it was really weird how my university flatmate used to fry her pasta. Here was this beautiful, very slim girl frying her pasta in the Devil’s juice (olive oil) like it was nothing. Not just on the odd occasion after a particularly bad hangover, either – she didn’t drink. She would eat fried pasta multiple times a week, and on the days when fried pasta just didn’t tickle her fancy, she’d be eating half a margarita pizza. I remember that it was half because I remember thinking that that was fucking weird too.

Fried food, carbs and fat – the three corners to the fatty food pyramid I was not allowed to touch. I remember quizzing her once, my flatmate, upon reflection in a rather confrontational manner, asking her about her eating habits in detail hoping that she might confess an eating disorder to me and divulge how she was able to do it…and by do it, I meant stay skinny. But no, she appeared to have an irritatingly healthy relationship with food, meaning she could carry on frying her pasta and eating pizza without a care.

A strong few years on and I’m pleased to say that I am still good friends with my flatmate, despite being a total nut job, and I am no longer fearful of frying my food after previously believing that I was only allowed to steam or boil the food I ate in order to be “healthy”. It is for those reasons that I am now paying tribute to my flatmate with this Fried Marmite Spaghetti recipe.

I’m new to Marmite, having only tried it a couple of weeks ago when I tried some of my boyfriend’s toast (I HAVE A BOYFRIEND NOW EVERYBODY LOOK AT ME). I battled through my slathered, toasted triangle with a face like a baby sucking on a lemon, unsure as to whether I liked this new, unfamiliar taste. But unwilling to admit defeat, I since scraped a sticky spoonful of the stuff into this bowl of spaghetti, butter and parmesan cheese you see before you to discover that, yes, I am in fact now pro Marmite – and you might be too.