Monday, July 20, 2009

Bacon, Mushroom and Pea Pasta

Found this rather interesting recipe on a food blog and decided to make it for dinner. Now I'm not going to link to the blog because, firstly I changed the recipe quite a bit, and more importantly, the blogger stated that if you couldn't use field mushrooms, well just don't use any, certainly not plain 'ole Swiss brown mushrooms. They were rather taken with the fact that along with using field mushrooms, farmers market peas ....oh heck the list goes on.
I would just be too embarrassed to be found out that
a) I changed stuff - onion for shallot, the mushies, added more bacon, sno peas etc. and
b) I used ordinary Swiss brown mushies.
These mushies and other ingredients are from our local fruiterers, who has lovely fresh produce, so go ahead, join me and make this scrummy dish. It's filling, healthy, cost effective and easy. And the Darling thought it was Tasty. - High praise indeed.
These are the ingredients that I used.
A generous cup of thickly sliced mushrooms
half a brown onion, diced
1 large clove garlic, minced
200grams 'fresh' packaged fettuccine
4 rashers bacon, diced
1/2 cup fresh peas, these were a bargain at the fruiterers, I wouldn't hesitate to use frozen.
4 sno peas, sliced cross ways
largish stalk of parsley, finely chopped
Parmesan cheese, finely grated, at least a half cup grated, more if you like a lot of cheese.
olive oil- a generous tablespoon
salt and pepper


Firstly, put a large saucepan of salted water on to boil for the pasta. When water reaches a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook according to package directions. When al-dente - that is cooked but still a little firm to the bite, drain the pasta, reserving a 1/4 cup of the pasta water, for possible use later. Keep pasta warm and covered to one side.

This is how generous my cup of mushrooms was, well just think of all that air in there.

Heat the generous tablespoon olive oil in a heavy based fry pan over medium heat, add the thickly sliced mushrooms, diced bacon and diced onion with the minced garlic, allow to cook for approx 7 Min's until the onion has become translucent and the bacon and mushrooms are browning slightly. Stir occasionally. Season with a little salt and pepper. Add the fresh podded peas, if using frozen peas, wait a couple more minutes until mushroom, bacon mix is almost done. Stir peas through and allow to cook for 1 - 2 minutes, or if frozen until just starting to heat through. Next add the parsley and then the sliced sno peas, stir through mushroom bacon mixture. Time to add some of the pasta, stir it through the bacon mixture and then add the remainder of the pasta, I didn't add the entire 200 grams of cooked pasta, more like 180grams. The Darling is more a 'sauce' than a 'pasta' fan, use the amount that suits you, love your pasta? then put it all in, if the sauce is a little dry, add a little of the reserved pasta water, just a teaspoon or so will be all that you need. Stir the pasta through the sauce thoroughly, coating the pasta well with the oil and flavour packed juices of the bacon and vegetables. Toss the pasta into a bowl and put a nice big nest of grated Parmesan on top. Serve immediately with extra grated Parmesan.

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