Pasta with Bacon & Sun-dried Tomatoes

thaiphan

April 22, 2023

Looking for fast, simple, yet oh so delicious?  I took a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis and made it my own.  The first time I made it I didn’t have any basil, but that wasn’t about to stop me from giving it a go.  In my mind basil and bacon must be related because they both start with B. 😉  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

 

  • 12 oz. penne pasta 1 16 oz. box any type of pasta, such as penne or bow tie
  • 1 (8.5-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil 2 bags of smoked, julienne sun-dried tomatoes
  • 2 garlic cloves  4 heaping tbsps. jarred minced garlic
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves  1 lb. fried, crumbled bacon or a jar of Hormel bacon bits
  • 1/2 Make that 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
  • 2 tbsps. olive oil

 

Directions

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, blend the sun-dried tomatoes, oil, garlic, salt and pepper, to taste, in a food processor and blend until the tomatoes are finely chopped. Or not! You don’t have to chop up the tomatoes if you prefer chunkier bites.  Just stir everything together in a large bowl.  Add bacon and stir in the Parmesan.  Throw the pasta in and toss to coat, adding enough of the reserved pasta liquid to moisten.  Season with more salt and pepper to taste.

That’s it.  You can serve it with a nice salad and garlic bread on the side.  I had a bag of frozen mixed veggies in a light cheese sauce and I was in a hurry.  Also, Hitchcock’s Supermarket had fresh tomatoes for .69 cents a pound and I bought 10 lbs.  We had a lot of tomatoes to eat before they went bad.  :-)