Here is another of our delicious family recipes. This creamy bacon pasta is a firm favourite in our house – and there are so many ways to change it if you don’t have all the ingredients! It’s also very quick and very easy!
I always cook lots of this and freeze the leftovers for my little boy’s meals – so cook less if you only want it for 1 dinner.
Ingredients:
500g bag of penne or fusilli pasta (spaghetti or taglietelle work too)
2 medium cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
2 medium leeks
400g mushrooms
5 rashers unsmoked back bacon
200ml craime fraiche
2.5 tablespoons of Philadelphia cream cheese
1 mug-ful of Frozen peas, sweetcorn or broccoli
Cheddar cheese for grating on top
1. Chop the garlic, onion, leeks, mushrooms and bacon into small pieces.
2. Put the pasta in a saucepan of boiling water and leave to cook, stirring occasionally.
3. In a large pan fry garlic, onion and leeks in a little olive oil for approximately 5 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms and bacon to the pan and leave for a further 5 minutes.
5. Throw into the pan a mug-ful of frozen peas, sweetcorn or broccoli and allow to cook in the juices of the other ingredients.
6. Stir in the craime fraiche and cream cheese, cover and leave to cook for a further 5-10 minutes, until the pasta is done. At this point we like to add a good amount of cracked pepper but this is not necessary.
7. When the pasta is cooked, mix the pasta into the pan with the bacon mixture and serve with a little grated cheese on top.
This is a delicious creamy dish, but if you add too much cream cheese and not enough craime fraiche it can easily dry out.
Alternative ideas to try:
- Try adding a little white wine when you fry the onions, leeks and garlic.
- Add a little vegetable stock and reduce the amount of craime fraiche and cream cheese for a lighter-calorie meal.
- If you have no cream cheese in the house, why not try mixing in a bit of cheddar cheese instead.
- This meal tastes delicious with 1.5 teaspoons of English Mustard mixed in!
- Instead of bacon, why not try pancetta or chorizo?