Sunday Night Penne with Onion, Bacon, and Garlic
posted by Silvana
Like Sybil, I've been feeling quiet lately. I'm having some professional and personal problems, and have been home trying to figure things out most of this week. Luckily, things are really starting to look up. But while I've been resting and thinking, I've been doing a lot of cooking. It's really therapeutic, and it's fun, and there's a certain satisfaction in creating something delicious to feed the people I love. I haven't been cooking seriously for too long as an adult, although I spent a ton of time in the kitchen as a child with my father, chopping, frying, tasting, grating. Looking at recipes to try and make the foods I'd come to love when living in the US that weren't available in Egypt. Making homemade mayonnaise, and homemade maple syrup. Thinking about this stuff makes me miss my father terribly, and makes me incredibly happy that I'm going home for Christmas. Perhaps while I'm there I can cook a few meals for my dad, like the simple meals he cooked for me every night when I was growing up.
1. Dice up a medium white onion, then put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta.
2. Scrape bacon fat from this morning's breakfast into a deep skillet over medium heat, along with a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil, because you realized you're out of olive oil. Throw in the onion, along with a handful of coarse sea salt.
3. Mince up about six cloves of garlic, and throw them in with the onion. Stir around with a wooden spoon, and put in a few shakes of dried oregano. Mm, fragrant. Add some dried parsley flakes for good measure. You can, of course, use fresh herbs, but dried ones will do. The whole point of this dish was for me not to have to go shopping.
4. Pull off five slices of bacon from the package, and lay them on top of each other and cut crosswise into half-inch pieces. This process is not precise. Throw little pieces of bacon into another skillet, and turn the heat on medium-high.
5. When the onion is soft and the garlic and oregano fragrant, look in the cabinets for canned tomatoes. Find "diced tomatoes with onion and garlic." Huh, that'll do. Open the can, drain most of the juice, and throw in with the onion/garlic.
6. When pasta water boils, throw in the pasta you have, which happens to be a pound of fortified whole-wheat penne. Check to see when bacon is mostly done and crispy. When it looks good enough to eat, throw the bacon, including all the fat, in the other skillet with the onion, garlic, and tomatoes. Season some more including a few more shakes of dried oregano, dried parsley, and the dried basil you just discovered in the cupboard. Grind a pepper grinder over the whole thing a few times.
7. Pasta is done! Drain it in a colander. While it's cooling off, dice up another two cloves of garlic. In the pot you used to cook the pasta, throw in two tablespoons of butter, shake some oregano in there, and throw in the new garlic. Stir around until fragrant.
8. Put drained pasta back in the pot, along with the sauce. Stir around over low heat for a minute or two to combine flavors and soak everything up. If you have crusty bread, serve it with that. If you don't, like me, just have seconds. It's a nice way to end a weekend, and will make enough food for two hungry people, plus leftovers for the next day's lunch.
1. Dice up a medium white onion, then put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta.
2. Scrape bacon fat from this morning's breakfast into a deep skillet over medium heat, along with a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil, because you realized you're out of olive oil. Throw in the onion, along with a handful of coarse sea salt.
3. Mince up about six cloves of garlic, and throw them in with the onion. Stir around with a wooden spoon, and put in a few shakes of dried oregano. Mm, fragrant. Add some dried parsley flakes for good measure. You can, of course, use fresh herbs, but dried ones will do. The whole point of this dish was for me not to have to go shopping.
4. Pull off five slices of bacon from the package, and lay them on top of each other and cut crosswise into half-inch pieces. This process is not precise. Throw little pieces of bacon into another skillet, and turn the heat on medium-high.
5. When the onion is soft and the garlic and oregano fragrant, look in the cabinets for canned tomatoes. Find "diced tomatoes with onion and garlic." Huh, that'll do. Open the can, drain most of the juice, and throw in with the onion/garlic.
6. When pasta water boils, throw in the pasta you have, which happens to be a pound of fortified whole-wheat penne. Check to see when bacon is mostly done and crispy. When it looks good enough to eat, throw the bacon, including all the fat, in the other skillet with the onion, garlic, and tomatoes. Season some more including a few more shakes of dried oregano, dried parsley, and the dried basil you just discovered in the cupboard. Grind a pepper grinder over the whole thing a few times.
7. Pasta is done! Drain it in a colander. While it's cooling off, dice up another two cloves of garlic. In the pot you used to cook the pasta, throw in two tablespoons of butter, shake some oregano in there, and throw in the new garlic. Stir around until fragrant.
8. Put drained pasta back in the pot, along with the sauce. Stir around over low heat for a minute or two to combine flavors and soak everything up. If you have crusty bread, serve it with that. If you don't, like me, just have seconds. It's a nice way to end a weekend, and will make enough food for two hungry people, plus leftovers for the next day's lunch.
Labels: fluff, food, m. leblanc, mememe, recipes
Posted at 7:10 PM
|
