Pasta is delicious and since it’s quick to make, it saves us when we have little time to spend cooking. This has been my reality lately and the truth is that I’m going to make an altar to pasta. This pasta with bacon and spinach is done really quickly without any sacrifice whatsoever in taste. The result is a delicious dish with lots of flavour made in very little time.
Convenience and flavour
A while ago I showed you on Instagram that I had made this pasta for lunch and asked if you wanted me to show you how to make it. The answer was clearly yes! This was a while back, I must admit. For one reason or another, I just couldn’t get around to make it. The good thing is that it’s here now! The recipe was born one day that I had no time to spend on our lunch and I just used what I had in the fridge. I didn’t want a heavier bechamel-style sauce but rather something a bit lighter.
The ingredients
The combination of flavours in this pasta with bacon and spinach is absolutely delicious and definitely one of my favourites. Also, I added a bit of onion and garlic to this dish which is the way every good dish starts, right? ;). In this occasion, I used confit garlic, but you can definitely also use fresh. Be careful when you add the spinach, you don’t want to overcook it. As you will notice in the instructions for the recipe, I add it at the very end because it doesn’t need more than 30-40 seconds to cook. More than that and it starts going brown and turns bitter.
What helps us bind the sauce together and make it feel creamy is the cheese (that has to be freshly grated and fine) and also the cooking water from the pasta. When the pasta is cooked in the water, it leaves behind a bit of flour, that’s why it doesn’t look completely clear. This same water with a bit of flour helps us bring together the sauce. The same happens with carbonara sauce which you can find in my Recipes in one hour or less ebook. Just remember to keep your pasta water after removing the pasta!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ small yellow onion chopped in small cubes
- 75 g sliced pancetta or bacon diced
- 2 garlic cloves ground, finely grated or puréed
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 100 g baby spinach well washed and chopped
- 50 g parmesan cheese freshly and finely grated
- 200 g pasta I used spaghetti
Instructions
- Pre heat a pan over medium heat. At the same time, fill a large pot with water and salt and bring it to a boil for the pasta. Once it boils, cook the pasta.
- Add the olive oil, onion, pancetta and cook them until the onion goes soft, smells sweet and everything starts to become golden.
- Add the garlic cloves and stir constantly. I used confit garlic but you can use fresh as well. Add salt and pepper to taste. If your pasta still needs a bit more time to cook, turn off the heat to wait for it.
- Once the pasta is very al dente (it will finish cooking in the pan), turn on the pan again and add it to the pancett and onion.
- Along with the pasta, add the spinach and parmesan cheese as well as about a cup of the pasta water. This water has a bit of flour and helps us bind everything together.
- Mix everything together and let it all come together over the heat. Once ready, serve immediately with grated parmesan cheese.
1 comment
Great flavor, but a little too salty