Bowtie Pasta with Bacon and Peas

The whole reason we were at the grocery store last night was to get cream - for a pasta dish that I had found on the blog The Bitten Word. These guys are amazing - however, unlike them, I get all of my ideas from the internet, and my chaperon is Google.

I am not a great cook. Our staple foods when I was a kid were scrambled eggs (often for Thanksgiving - hello, British mother) and pasta carbonara (hello British mother who lived in Italy for many years). So I can make some mean scrambled eggs and pasta carbonara. But not a lot else. And for years - through college where I don't remember what I ate, through my 'working but poor eating only ramen and popcorn' phase, and then when I could actually afford food so 'I just ate out all the time' phase - I just never cooked.

Now I am dating a man who loves cooking, and he's good at it too. To his chagrin (love that word), he has opened pandora's box for me. Now I want to cook! All the time, not just at night, multiple courses, cook, cook cook. We actually get into tiffs about who gets to cook that night - so like we learned in kindergarten, we now take turns. Cooking at home helps with the budget (we're on a tight one), helps with stress (he has a stressful job, my lack of job is stressful) and it's fun to book!

I am also dating a man who did not grow up on my hearty egg and bacon pasta diet (same man as above, I'm not dating multiple men) - and he finds my pasta carbonara to be a bit heavy and greasy. Normally I say "his bad" and make it anyway, but I decided to find something similar but different. With my chaperon by my side, I stumbled across this recipe for Pasta with Bacon and Peas. Being that we had almost everything in the pantry meant that the $3 spent on cream was worth it.

First, I fried the bacon on medium heat. Shout out to THE BACON HOUSE in DC - you will not find this place on yelp as it is the glorious apartment of four of my friends who eat bacon like it is going out of style. These are also four of the fittest people you will ever meet, so I am skeptical of anyone who says bacon is bad for you. 

   

When the bacon was done, I lifted it out of the bacon grease and put it to the side draining on paper towels. I started boiling the water for my pasta - I chose a bowtie pasta instead of the angel hair that was recommended because that's what we had and name one person who doesn't love bowtie pasta! It's just fun.

I then put a lot of frozen peas in the frying pan (still full of bacon grease) and sizzled those up a bit while my pasta water was getting going. I don't the the recipe called for a lot of peas but I like pilling my dishes full of veggies - I like to think it evens out the fabulous pile of bacon seen above. When the peas had soaked up much of the grease and when I put the pasta in the water (with a handful of salt that I don't let anyone see), I added a cup of cream and stirred almost continuously. Adding the bacon back to the sauce a few minutes before the pasta is done will warm the little pieces back up.

When the pasta was done (usually on the low side of the prep time to make sure it's al dente), I drained most of it but used about 3/4 a cup of pasta water and added it slowly to the sauce.

Mix everything together and VOILA!

It was good - and yummy, and I had two bowls but not mind-blowing. So I am going to think about how I can make it even better. Will let you know if I make chances. :)