Summer is my absolute favorite season. I love the weather, the food, and spending extra time with all the kids in the family. I planted a few tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumber plants. Unfortunately, the only plant that really took off was the cucumber. The good news is, I am lucky enough to have friends who grew an amazing garden this year. They brought us a ton of huge beautiful beefsteak and Cherokee purple tomatoes. At around the same time, we were just coming back from a trip up north at Torch Lake. We brought home some bacon along with other goodies. If you are ever in the area they have a great place called Bellaire Smokehouse. This place not only has amazing smoked fish but perfectly smoked, thick cut bacon. While planning dinner this week angel hair with tomatoes and bacon was a no brainer. Michael Symon has a delicious recipe in his 5 in 5 cookbook that served as the inspiration for this dish. You can find that cookbook here Michael Symon’s 5 in 5: 5 Fresh Ingredients + 5 Minutes = 120 Fantastic Dinners by Symon, Michael, Trattner, Douglas (2013) Paperback. The whole family, even my tomato-hating husband, loved this pasta. The tomatoes cook down and become a light sauce kissed with bacon and parmesan. It is pretty much perfection.
Angel Hair with Bacon and Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1 Pound angel hair pasta
- 3 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 for the recipe 2 for a drizzle at the end
- 4 strips, thick cut bacon diced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 large tomato chopped
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese grated
- 1/4 cup fresh basil torn
- 1 pinch coarse sea salt
Instructions
- In a large pot bring water to a boil, add roughly 3 tablespoons of salt. Cook the pasta to 1 minute less than the package directions. Before you drain scoop out 1 cup of the pasta water to save for your sauce. Drain the pasta and add it back into the pot, remove this from the heat.
- As you are cooking the pasta heat a large skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the bacon and cook gently taking care not to burn it until it is crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Grate the garlic in and quickly add the tomatoes so the garlic does not burn. Simmer the tomatoes, occasionally stirring, until they breakdown to your liking. I simmered them for about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomato mixture to the pasta pot and stir the mixture together for at least 1 minute. Add the parmesean and basil, stir for another minute to combine everything. I like to finish with a sprinkle of coarse sea salt and drizzle of olive oil.
