ive always been a tomato-based pasta typa gal. i love the clean sweet-sour sharpness of tomatoes as opposed to the “jelak”-inducing cream-based varieties. (rich foods tend to make me feel “jelak” so i stay away from those where possible) ive had a pretty full-on weekend. being up at 630am, to host events, on TWO CONSECUTIVE DAYS caused my ageing body to launch itself into protest mode. the only cure was to whip up my no-fail comfort dish: rigatoni (my fav typa pasta) in tomato sauce with chunks of my fav greens aparagus + broccoli, crisp-to-perfection streaky bacon and a generous sprinkling of pine nuts, topped with thick freshly shaved slices of parmigianno. SUNDAY DINNER TREAT ♥
RIGATONI - i got this packet from jones the grocer, these get al dente in 8minutes. for single serving, only 2 fistfuls of rigatoni's needed. resist the urge to add more to what might seem like a pathetic amount in the boiling pot. PASTA EXPANDS so dont go overboard.
BABY ROMA TOMATOES - these are sooo sweet and will give this pasta a nice balance in flavour. i love my tomatoes so ive used 8 of these babies for this dish.
FRESH BASIL - why use dried when you can use fresh? and if you have these growing in a pot in your kitchen, you're daaamn lucky. cuz they're fresh, you can add loads. i used about 8 leaves.
PINENUTS - these are a lil pricey but worth every single cent imho. love the nutty buttery crunch it adds to my salads and pastas.. that is IF i dont go overboard snacking on 'em whilst prepping my dinner. absolute fav fav fav.
ASPARAGUS - i prefer medium spears; has more crunch/bite and they're less stringy. i've used 5 spears for single serving of pasta.
BROCCOLI - 6 tiny florets. i know these may seem alot in addition to the asparagus but i LOVE my greens. cant ever have too much of 'em. TOMATO SAUCE - i like Hunt's cuz its 100% natural. i HATE HATE HATE those bottled pasta sauces, vile tasting. use fresh tomato sauce and you'll taste the difference.
STREAKY BACON - used 5 strips of bacon for this dish. i prefer streaky bacon to back bacon cuz streaky has more fats which will flavour the olive oil its fried in and the overall texture of fried streakies add a comforting crispy fattiness to this pasta which i love.
prep the basil, roll 'em up into an herb joint.
slice thinly, set aside.
add the rigatoni to a boiling pan (observe the seemingly pathetic amount of pasta? well im tellin ya, thats the perfect portion), add loadsa salt - this will be your only chance to add flavour to the pasta. if you like your pasta bland, then obviously dont add any. add boiling water and cook away for 8mins or til al dente. (i pre-boil some water in a kettle and pour over the pasta. its just faster via the kettle than sitting cold tap water on the stove to boil... the latter is akin to watching paint dry. ive got no time for that. life's too short.)
cut the bacon up in coarse chunks and throw them into a pan ON HIGH HEAT, with some extra virgin olive oil. make sure they're spaced out. you want them fried to a crisp, not broiled.
almost there... still a tad too pale for my liking.. be patience, cant rush perfection.
TAH DAAAH! crispy bacon! dish out onto kitchen paper, set aside. (leaving flavoured oil in the pan)
throw in diced fresh garlic, asparagus spears and broccoli florets into the flavoured oil and stir fry for a minute.
throw in the mini roma tomatoes WHOLE. those babies will cook nicely on the inside and give a burst of liquidy sweetness like that of oven baked tomatoes. stir fry the lot quickly for a coupla minutes.
add half a can of tomato sauce..
throw in the shredded basil, stir around, mix well.
the rigatoni should be done by now. drain and add to frying pan. stir and mix well. turn heat to low.
add some fresh ground black pepper.
throw in the crispy bacon at the last minute and mix well. i wont add any salt cuz the pasta's flavoured and the bacon bits are salty. turn off heat. get ready to plate up.
add some pine nuts at the end (i add loads cuz im a nutter)
topped with some freshly shaved parmigianno-reggiano. under the italian law, only cheese produced in the parma, reggio emilia, modena, bologna and mantova provinces can be labelled "parmigianno-reggiano". the same cheese produced outside of these italian provinces are labeled as "parmesan".
MY COMFORT PASTA, enjoyed while watching The Iron Chef on the food network - BLISS.
and there you have it, my comfort pasta recipe. to round off the weekend, i’d like to share this mind-blowingly amazing video with you. a good friend, Kenny, posted this on my FB wall and i thought it to be UBER GENIUS. i think you might enjoy it as much as i did.
(if you cant see the video, click HERE)
RYAN LEE
