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Sunday, July 27, 2014

BPT Pasta



What the heck is BPT pasta you ask?? Well I was planning to make a BLT pasta with spinach instead of lettuce, so I guess it would have been BST pasta, but when I took the bag of spinach out of my fridge it was totally rotten! I just bought it 2 days ago and it was fine. I was freaking out, no spinach now what?


I had no other greens in my house expect frozen green peas, so that is how I got BPT pasta.  It turned out better than I expected. The sweet peas really paired nicely with the smokey crispy bacon and the salty Parmesan cheese.


I guess if you just improvise, things tend to work out in the end!

What you need,
          
8oz dry pasta noodles (any shape you like, I used macaroni)
6 slices of bacon
2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 cup frozen peas
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese,  plus more for serving
Salt and Pepper
¼ cup basil, chopped

In a large pot of salted boiling water cook the pasta according to package directions. Once it is tender drain, saving about ½ cup of the cooking water and set aside.

Meanwhile cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease. Chop the bacon into pieces and set aside. Toss in the garlic and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
Add in the tomatoes and season well with salt and pepper. Cook for 4-5 minutes until the tomatoes begin to soften.
Toss in the frozen peas and the cooked pasta. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and bacon and a little of the pasta water, stir to coat.

Taste the pasta and adjust the seasonings as needed. I used a good amount of salt and pepper. If you wanted a little spice you could toss in a little red pepper flake.

Sprinkle on the basil and serve with a little more cheese!

The peas were great but I am sure spinach would have been awesome too. You could even add zucchini or asparagus, really any green veggie would work.

BLT, BST, BPT, it doesn’t pasta is always great for quick weeknight dinner!

Enjoy!

Jen

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