Thursday 7 March 2013

Spelt Pasta with Tuscan cabbage and bacon

Last night we had a simple dinner - spelt pasta with tuscan cabbage and bacon and it was so good I thought I'd share it.

As always you can do your own thing - if you can't get spelt pasta, use a good quality durum wheat pasta, if you can't get tuscan (black) cabbage, improvise, use savoy and mix in some silver beet. Good hard traditional smoked sausage might substitute for the bacon nicely. Try it, experiment, it's what we do.

This recipe is for two people.

What you need

250g spelt based short pasta, eg rigatoni
2 rashers traditional thick cut smoked bacon - we use Schulz's
1 bunch tuscan/black cabbage say 250g
100 grams frozen peas
2 cloves garlic
Parmesan
olive oil, salt and pepper

Preparation

Set the pasta boiling in a big pan of boiling water with salt and olive oil added. Cook until slightly al dente - say 10 minutes, but check first - some spelt pastas take a little longer.

While the pasta's cooking, chop the bacon into centimetre square lardons and crisp in a little olive oil. (if your bacon or sausage is slightly fatty, you might be able to cook it in its own fat) Then, shred the cabbage, de stalk if necessary and cook in a second pan with a little olive oil and two cloves of crushed garlic. Add the frozen peas once the cabbage is cooking nicely. Should be ready when the cabbage turns a nice deep John Deere green. Add the lardons and stir.

If you've timed it right the pasta should be ready at the same time. Drain the pasta, wipe out the pasta pot and then return the pasta to the pot. Add the cabbage pea and bacon mix, and stir well to combine. Serve in bowls with a generous serve of coarsely grated parmesan on top.

Goes well with a glass of something decent, dry and white. Shouldn't take more than 15-20  minutes from fridge to table.

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