So when I asked a good friend of mine about this next recipe idea I wanted to know if it was too much. Hold on.....the ingredients are coming. Anyway his answer was yes! Well I thought I would give it a whirl anyway. Why not. My testing ground this time was just my mom and dad. I figured if we did not like it well we would just not eat it.
What was to much you are wondering. Oh just the combination of bacon, Italian sausage, baby bella mushrooms and pesto. Served on pasta of course. Yup I thought it might all be a bit much as well. However a little bit of each, mellowed in a coating sauce of pasta water and a hint of cream seemed to work. The trick here was to use just a little of all the ingredients. I wanted a mingling of all the powerful flavors, with non overpowering the other.
I was delighted at how it came out. The best part was because of the richness of the ingredients you only needed a little to fill you up. A small bowl was all we ate and we both felt content all night long. The meal of course was accompanied by some delicious Yellowtail Shiraz. Ohhhh how I love the red wine!
Anyway here is the recipe, hope you enjoy it.
-2 Italian sausage links (precook a little to help with slicing)
-2 slices of bacon (Chopped)
-about 2 cups of sliced baby bella mushrooms
-tablespoon of pesto (you can make your own but I use Progresso brand)
-chopped garlic
-light cream
-pasta of choice (I find smaller kinds work best: ziti, gemmelli, penne ect.)
-about a cup and a half of pasta water(left over water from cooking pasta)
-extra virgin olive oil
In a medium sized sauce pan begin cooking whole sausage links. You are just cooking enough to make slicing easy, a good browning on all sides. Remove and let cool. Add chopped bacon to pan. The bacon fat being cooked off will serve as the fat for sauteing the rest of the ingredients. Begin heating water for pasta. Add chopped garlic to pan with bacon. Stir frequently and do not let the garlic burn. After sausage has cooled a bit slice into thin rounds. Add to pan. Cook a bit, stirring often and then add mushrooms. When the water boils for pasta add the pasta. How much depends on how many you are cooking for. I did about half a box of penne. Continue cooking the ingredients in pan stirring frequently. When the pasta is done strain pasta reserving about a cup and a half of the liquid. Add to saute pan. Allow to come to a boil and add the cream, just a touch. Bring back to a boil and reduce heat by half and allow liquid to reduce down significantly. Coat pasta with olive oil. When liquid has reduced and thickened up add the whole thing to the pasta. Add a tablespoon of pesto and stir the whole thing up. Note the liquid should have reduced to a point that you are not drenching the pasta just coating with the sauce. Serve with grated Parmesan if desired.
This was a simple and delightful meal. Like I said because of the richness you do not need a lot of food. I hope you enjoy!
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