Leftovers Garlic & Bacon Spaghetti

You can make a really great weeknight meal with very few ingredients. What is nice about this kind of dish is that it can be made in about 15-20 minutes and it will appeal to just about everybody. I make mine with bacon as I always find that I buy a pack of bacon and only have need for half of it. On that note, substitute in any meat you have leftover here and it will work just fine.

Gather the Good Stuff

Enough spaghetti for 2-4 people
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup bread crumbs - I used panko here but any will do
6-8 cloves of garlic - sliced
6 strips of bacon - or any other protein you have leftover
3/4 cup - Parmesan cheese - shredded
Salt & Pepper - to taste

Putting it all Together

Heat oven to 200C and spread breadcrumbs out onto pan for toasting
Dice bacon into small portions - ditto if you are using another protein
Add to a cold pan and turn heat to medium. Cook until bacon releases it's fat and is golden and crispy
Meanwhile put your breadcrumb pan into the hot oven and toast until golden - 3-5 minutes
Remove bacon from pan and set aside in a paper towel lined bowl. Pour off bacon grease from the pan but do not wash
Allow pan to cool - this is important
Salt a pot of water and put it on to boil. Once boiling, add spaghetti
To your now cooled pan, add 1/2 cup oilve oil and sliced garlic
Raise heat to low and allow garlic to toast in the oil. Do not rush the garlic, you want it to cook for about 10 minutes in the low heat and just toast in the oil
Meanwhile remove spaghetti when cooked al dente. Reserve a small amount of the cooking water and strain the rest. Transfer to serving dish
After 10 minutes or so the garlic should be golden brown. To stop the cooking process spoon in 2-3 tablespoons of the pasta water
First, add oil and garlic mixture to your pasta, toss well. Next add breadcrumbs, cheese, bacon and salt and pepper and toss again. Finally top with a little more cheese and serve.

Comments

Hot & Sticky Chicken Pops

These are just great. If you've got pickier kids then you can dial up the honey and dial down the hot and they'll love them. For adults, do the opposite. I like to serve this type of stuff as a heavy snack or during a chaotic dinner where you've got lots of folks coming and going. Obviously, these are open to be dressed up any way you like or even just straight roasted / fried for the crispy angle. Popping the knuckle off of drumsticks is a great trick. It not only makes a nice little handle, it's also visually appealing. Lastly, it severs the little tendons that run up and down chicken thighs that aren't the most pleasant when eating. This is a good technique to get used to using in many different chicken dishes. I believe it is called "Frenched chicken". Gather the Good Stuff 1. Chicken Drumstick - 6-8 or what ever will fit comfortably in your roasting pan 2. 1 Tbsp - rice wine vinegar 3. 1 Tbsp honey - use good stuff 4. 1-3 Tbsp Sriracha 5. Salt &

Chicken Noodle and Sausage Soup

The wind where I live can cut you right down to the bone. Nothing will get you back up to speed like a warming bowl of homemade soup. It's also the best way to get through all the bones you've been saving from other dishes you've made by making the base from scratch in the form of your own broth. The veggies here can be changed up to taste of course or to suit whatever you've got on hand. This recipe is a in two parts, a recipe for the broth and a recipe for the soup itself. It's all pretty straight forward and I'd encourage you to mix it up with the exception of one part - do not cook your noodles directly in the soup itself. The result of that is a terrible mess if you reheat the soup. The noodles get way overcooked and they start to disintegrate. Best to cook them separately. Gather the Good Stuff Broth This recipe presumes that you've been saving bones etc from other meals that you cooked and that you've got roughly enough to make a decent stock.

Gloriously Garlic Noodles

This is a dish that you can have on the table in 20 minutes or less. It has relatively simple ingredients that pack a ton of flavour. It's also open to a lot of variation. I like to serve it with shrimp as shown but really any protein will work, seafood being the fastest one to add. Also, feel free to play with the amount of garlic. The recipe that follows is on the extreme end of how much you want to put it in there. if you find garlic a little overpowering, or you have a dentist appointment the next day, maybe tone it down a bit. Gather the Good Stuff In regards to the sauce, you can be pretty loose with the quantities. If you like it a little saltier, use more soy sauce. If you like it a little hotter, add a little more cayenne. For the noodles, literally any noodles will do. I used the standard spaghetti but that's just because it is what I had on hand. 2 Tbsp soy sauce - a shot of a thicker darker one is probably a good idea. if you use one that is too light you'

Upside Down Cooking

Search This Blog