Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Every Day with Janey Ray?




Yes, I am posting a Rachel Ray. It's one that I tried for the first time
this week, and it was easy, fast, and filling.
I usually try to avoid bacon, being the little strips of death that they are
(cardio-wise), but I figured in this case, it was permissible, and my
bacon fans agreed. Of course, they're the same people who think bacon is
a food group. I include dark chocolate in my nutritional pyramid, so I guess
I'm no better.

Anyway, for a fast and easy entree' on one of those hectic nights ahead,
I give you.....




Rigatoni with Bacon and Parmesan
(adapted from Every Day with Rachel Ray)


Ingredients:

1 1/3 pound rigatoni pasta
1/4 cup EVOO
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
3/4 pound bacon, fried crisp and broken into bits*
salt and pepper



Method:

In a pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain.
At the same time, heat chicken broth in large frying pan with high (not sloping) sides. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and add the pasta and toss.
Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in 1 cup of Parmesan and the bacon.
Season with salt and pepper; toss again. Place remaining Parmesan in a bowl to
serve on the side.


*I'm not sure where I picked up this idea, but I've been using this method for months now and would never go back to the old way of frying bacon.
I used to avoid recipes that used bacon or omitted it because of all the mess of frying it. It always left the stovetop an immense mess.
Now I spray an old cookie sheet (the ones I no longer use for cookies but let the kids use it for baking oven french fries or pizza rolls-don't worry, I don't eat the horrendous things) with Pam and place the bacon strips on the pan and cook it in the oven until it looks crispy.

One caveat: do not forget to spray the cookie sheet with Pam or a reasonable
facsimile thereof. Once I fused the bacon to the pan and had a devil of a time getting it off.


I'll be damned, but I forgot to take a picture of this one, too. In all fairness to me, though, the Mongol hordes were so hungry that they swarmed the kitchen and there really wasn't time for me to grab my camera, let alone focus and snap a pic.



2 comments:

Jen said...

Done this... or versions of it. It's a fave of both DH and DS.

And dark chocolate and bacon are both part of my DS's food groups, lol.

Lisa said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog! This RR recipe sounds so easy and delicious. I'll have to give it a try.

Lisa