Friday, March 1, 2013

CREAMY PAPPARDELE WITH LEEKS AND BACON

The dinner last night was a huge success. One of the best pasta meals we have ever had the pleasure of eating.
So I am going to pass the recipe along. It was every bit as good as any spaghetti carbonara I have ever eaten plus you have the added comfort of knowing there are no raw eggs in your sauce.

Creamy Pappardelle(fettuccine) with leeks and bacon.
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
4 slices thick bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 medium leeks white and pale parts only, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup water
2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme(or 1/8 tsp dried
black pepper to taste
1 lb. of pappeardelle or fettuccine
 1 cup finely grated Grana padano or parmesan

Heat oil and butter in a large skillet or pot over med heat. Add bacon and cook stirring often until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp 5-8 minutes. Add leeks increase heat to med-high and cook stirring often until leeks start to brown.  Add cream, thyme and the 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer stirring occasionally until sauce is thickened and coats the back of a spoon 5-8 minutes.
Meanwhile cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water stirring occasionally until al dente. Drain pasta reserving 2 cups of pasta cooking liquid.
Add pasta, parmesan and 1 cup of pasta cooking liquid to the sauce and stir to coat. Increase heat to med and continue stirring adding more cooking liquid as needed until sauce coats pasta.

That is it. Plate into large pasta bowl and serve up with a good crunchy bread for grabbing every bit of that tantalizing sauce. Believe me this is a mouthful of creamy bacon flavor with the bright freshness of leeks.
We loved it and as hubby said it's a keeper! 

Now I just to have to say something that my husband and I observed and  talked about this afternoon.
As I mentioned yesterday we were going to pizza today to Papa's Pizza. Well we did in fact do that.
Actually it was quite a circus. We ordered our pizza and in the midst of waiting for it we watched the show. The pizza buffet was on and goes on from 11am-2pm.  It was so humorous yet sad.  As the folks poured through the door we were amazed at the super sized people. Mostly women of all ages but some men also. I am saying to you in all honesty that these women were very huge. We felt bad for them we are thinking 200-300 pounds here. Seriously. The plates were gathered and the rounds began. Time and time again they went to the buffet to heap multiple pieces of pizza on their on their plates. Truthfully I have not seen anything like this. How they could put away this amount of food is mind boggling. I realize for some it is for economic reasons  to eat at this buffet considering they pay a partly six dollars for this bounty, all you can eat.
When you think of how many obese folks there are in this country and how that much extra weight adds to health problems it is disturbing  What it brings on are hip and knee replacements, diabetes, enlarged heart and stroke problems and many more.  And when this occurs in a huge population all of our insurance rates soar out of sight. Those of us who try to maintain some kind of normalcy in our health pay the price of the high premiums for the others who abuse their bodies.
If it seems I am putting others down do not got there as I am not that sort of person nor is my husband. It just concerns us that there is so little regard to keeping ones self healthy. Without health you have nothing. Of course anything can happen to anyone but it certainly lowers your risk when you take care of your body.  
Truthfully the pizza was not good this time. The ingredients were just tossed about on top and there were too many just made for a heavy almost wet pizza. So there will be no more Papa'a Pizza in our little world and after the circus today it is just as well.

So that was our outing today. Home was a better scene. We sat on the deck sipping wine, chatted and watched big clouds gulp up the sun, and spit it out again and so it went throughout the afternoon. We are having a fire on the deck tonight to extend our little outside adventure.

I will leave you now as I am going to make some sort of little dessert for this evening. Be sure to try the above recipe you will love it, I guarantee.
Have a nice Friday evening.



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