I love all things sour & tangy so naturally I love tomatoes! Until very recent I steered far from ordering or making pastas which were non tomatoey except for aglio olio. But a recent outing with a bunch of friends resulted in us ordering a cream based pasta to share and I was honestly hooked! It made perfect sense too cos I love cheesy creamy stuff and cream based pastas delivered exactly that.

And like all passionate foodies, I had to try and recreate it at home. I didn’t want to buy cream just for the pasta cos I wouldn’t have known what else to use the rest of it for. So instead,  I decided to use a bit of milk with flour and butter instead (similar to a béchamel , but thinner and less heavy) and it turned out really well!

So here’s the recipe.

Cast of Characters:

• Pasta of your choice (I use linguine or tagliatelle)
• A few rashes of bacon (I forgot to feature bacon in the cast of characters again! Oh well, you live and learn ;))
• 3-4 fresh button mushrooms
• A knob of butter
• A table spoon or so of flour
• Half a glass of fresh milk
• Shredded cheese
• A clove of garlic
• Herbs of choice
• Salt & Pepper

How to :

• Boil the pasta to an al dente in salted water as per the packets’s instructions.
• Heat up a pan and add in the chopped up bacon. Most probably you won’t need to add oil as the bacon will release it’s oils as it fries. Into this add in the chopped button mushroom and the clove of garlic & sauté.
• Remove from flame and set aside.
• In another saucepan, heat up the butter and to it add the flour and stir well.
• After about half a minute, add in the milk and stir well till the mixture slightly thickens. Set aside. Season with salt & Pepper while keeping in mind that the cheese would add saltiness later on.
• Drain the pasta and stir through a little bit of olive oil / butter and a bit of salt. I find it easier to season pastas fresh out of the pot. Remember to reserve a bit of the pasta boiled water for later.
• Add this pasta to the bacon + mushroom mixture and mix while one a low heat.
• Add to it the butter / flour / milk mixture and stir through. Add a bit of the pasta boiled water to thin down the sauce if it’s too thick to coat the pasta.
• Finally add the cheese and herbs and mix through.

Sidekicks:

• This is a complete dish on it’s own that’s perfect for packed lunches to work.  Or great with a slice of garlic bread on the side.

Notes:

•  You could make this without any bacon, but I find that the bacon gives a nice savoury kick.
•  You could also adjust the proportions of milk/ butter / cheese to suit your dietary requirements. (Or in my case, less butter and cheese if my better half is watching!)