6-8 slices Thick Cut Bacon
1 med onion
2 cans 12 oz Tomato Puree
3 Tbls Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 Tsp Black Pepper
1/2 Cup Fresh Grated Romano Cheese
1 Bunch Fresh Basil
1 Lb Spaghetti
Boil Pasta according to directions. I ONLY use De Cecco Spaghetti as I think it really makes a difference.
While the water is boiling and pasta is cooking make the sauce.
Cut bacon into 1/2" pieces. Over med-high heat add olive oil and bacon, cook until done (I like mine still chewy but almost crispy). Use a slotted spoon to remove bacon from pan and set aside. Cut onion in half then slice in thin slices to make 1/2 rings. Add onion slices to bacon grease and cook until translucent. Add Tomato Puree and reserved bacon pieces to onions. Then add Red Wine Vinegar, Red Pepper Flakes, Black Pepper, Romano Cheese and Basil. Cook over med-low heat stirring occasionally until pasta is ready.
I garnish with more Romano Cheese and Black Pepper.
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So this is my first reader (I have readers! I honestly never expected that.) submitted recipe. As the title states, it comes from Gina Kadlec who says it is her favorite recipe. I can see why, it is wicked good. The above recipe is exactly what she sent me, although I did make a few very slight alterations when I made it. All I really did was I chopped the onion small (my girlfriend won't eat big pieces of onion) and I cut the olive oil back to about one tsp. I just couldn't use that much oil to cook bacon. I just couldn't. I'm sure it would have been delicious, but... well, like I said, I just couldn't. Other than that I made it just like she said to, I even used De Cecco pasta
(which is quite nice). So you start by starting the water for the pasta. Then start cooking the bacon. Ms Kadlec says she typically uses more than six slices of bacon and that seemed like a good plan, so I used eight. Next time, I think I will use more. Because bacon rules. I did it in shifts since my pan isn't very big. 
I also like my bacon still chewy, so that's how I did it. Take out the bacon and toss in the onion. This, my friends, is an amazing aroma. I mentioned chopping the onion, right? Well, do that before you put it in the pan. 
Cook them till translucent. Heh, Gina you are upping the vocabulary here. Then add in the puree (all I could get was a big 29 oz can, so I just used most of it)
and bacon.
Then add the vinegar,
pepper flakes, 
black pepper, cheese and basil.
I should have just cut and pasted her nicely detailed instructions and interspersed my pictures with them. Oh well. What's done is done. Mix it up, then simmer till the pasta is done.
For me this was about 10 minutes or so since I used a huge pot of water and it took forever to get boiling. 
I don't know if that's how long she normally does it for, but it came out great. Nice and thick, lots of flavor. 
And the bacon isn't overpowering, which is a concern when doing dishes that have you simmer bacon in the sauce (well, sort of. It's hard to have too much bacon flavor.). But the other flavors stand up really well. I also garnished with more cheese and pepper.
Then I ate it and it was awesome. And since it was a little too spicy for my girlfriend (which only meant she didn't want seconds, heh.), all the leftovers are mine! Mine I tell you! Mine! Muhahahaha!
8 comments:
Damn, that does look good. I made my chocolate chip cookies for the woman tonight, and actually took some pictures so I could submit a guest entry, but I got distracted toward the end and did not finish well. Perhaps next weekend while the girls are off doing their thing we can make a batch and get better pictures and set up a collaborative entry :)
Sounds good to me, those cookies rule. And yeah, you guys would love this sauce recipe. You can really taste the cheese, even though the other flavors. It's cool, all the flavors are strong but pretty distinct. Oh, and there's bacon. :)
Erm, even THROUGH the other flavors. This is *my* blog, why can't I edit my comments? grumble.
Hey Bob, Glad you guys enjoyed it... the peper flakes can be adjusted for spice control... also the longer you simmer the spicer it will get so you can always add the peper flakes later too. Or, you can do like me and do it on purpose so the leftovers are spoken for!
Heya, Gina! Yeah, next time I make it I am going to add a little less pepper flakes. I thought it was great spicy, but since I'm not the only one eating it I have to compromise. Heh. But this time I get all the leftovers to myself. I'm having it again for dinner tonight. Thanks for the recipe, it's definately going in my regular rotation. :)
I didn't know we could guest post! Maybe I could make something?
PS: brutal - thanks for the cookies :)
Of course you can make something, MB! I was hoping, eventually, you would do a Thanksgiving special feature. Nothing beats your Thanksgivings. Hell, my mom doesn't even brine the turkey! But don't tell her I said it... :)
Till then, if you want to toss something in I would love to have it. If you wanted to do something with mushrooms, I know at least some people like those and I wouldn't know what to do with the nasty things. Heh.
I would LOVE to do a Thanksgiving feature (and thanks for the praise)! It will probably take 10 pages of blog, though.
For now I was thinking my tuna noodle casserole. I put mushrooms in that (at least in my half - as you know, the brutal gourmet runs screaming in fear from all fungi). Anyway, it is easy and yummy and infinitely alterable to suit one's own taste, and thus idiot-proof - always a good thing in a recipe. :)
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