Farfalle Pasta (Bowties) are great at holding onto sauce. They work perfectly with this creamy BLT inspired Pasta. For our BLT, we are using Bacon (imagine how good pork belly would be though!), Arugula, Mushrooms, and Tomatoes. The base of this sauce is cream cheese and parmesan, which really elevates the other flavors!
Ingredients:
-Farfalle Pasta (Find the pasta dough recipe here and the Farfalle instructions here)
-8 oz grape tomatoes, sliced in half
-2 tbsp olive oil
-1-2 cups pasta water from Farfalle
-8 oz bacon, diced
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes (Optional)
-8 oz Mushrooms, sliced
-6 oz cream cheese
-1/2 cup grated parmesan
-Salt and pepper to taste
-6 cups arugula
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degree.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange tomatoes on the baking sheet. Make sure the tomatoes are facing cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 15-20 minutes. Set aside until ready to use.
3. Cook the Farfalle according to direction found here. Reserve 1-2 cups of pasta water for later.
4. In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook diced bacon to desired doneness. I prefer my bacon to have soft fat and crispy edges, cook about 5 minutes.
5. Move bacon onto a paper towel lined plate, remove as much bacon grease as you need to a jar, I like to leave most of it in for flavor.
6. Add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes to the bacon grease and cook until fragrant still over medium high heat. Cook mushrooms in the bacon grease until they are soft.
7. Turn the heat to medium low and stir in cream cheese and parmesan until the cream cheese is melted with a smooth liquid consistency. You will likely need to start adding pasta water right away, just a little at a time. Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Combine bacon, arugula, and tomatoes in the cream cheese sauce and stir until ingredients are coated. Cook until the arugula is limp.
9. Add Farfalle and toss to coat. Serve with parmesan and pepper.
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