New Recipe: Penne with Ricotta and Bacon

1 pound penne
8 slices bacon (about 1/2 pound)
½ large onion, sliced
15 ounces whole-milk ricotta cheese, at room temperature
10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tsp chopped fresh garic or one garlic clove chopped
sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes

1.In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the penne until al dente. Reserve one ladle of cooking water, then drain the pasta and transfer to a serving bowl. In a medium skillet, fry the bacon until crisp and transfer to a plate, leaving the bacon fat in the skillet. Add the onions to the skillet and cook until golden, about 10 minutes. Stir the onions and ricotta into the pasta along with the reserved pasta cooking water. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle it over the pasta, here I would actually add an additional step, I would pour everything except the basil into a baking dish and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until it is nice and hot. I would even top it with a little parm or mozzarella. After taking it from the oven I would top with the basil then.

I tried this first exactly to the specification on the web page, but after sitting down and it getting cold I was ready to make a few changes. I woud also not mind subbing in dried basil flakes into the ricotta instead of fresh. My kids didn't like the wilted salad in their pasta and picked all of it out, which is not usual for them. This recipe is very filling, we had left overs and everyone was stuffed after one serving, I even ate less than I thought I would, not because it wasn't good. I also WOULD NOT add any extra salt.

Here's the original recipe!

Recommended Recipes That Aren't Mine

We try to keep our meals shaking up some, although we have lots of favorite that we fall back to often, here are links to some recipes we tried and LOVED! Enjoy trying some of these even though they aren't mine!! :D

BUFFALO CHICKEN POT PIE ****

While we all enjoyed this one dish meal we thought it could have used less corn bread mix, one package would have been more than enough in our opinion, we also are able to adjust the spicyness of this dish as my youngest son DOESN'T do spicy.  We have had it twice already, over several months and while it's not a staple recipe its certainly a good meal that we all like to shake it up with periodically!

MOROCCAN CHICKEN THIGHS ***1/2

The kids loved this couscous and I personally thought the nuttiness of the grain paired excellently with this chicken! It was very YUMMY, but also kinda work intensive, unless you get boneless skinless chicken thighs, next time I will as I don't really enjoy handling raw chicken. I subed in raisens, that was a little too sweet for my taste next time I go all out and do the dates they would have made this 4 to 4 1/2 stars.

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE ****

My only change to this would be cooking the brisket longer in the water before roasting it at the end. I cooked it 2 1/4 hrs and it wasn't as tender as I would have liked, but it was so YUMMY! Carrots and Cabbage were perfect and so flavorful! Totally a redo! The kids loved it too, although we rarely have issues over kids wanting to eat any more. They are all pretty open to just about anything lately, praise the Lord!

BAKED POTATO SKINS *****

YUM, YUM, YUM, YUM, YUM! Horrible for you, but oh so goooooooddd! Give her a try and see if you don't think so too! Just remember it's a bazillion calories! :D

Tomato and Celery Salad

8- 10 small vine grown tomatoes or 1 large garden fresh tomato
heart of the celery stalk (the yellowish interior with a sweeter taste) or 1 stalk celery chopped
1/4 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground garlic powder

cut tomatoes into quarters and add to bowl. Mix in celery (leaves don't matter if you are usuing the heart of the celery. Stir this up to mix. Add salt and other seasonings, mix well and serve immediately. makes 2-3 servings. This is great as a snack for one person too, but it would def be too much for me to eat so I would cut it down a bit. You could also double if you have more of everything, it would probably be good with a little red onion too, or a shallot or two. Just some ideas that are rolling around in my head. Easy and good compliment to a pasta/meatless meal without a tomato sauce (which gives me serious indigestion--hate to admit it, but tomato sauce and me disagree).