I love...

...carbs. (Whoa...initially I typed "crabs". That would have totally changed the entire meaning of this blog.)

I could eat pasta every day, for every meal. The boy, not so much.

Last night, while perusing the grocery store, trying to decide what we should have for supper:

Me: "I'm craving mashed potatoes".
Him: "What do you want to have with them?"
Me: "I don't know....I might just make a Lipton Sidekick or something."
Him: (looking aghast) "That's it?!"
Me: "I'm sorry? What do you mean 'that's it'? That's lots."
Him: (looking disgusted with me) "There's no meat in that meal."

For him, a meal without meat, isn't a meal. This morning though, I took it as a gift from the gods, that while reading one of my favourite blogs, I came across this recipe. It's the perfect combination of carby-goodness, and.....BACON. Who doesn't love bacon?! And bacon is a meat product. This is like win-win. It's the perfect merging. If you've ever wondered how to combine bacon & pasta....I have your answer. Oh, and it's super easy. I wish I knew who came up with the recipe so I could call them and thank them personally. Or marry them. Whatever. Read on.

Ingredients:
2 packages (16 Oz. Package) Bacon, Naturally Flavored
½ cups Bacon Grease, From The Bacon You're Cooking
2 cans (28 Oz. Cans) Diced Tomatoes, Nothing Added
½ cups Chopped Fresh Basil
2 cloves Fresh Garlic, Minced
1 bunch Chopped Green Onions
2 teaspoons Salt, Optional
1 box (16 Oz. Box) Capellini Or Angel Hair Pasta

Preparation:
Fry bacon in a large frying pan, making sure it’s cooked thoroughly but not too crispy. Drain cooked bacon on paper towels, but don’t throw away the grease in the pan! You want to reserve 1/2 cup bacon grease. Dump the rest of the bacon grease out, then put the skillet back on the stove without cleaning it. Trust me. When the bacon is cool, use your fingers to tear it into small pieces. (Please, don’t ever use store bought bacon bits in this recipe.) Set your cooked, crumbled bacon aside.

Now, open your tomato cans and dump them into a large bowl. Throw in the chopped fresh basil and stir. You want to be able to see the basil, distributed evenly in the tomatoes, so if you have to add more, you can. Set this bowl aside and let the flavors mingle while you do the next step.

Dice your garlic, and chop your green onions. Pour your 1/2 cup of bacon grease back into the skillet and heat it to medium. Throw in and saute your garlic and onions. When they’re getting a nice tan from the color of the bacon grease, add your bacon. On low heat, saute the bacon together with the garlic and onions for around ten minutes. When you start getting high from the smell in your kitchen, pour in the bowl of tomatoes and basil. Stir together really well, bring to a boil and then cover and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Meanwhile, in a large pot, cook your pasta according the directions on the package. Drain noodles and set aside. Right before serving, in a very large bowl, add the bacon/tomato sauce to the noodles and mix well.

This stuff is also pretty amazing reheated the next day. I usually just pop it into the microwave for a minute or two.

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Update: I made this recipe on Saturday and it turned out amazing! It tasted so good. How come I never thought to put pasta & bacon together before?! It was super easy, the only thing that was a bit of a pain was having to cook all the bacon seperately before starting on the sauce. And trying not to eat all the bacon before adding it to the sauce. I may have been 2 or 3 pieces short by the time I got aruond to that step. But who's counting? It even looked as good as it did in the photo above! Enjoy!