8 Brilliant Ways to Use Bacon in Pasta Dishes
1. With capers and mint
Take a cue from the Amalfi Coast and brighten up a basic bacon pasta dish withbriny capers, cherry tomatoes and herbs.
2. Cheesy and baked
Add bacon to a lusciousriff on mac and cheese.
3. With bitter greens
Bacon’s smoky fat cuts the bitterness of greens, likeescarole,broccoli rabeandendive.
4. Baked, with cauliflower
How do you make a creamy, cheesy bacon pasta dish (slightly) healthier? Reduce the amount of pasta you use by subbing insome cauliflower.
5. With brussels sprouts
Bacon and brussels sprouts are a classic match. Why nottoss with pasta?
6. With clams
Make a mash-up of chowder and linguine and clams byadding baconto your alle vongole.
7. With shrimp
Love bacon-wrapped shrimp? Then toss the smoky meat in yourshrimp pasta dishand a winey tomato sauce.
8. Amatriciana
Mario Batali’s versionof this Italian-American classic, which is essentially a spicy, bacon-y tomato sauce, is as satisfying as ever.
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Kristin Donnelly is a former Food & Wine editor and author of the forthcoming The Modern Potluck (Clarkson Potter, 2016) and the blogEat Better, Drink Better. She is also the cofounder ofStewart & Claire, an all-natural line of lip balms made in Brooklyn.