I love pasta!

Have I told you lately how I love pasta? I guess saying I’ve been living off pasta for quite a while now is tantamount to saying I love it. I feel challenged to make them in every way possible way with different sauces to complement them.I go from the simplest form which is merely drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and freshly cracked black pepper with freshly grated Parmesan cheese to the more elaborate ones like Bolognese and my 15-ingredients Spaghetti Supreme. I’ve made red, white, green, yellow- even black and my favorite brown sauce so I never get tired of it. I use meat, seafood, vegetables and even tried making it from scratch with chocolate-which reminds me that I should stop buying and start making my own and make use of the pasta maker I have. But whether it's quick or elegant and gourmet- the possibilities are endless so how can you go wrong with pasta?

I can say that the "pasta of the hour" for me now-a-days is spaghetti. Last week alone, I ate spaghetti three days in a row and because I can make the sauce in a hundred different ways, it it never tiring. I kind of fancy serving it like a bird’s nest with the sauce nestled in the middle. How cool huh? I love the twirling effect as I wrap the fork with the pasta for that delicious bite. Honestly, I kind of cringe when I see people breaking the pasta into small pieces to eat. Maybe they're thinking it's just food and you'll chew it anyway. But each food has its own way of being eaten and enjoyed. And why else were these pasta created long if we are to break them into small, short pieces? Surely there is a proper way to eat it. But then again, to each his own. I am just happy being able to share what I make everyday or at the very least, recipes for those who are far but are so inclined to try.

Here's the recipe for the Creamy Bacon Spaghetti

For the pasta:

Cooking the pasta perfectly makes a lot of difference.
Cook spaghetti in salted boiling water no more than 10 minutes; it is al dente at 9
To time your pasta, the water stops boiling as soon as you drop the pasta so when it
starts rolling again- then you start timing your pasta. Do not rinse it, just drain it well and toss in a little olive oil or a little butter to keep them from sticking together.

For the sauce
Ingredients:

1 pkg bacon toasted and drained of fat – chopped
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 medium onion chopped
2 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1 cup chicken broth
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp ground pepper
parsley flakes
1 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Sauté the onion and let it cook through. Sprinkle the flour and stir until the lumps are broken. Add the chicken broth and milk and stir continuously. Add chili flakes, nutmeg and ground pepper and simmer- keep an eye on your sauce if not using non-stick sauce pan because it burns fast. Add the parsley and the cheese last when it becomes bubbly. If your sauce becomes too thick- you can add a little pasta water to loosen it. Add the toasted bacon to the sauce – you can leave some for garnish.