A beautiful creamy bacon and pea pasta dish with salty smoked bacon and sweet petit pois – just the sort of thing for those cold winter evenings!
I hesitate to even call this dish a ‘recipe’, as it’s one of those fail-safe, standby dishes most people can throw together at a moment’s notice. It uses pretty standard store cupboard ingredients that are often found lurking in the depths of our pantry, fridge or freezer – pasta, bacon, frozen peas. Combine them all in a quick creamy sauce and you have a big bowl of comforting carbs ready to take the chill off those cold winter nights. Sometimes the simple things really are the best.
Don’t let the simplicity of this recipe fool you, though; it’s a tasty delight with the salty smoked bacon a perfect complement to the creamy sauce and sweet peas. It’s also super adaptable too. You could use some chopped ham or pancetta instead of bacon, any type of pasta, frozen mixed vegetables rather than peas… you get the idea, I’m sure.
The quantities I have used here make quite a big batch of pasta, but don’t worry, your family will wolf it all down and then ask for more, I can guarantee it! If this doesn’t make it into your regular dinner repertoire I’d be very surprised indeed!
And just in case you feel like adding some other pasta recipes to your list of things-to-try, I’ve got you covered. How about my Mediterranean Tuna and Roast Pepper Fusilli or my equally delicious Spinach and Chorizo Red Pesto Penne?
If you try them do let me know!
Creamy Bacon and Pea Pasta
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 6-8 servings
A beautiful creamy bacon and pea pasta dish with salty smoked bacon and sweet petit pois - just the sort of thing for those cold winter evenings!
Ingredients
- 500g dried fusilli pasta
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 300g smoked bacon, chopped
- 400ml double cream
- 400g frozen petit pois
- freshly grated parmesan cheese, to taste
- pinch of salt
- pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the fusilli pasta. Bring back to the boil and then simmer according to the instructions on the packet (usually 8-12 minutes). When cooked it should still be slightly firm to the bite. Drain the pasta in a colander, reserving a ladleful of the pasta water.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat and cook the bacon pieces until slightly browned. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside.
- Add the cream and frozen peas to the frying pan and bring to the boil. Cook for a few minutes until the peas are defrosted and heated through and the cream sauce has thickened. Add the ladleful of pasta water, the pinch of salt and pepper and mix until combined.
- Add the drained pasta to the sauce and mix together until everything is coated with the cream.
- Serve immediately with a generous grating of parmesan cheese on top.
Courses Dinner
Join me as I make healthy Mediterranean style recipes!
your units of measure are metric. if you are going to post in usa please use our units of measurement
Thank you for your comment, Bonnie. I’m actually posting recipes to my own website, which people can then access globally via the internet. If you found a link to my recipe on a website aimed mainly towards US residents, I did not put it there and have no control over third parties linking to my recipes.
Hi Rebecca,
I so want to apologize on behalf of all U.S. cooks everywhere, who are embarrassed by the comment from Bonnie M. I can’t imagine in this day and age that anyone who needs amounts in U.S. measurements is so lazy or uninformed that they can’t Google a measurements converter online and do the conversion. I think your recipe sounds yummy and I can’t wait to try it!
Hi Cynthia!
Thank you so much for your lovely comment (and five star rating ;)) – it really made me smile! Absolutely no need to apologise for anything. I completely understand it can be annoying for some people if you find a recipe somewhere and you first have to go to the trouble of converting measurements before you can get to the cooking!
I’m actually considering converting my recipes in future to include cup measurements for the convenience of my lovely US readers. I do hope you try the recipe – I would love to hear how it turns out!
Don’t convert just for one ignoramus, cups isn’t a proper measurement anyway and as long as the ratios are correct you ‘feel’ the dish more than getting the exact measurements as far as I’m concerned
Thumbs up Cynthia, totally agree. Imagine the foreign concept, I have 2 measuring cups, one metric and the other US measures.
Don’t use the recipe if you’re going to be rude. This person did not have to share.
Maybe you could just do the math or use the Google to covert for you?
Enjoy the recipe and thank the author your comment is useless and rude, is that a US trait you want to stereotype for yourself as well as ignorance to the internet being the ‘worldwide web’ and not a local intranet for Americans
This is quick and easy and delicious! Will definitely be making it again
Hahahaha! A delicious easy peasy go to recipe. Measurements? Ask Alexa or Siri or make it up. Live a little, it’s not like it’s baking..
You don’t actually specify when to add the bacon back in, 😂 So I did before putting the pasta in.
I am confused about the bacon fat that is left over from rendering the bacon. Do you save it for another use? Is it supposed to thicken the cream if you leave all of it in the pan? As a trained chef, if it does cause the cream to thicken, that’s a new one on me LOL. Otherwise, my husband and I really liked this. BTW, I did use about 1 1/2 Tbs, of the bacon fat in the sauce.